A great test drive turned into a nice walk.
September 30th 2019
Well nuts. It looks like my brakes are no better after all.
The car started up first time and ticked over beautifully so I was looking forward to a great drive, my daughter decided to join me too.
Off we went down the road, the engine purring away nicely, the brakes seemed good, even the speedometer working as it should! As everything seemed to be going well we drove a bit further afield and although the car only has very little power it was great fun to drive and I was starting to relax and enjoy myself. We did a nice loop around the local area, taking in a little town driving and also a few country roads, the car didn't miss a beat. Finally we decided it was time to head home but then our bad luck struck...
About 1.5 miles from home on a long uphill stretch I noticed the car was starting to struggle against the binding front brakes again and the problem was getting worse and worse. Eventually I had to pull into the side, telling my daughter we'd have to wait a few minutes to let the front wheels cool a bit.
Well a few minutes later and the front brakes had seized solid and the car wouldn't move an inch! Even the brake pedal was rock solid so we had no other option but to lock up the car and walk home.
An hour later I returned to the car, by which time the brakes had cooled and eased off, allowing me to drive home with no further problems.
After driving back into my garage I noticed that the hub grease must have melted in the extreme heat, escaped from under the grease cap and emptied all over the wheel and tyre! Well that's just great...
I'll have to pop off the front caps and re-pack them with fresh grease when I get a chance.
Ok, so after cleaning the grease off my wheel I decided to tackle another job that has been on my list for a while, the perished top trunnion bushes. I will return to the braking problem another day which I suspect is either a master cylinder issue, or possibly a large air pocket in the front brake circuit which is expanding when hot and causing the brakes to be applied.
But onto the trunnions for now... I removed the front right wheel and cleaned up the trunnion nuts with my wire brush to make them easier to work on.
I then gave the top nut and track rod end nut a good spray with penetrating oil before undoing them. The top trunnion nut was held captive by a bent washer and the track rod end has a castellated nut and split pin that needed to be removed.
Once everything had been disconnected, I jacked up the suspension arm slightly to take the load off the top trunnion before wrestling it off the shock absorber arm. As I did this, I pried the old rubber bushes out and it was obvious what a shocking state they were in when comparing them to the new ones!
Finally I cleaned everything up and applied fresh grease to all the faces before sliding the new bushes into place. I then tightened everything back up, fitted a new split pin to the track rod nut and re-staked the washer onto the top trunnion nut to stop it from loosening.
Now I just need to do the other side and tick another job off my list!
Before I packed up for the day, I found an old battery charger & tender on my shelf which I've owned for a few years so I thought it would be a good idea to connect it to my battery and check on its state of health.
Happily it appears to be in strong health so I'll leave this useful gadget connected in order to keep my battery in good condition. This is only an occasional use car rather than a daily driver and batteries tend not to like sitting idle for long periods of time.