Wheels and mirrors and brakes, oh my.
September 7th 2019
Today is the day to arrange fitting of my new tyres as the old ones are looking extremely tire-d. Did you see what I did there? :)
First job was to jack up all four corners and remove the wheels. Then I phoned around all the local tyre shops but none of them could fit me in until sometime next week. Typical! So I chose a place and said I'd leave my wheels and new tyres with them and I'll just have to go down and collect them in a few days. In the meantime my car will have to remain up in the air while I complete a few other little jobs.
On the last couple of test drives I did, I noticed that there was an issue with the front brakes. Everything started off ok but then after driving a couple of miles I noticed the car was struggling more and more, especially driving up slight gradients. Then, when stopping at junctions, the car would hold position even without applying the parking brake or brake pedal. After returning home I touched the back wheels which were slightly warm as expected but the front wheels were too hot to touch. Later in the day when they'd cooled down I jacked up the front of the car and the wheels spun freely again. Very strange! The previous owner said the brakes had just been serviced so we'll have to see what's going on here.
I removed the front drums to take a look. Sure enough, brand new shoes and slave cylinders have been fitted but the back plate was pretty rusty and crusty and it doesn't look like any of the contact points had been lubricated. Maybe the brakes were just sticking on when they got hot because of this? It could be wishful thinking but I'd better sort it out.
I popped off the springs, shoes and adjusters. The latter were also pretty crusty and needed cleaning up with my wire brush. Then I cleaned up the back plate and used plenty of brake and clutch cleaner around the inside of the drum. Digging out my copper grease I lubricated all the contact points before fitting the shoes and springs back into place. Once everything was back together I found I had to back all the adjusters off fully in order to stop the brakes binding but I suppose these are brand new shoes after all so hopefully that's correct. The brake pedal feels good so I will have to wait for the return of my wheels go give it another test drive.
While the wheels are off I thought this was a good time to sort out my wing mirrors. They've been loose since I got the car and the adjusting nuts are on the inside of the wings. The rubber gasket for the right mirror was also badly misshapen and spilling out from the side of the mirror fitting so I used a lighter to warm it up before attempting to reshape it with my fingers. I think I did a pretty good job! Mirrors adjusted and tightened properly, another tick on my list.
Another thing to do while the front wheels are off is to check and grease the front trunnions and track rod ends. Judging by the way certain other maintenance items have been neglected then I suspect they badly need doing. The first thing that is obvious is that the top trunnion bushes need replacing. The left is just a little cracked but the right hand one is badly torn and hanging off.
Oh well, that's a job I'll have to plan for another day. For now I'll just try out my new grease gun and make sure they are well greased. I clean off all the grease nipples and pump fresh grease in until I see it start to ooze out of the other side. The left side trunnion seems to take about a gallon which reinforced my suspicion that they haven't been done for a long time!