[Abs-Zero]

 

Current Project - 1947 Vauxhall 10

Front brakes overhaul

Having sat for so long it's no surprise that the brakes didn't work.  A very quick inspection showed that the problem was common to the rest of the car - the critical parts are made of rubber and therefore have long since failed.

The lazy man's solution was opted for, although in retrospect if I had just bought new seals I'm confident that it would all have gone back together with no problems.  I'm a member of the Vauxhall Owners Club for models built between 1903 and 1957, which unusually it seems runs a spare parts scheme.  This essentially means that one of the committee looks after a large lock up filled with various parts found over the last twenty or more years, then sells these to members.  This gives a pretty unparalleled level of access to long out of production parts, gaskets and used spares that would otherwise be very difficult to source.  The option I went for was to buy exchange master and wheel cylinder units that had been remanufactured with new seals.

Firstly I removed the master cylinder, which is mounted under the floor next to the foot brake pedal.  It's mounted via two nuts, which tighten onto two threaded studs.  As I had exchange units I soon realised that I would have to transfer some parts across and expected this to cause problems - but as with pretty much everything else I've had to unscrew or remove so far, it was straightforward.  The studs were simply removed by winding both nuts onto each in turn, tightening them against each other and then using a spanner on the lower one to unscrew the studs from the master cylinder.

Next came the front wheel cylinders, for this the drums had to be removed.  This operation, commonly with many other cars requires the brakes to be backed off via adjustments to allow the shoes to clear the drums (and any wear lips that exist on the inside edges) I had expected anything associated with adjustment to be seized solid, but surprisingly the adjusters operated just fine and the shoes retreated as they should.

A couple of quick taps with a hammer and chisel removed the hub caps and then the hub nuts and split pins (well preserved by grease) were removed before the drum was pulled off the stub axle.  Unfortunately the OSF wheel cylinder had leaked and liberally dosed the brake linings in brake fluid, even more of a shame as they looked pretty unworn.  Everything outside was well coated in mud, some components looking very different once cleaned (see the photos!).  All I really needed to do here was remove the shoes, backshield, then wheel cylinder and recover the banjo bracket, bleed nipple etc, then clean everything up and assemble it with the new wheel cylinder.  The photos do the talking again.

 

Everything is in very good condition, there's no corrosion as such and indeed most of the original paint was intact until I wire brushed off the mud, so the only sensible thing to do was give it all a quick coat of matt black aerosol to keep the elements at bay. 

A very similar story on the other side really, except this time the wheel cylinder hadn't leaked.  To achieve proper brake balance though, I guess I will have to replace the axle set of brake linings.

 

Photos coming soon...

 

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Last review was Sunday, 15 March 2009