Thursday, April 10, 2008

Brakes. Rear drums, rear hose, shoes, master cylinder

The right rear wheel had evidently been leaking from the wheel cylinder for some time. Rusty, dark brake fluid coated everything inside the drum. The shoes hadn't quite gotten down to the rivets because they hadn't been gripping due to the brake fluid. The flare nut for the cylinder was frozen to the tubing, so I had to finagle the cylinder off the tubing without being able to turn the nut. Once off, I stuck an Easy Out into the opening in the tubing and used a flare nut wrench to apply pressure to break the nut free without twisting the tube. Liberal applications of PB'laster helped. I don't think the Easy Out hurt the tubing but held it in place without twisting. The left wheel's flare nut was stuck the same way and it took a little more work but I was eventually able to free it the same way. At least the left cylinder had not been leaking much. There was a small amount of fluid seeping from one boot, but no evil mess like the right.

With the frozen nuts on the cylinder ends of the brake lines, I was afraid the center rear brake hose would be impossible but there were no issues at all in replacing that. I painted both new rear drums with black caliper paint before installing them. The master cylinder was an uneventful swap.

The vacuum booster is pretty rusty looking but as long as it's working well, which it is, I won't mess with it.

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