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.

Finished putting in the radio and swapped out the rear speakers with a pair of 3-ways from Kragen... Duel or Dual... I forget exactly. They were all of $21 for the pair and sound just fine.

Radiator and Brakes

Started to do the brakes and found that the drums would not come off unless I backed off the shoes. Figured that was a bad sign... So I went to adjust the shoes and found that the backing plate still had the knockout plug in place... so these brakes have *never* been touched since the car left the factory. Another bad sign? Yep. The left drum has two very deep gouges from the riveted brake shoes. Too deep to salvage, I think. I didn't even bother to pull the right drum to inspect. I just put it back together for now. Nice that the Raybestos brake hardware kit I bought includes the rubber plugs one needs after removing the factory knockouts! New drums are now on order. I have already seen the front rotors when I did the quickie brake pad change, and they looked OK, but I decided to order new rotors now, while I was getting drums. Drilled and slotted, no less.

Next I went to work on changing the radiator out. The new 4-row radiator is a good bit thicker than the original 3 row, so I had to cut a wedge out of the two top and two bottom rubber isolators that secure the radiator in place. The upper and lower hoses still looked and felt pretty solid but new ones went in, including the "bypass" hose from the intake to the water pump and the two heater hoses. I used some new wormgear clamps I found that have a wingnut to let you tighten them down without a tool. These worked OK but I can't say I'd want to buy them again. The wingnut part is a lovely bright yellow though. ;-) I'd noticed some intermittent leaks from the cooling system over the past couple of weeks and I'm happy to say the old radiator had various places where tell-tale signs of leakage were convicting it of being the guilty party. They were easy to spot once the core was out.

Started to put in the new Autosound stereo. Removing the "wood" trim panel was a snap and the radio is held in by a plastic plate that has four hex bolts. Removing the two shaft nuts and then those bolts leaves just a nut on the right side of the radio to get off from under the dash. Then the radio pulls out from the front. Very nice! The old radio showed some writing on the top that indicated it had been serviced for some complaint in the early history of the car. I didn't get a chance to really read it in the failing light last evening. I fitted the new radio to the plastic plate and will likely not try to attach any back support to the old radio's rear attaching point. The new unit is very light and there is no fitting on the right side, only the rear. I suppose I could make a bracket that wraps around from the back to the side attaching point, but it hardly seems worth it. I used wire taps to connect the new unit's wiring pigtail to the car's harness, leaving all the original connectors so that the car can be put back to original someday, if desired. The front speakers have plus and minus leads so I could "bench test" the new radio before installing it. It seems to work fine. I then used a hot glue gun to ensure the little chrome adapter plate and other trim bits wont shift about. I need to run two wires for the rear speakers as the originals are grounded to the chassis. BTW: the new unit seems to work OK with the original speakers, so if I don't get the speakers done this weekend, I won't be tuneless.

Ordered and received a new radiator from Radiators.com. Also, the Custom Autosound radio arrived. I hope it looks better in the car than it does right out of the box. I hope it sounds better than it looks!

[69308] During the past week, idle has gotten rougher and drivability issues have arisen. I an effort to eliminate the problems, I changed PCV valve, breather filter, air filter [Delco A212CW], the remainder of the vacuum hoses. I also found the carb was a bit loose and probably leaking vacuum, and the EGR valve I though I had disabled by putting a plug in the line, had started working again since the plug was leaking! I just disconnected the line entirely but the were still issues. So I pulled the EGR valve and fabbed a new gasket with paper and Hi-Temp RTV, and now it looks like the issues are gone! Celebrated by driving her over to Cooper's and getting a hood bumper for the left corner.

The FM modulation thing is crap. I've ordered a different kind of modulator, but I also realize that this factory stereo is just not going to do it. I ordered a USA-2 from Custom Autosound through the San Diego outfit "Garden of Speedin'". 

Got a different device for the XM (direct from Delphi) which connects between the antenna and radio. Works way better than that stupid Sure Connect thing. This will be great until my new radio arrives and can be installed.

Put Sarah Lee's Tires on Helen, installed the XM kit.