Subject: <VV> brake lockup

[mhicks130 at cox.net]

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> 
> Two additional points:
> 1) A weak brake hose can cause a spongy pedal feel as well as poor shoe  
> return. You might want to inspect them thoroughly (or just replace them).
> 2) Normal shoe clearance is .030 to .050".  In the manual, they  mention 
> tightening the brake adjuster to obtain a light drag of the  shoes then backing it 
> off 1 1/4 turns and checking the pedal height.  Loosen the parking brake 
> cable at the front of the transmission before  adjusting the brake clearance.
> Craig N.
> 
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The brakes felt absolutely great before the lockup - no soft or spongy feel at all.  I've been driving the car for a little over a week now and the brakes were one of the things that have really impressed me about this car (the other is the engine).  They feel good and they work good.  I don't have to press hard to get them to work like I have on other Corvairs I've driven.  There's more effort than a modern power assisted disk brake car but still pretty nice.  I was very surprised to have this happen. I'm not driving it until I've had the drum off and had a little look see at the brake guts to see what may have happened.  I'm definitely going to bleed it and meybe even change out all the fluid.

mike