<VV> Sometimes the simplest jobs...or what I did instead of going to the convention.

Rick & Janet Norris rickjanet at charter.net
Mon Jul 25 16:51:46 EDT 2005


This past weekend I was doing some wrenching on my friend Roger's 65 Turbo 
Vert. The deal was we would replace the master cylinder with a dual 
conversion kit. Fairly simple job.....but.....I know from past experience 
that a job that should be simple can turn tedious.
I got the cylinder mounted okay and hooked up but I couldn't get it to bleed 
out of the front wheel cylinders at all. The rear's would bleed okay so it 
was time to pull the drums and check it out. Actually, this was part of the 
plan as Roger said it was pulling a little in front. I decided to start with 
the rears first. As might be expected they were oozing crud under the rubber 
dust covers. I don't think they were doing much braking either as the 
pistons were semi frozen in place.
As luck would have it I had a set of new rear cylinders. Our luck held out 
getting the bolts out and the tube fittings loose without twisting anything 
off.
Moving to the front left wheel I began trying to slip the drum off. It was 
tight and I had to work (hammer) it off a little at a time. I thought maybe 
the adjuster was installed wrong or not working. However when the drum 
finally came off so did the brake linings! They literally fell out of the 
drum. I could see by the marks on the back that they had been loose and 
spinning around when the brakes were applied! Uhh...I think I found the 
pulling problem!
I have seen a lot of weird stuff concerning Corvairs and other cars before 
but that was the first time I ever saw brake linings completely separate 
from the shoes. These were bonded shoes and I've heard people talk about 
linings coming loose but this was a first for me.
The wheel cylinder looked fairly new and I saw no evidence of leaking so I 
moved on the right front wheel. Here the luck ran out as I twisted the tube 
fitting off using the vise grips as the tubing wrench was slipping. I was 
able to cut and flare the existing line for a patch piece and I had a new 
front wheel cylinder too. Since I had the hose off I tried to squirt some 
Brakleen down the hole. No go, so I applied the air hose at full pressure. 
Still no go. Huh, never saw this either. We tried to rod it out with a piece 
of wire but it was completely collapsed inside. I didn't have any hoses for 
the front for a 65 so new stuff was ordered today. Also I noticed a clever 
use of coat hanger wire. I guess the previous owner lost the C-clip that 
holds the brake hose in the bracket so the coat hanger wire was wrapped 
around the groove like an outside C-clip. It worked but I replaced it with 
the proper part.
Easy little brake job huh.....yeah...right!

Rick Norris
First President CORSA 1971
Email rickjanet at charter.net
Web Site http://webpages.charter.net/corvairalley
V8 Vairs Web Site http://www.v8vairs.com 



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