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brake oddity again

To: spridgets@Autox.Team.Net
Subject: brake oddity again
From: Jeff Boatright <jboatri@emory.edu>
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 13:43:31 -0500
Reply-to: Jeff Boatright <jboatri@emory.edu>
Sender: owner-spridgets@Autox.Team.Net
Hello Spridgeteers!

As I wrote yesterday,

'Occassionally when applying the brakes smoothly to come to a stop when
backing, I will hear a clunk and then the brakes grab hard, stopping the
car immediately. Sometimes it is then very difficult to continue backing
even after taking my foot of the brake. Obviously something is locking up.
It sounds like the left rear brake. If I then move forward and apply brakes
and then release them, I can back again. However, if I just move forward
without applying brakes and releasing, I cannot go back. The brakes (moving
backwards) are still locked, but apparently not going forwards (though they
may be dragging without my being able to tell).'

Well, I've got the drums off now. The leading shoe of the left (driver
side) is worn down to the metal. These shoes were installed (I guess
incorrectly by me) less than 3k miles ago. Also, this shoe had slipped down
quite a bit, though it was still in the cylinder slot at the top and
adjuster slot at the bottom. I noticed on both sides that the leading shoes
move up and down very easily while the trailing shoes don't move up and
down at all.

My local parts supplier suggested that at some point this driver side rear
brake had been applied, but did not return after I took my foot off of the
pedal. This dragging wore off the lower edge of the leading shoe and
allowed the shoe to fall even further maybe. I've checked the line leading
to the left cylinder and it looks fine. The cylinder itself seems to be
working fine. I pushed on the pedal with a 2x4 while watching it, and it
moved both leading and trailing shoes out at about the same rate and
distances, and when I let up on the 2x4, the shoes retracted in. The
passenger side cylinder seems to be leaking hideously, though. This is new
and possibly resulted from applying the brakes without the drums on.

All of the shoes and springs appear to be installed correctly as per
diagrams in Haynes and the original workshop manual. The adjusters are in
good shape and work.

Any thougts? Why do the leading shoes move up and down so easily? Is that
normal? What would cause such uneven wear from side to side of the car,
from leading vs trailing on the same side, and from top vs bottom of the
same shoe?

Brakeless in Atlanta,

Jeff

______________________________________________
Jeff Boatright    __o_\__           '65 Austin-Healey Sprite
http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~jboatri/sprite/sprite.html



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