In a message dated 4/24/2005 11:21:02 PM Eastern Daylight Time, "Paul Dorsey"
<dorpaul@negia.net> writes:
>I've discovered that both my Rear Brake Shoe Adjuster Assemblies are rusted so
>that they won't adjust. Can I reuse these or possibly adjust my rear brakes
>shoes by filing something down?
========
I've yet to find one of these that I haven't been able to save, unless it has
been really damaged by someone having used the wrong wrench or otherwise having
gotten belligerent with hammers and such.
Take it off the backing plate, then heat it with a propane torch until you can
turn the adjuster peg with a proper wrench that won't round off the square peg.
Lacking a "proper" wrench, a really big (12") adjustable wrench will have deep
enough jaws to prevent rounding.
Once the peg can be turned, it will likely begin to drive out the wedges. Keep
turning the peg until you can remove it completely.
Clean everything, reassemble with a bit of lubricant (I really like white
lithium grease on the moving parts), and you're done. Then, instead of filing
the tips of the shoes, which would only work once, put just a tiny bit of the
white lithium grease on those tips as well when you reinstall everything.
At the very worst, the adjusters are very common and easily available, assuming
you have the later 9" brakes. The adjusters for the 10" brakes are similar, but
I don't think they're interchangeable and are a bit harder to find. The ones
for the 9" brakes are the same as TR4-6 as well as Herald, Spitfire, Vitesse
and GT6.
--Andy Mace
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