<VV> Not really enjoying VV anymore? Vair technical content!

[Tony Underwood]

At 11:25 AM 4/17/2007, Ken Wildman wrote:

>>Let's talk about Corvairs instead.
>
>
>Big thumbs up!
>Ken



Good point.    Here's to it.



Speaking of which:


I almost bought a Geo Storm this morning.    I didn't.    But almost.


The kid missed the school bus because it was EARLY so I took her to 
school.    Of course she remained somewhat tentative, as regards 
being seen exiting from my '60 4-door 700 as I pull up to the door at 
William Byrd  high school...     status and such, bad juju to be seen 
getting out of an ugly car.

On the way to work, going down a hill, approaching the light with 
traffic etc I stepped on the brake pedal as I am wont to do when I 
wish to stop the car and it didn't stop.   Pedal squished to the floor.

Pumppumppump, no joy, just squishes.   The back bumper of that Geo 
Storm was rapidly approaching.    I pulled the e-brake handle (while 
remembering the last resort of flipping it into R) and the handle 
came almost ALL the way up before meeting any resistance...  but it 
finally did and the driver side rear wheel locked up and *Screamed* 
the whole way as the car finally stopped about 3 feet from the 
Storm's rear bumper as I continued pumping the pedal, again no joy.

Of course everybody was looking...  made a pretty obvious impression, 
what with the 4-door's current appearance etc.


I pulled off to the side into a lot, dealing with the e-brake handle 
to stop the car.    Checked brake fluid levels, poured a BUNCH into 
the master cylinder, got back in, squish to the floor again.     So, 
I squished a few more times, then walked around looking for the 
leak.    Found it at the right rear wheel...

??  New brake lines all over the car, recent brake job, including 
wheel cylinder rebuilds.    But it was leaking at the right rear... 
in fact brake fluid was all over the entire back side of the 
tire.    Soaked.

I limped back to the house, making good use of the e-brake while also 
noticing a scraping noise from the back.   Jacked up, pulled the tire 
off, brake fluid everywhere, draining off the tire.    Pulled the 
drum off after an argument with it because it acted stuck.


One shoe had no lining on it, trailing shoe, completely bald.   The 
lining was crumpled up and distributed around inside the drum/backing 
plate, and the wheel cylinder cup and piston to the  rear, the side 
that presses the trailing shoe, had popped out of the wheel 
cylinder.    One of the brake lining chunks had stuffed itself 
against the bald shoe and had stuck it "open" where it was grinding 
bigtime against the drum.


I pressure washed it all, rebuilt the wheel cylinder, replaced the 
shoes, found a fresh drum, put it all back and all is well.    Brakes 
are back to like they were before the surprise adrenaline rush this 
morning.


ONCE before about 15 years ago I saw a brake shoe that had parted 
company with its lining, but that was something on a car that had 
been sitting a very long time, went to redo brakes and the lining 
fell out of the drum when it was removed, left the bare shoe in place 
etc.   Just fell out, intact and complete, looked like it would work 
fine if it was just glued back on the shoe.    Never saw one do it 
before... now I've seen two.

*This* lost lining on the '60 came off a shoe that was part of the 
brake overhaul the car got about two years ago and it was parked for 
the winter last year (well, in the Fall of 2005).      Not more than 
about 9000 miles on them, tops.    Chinese brake shoes or 
something...?  Or just a fluke?    Anyway, it's back together and 
doing well again.




Anyone else have a shoe shed its lining?    A relatively fresh shoe 
and not something 20+ years old?



tony..