Friday, May 21, 2010

Ringo’s Got Pedal Again

Last evening I took Ringo out for test drive. I did notice that slamming on the brakes only locked up the front wheels. I also found the emergency brake adjustment was too loose again. So I put Ringo’s rear in the air supporting him with jackstands placed as far outboard on the control arms as possible to simulate proper wheel-to-body relation. I pulled the wheels and drums and turned the adjusters out enough to the point where the there was just a slight amount of drag on the drums. With drums in place, I stepped on the brake pedal and found it went hard much higher. With drums still in place, I tightened the emergency brake cable until a few clicks produced resistance and the cable was taut before I ran out of clicks. After all that I verified the cable wasn’t dragging in the armor. Hopefully all this will now take care of his brake issues.

This weekend will be filled with Corvair activities. Starting this evening I’m getting serious about parting out Old Betty. My hope is to have the engine out before I knock off tonight. I’ll try to keep the differential and transmission in place so I don’t have to deal with the rear suspension. I’ve never done this project on a LM before, so it will be interesting. I do have the manual, and some stuff I pulled off the web, so I’m not flying totally blind. Tomorrow morning I’ll start cutting away metal to patch Glinda and New Betty. Then I’ll pull off bits that New Betty is missing like a decent hood, taillight sockets, and seatbelts. Finally, if time permits, I’ll remove pieces that history has proven I should have spares for - gauges, switches, and wire harnesses. Sunday morning I’ll hitch Old Betty up to the Surburban, slap on the towing lights, and head up to the Corvair Ranch. It’s their annual Open House, and I’m going to make things more hectic for proprietor Jeff by dropping off an addition to his backyard bodies. Then there’s the fact I need the wheels back for New Betty. Better remember a jack.

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