So Ariel told me last week that her car’s brakes were making noise. Fortunately, she was planning on coming home that Friday. So Saturday I pulled the left rear hub and all looked fine. Pulling the right rear hub exposed a much different situation. The front shoe had only a sliver of lining left, while the rear shoe had less and part of the lining was actually floating loose from the metal. I went to my collection of GUPs, but surprisingly came up empty. I tried Napa and Carquest, but neither had any shoes in stock. Next I called Gary, but he was unavailable. Finally, Rich (also in the Corvair club) came to the rescue. He had a bag of used shoes and I was able to find two that would get Ringo back on the road.
I got home with the shoes and had them installed in short order. After some cursory adjustments, I decided to adjust the emergency brake cable to shorten the pull. After pulling the rear wheels up on the ramps, I tightened the nuts on the front-to-back cable and then pulled on the handle in the car to see the difference. It felt like it was engaging sooner which is what I was shooting for. I released the handle and climbed back under the car. The cable to the right wheel was still taut, so I gave it a pull and it haltingly moved out. The lightbulb then went on. The cable was sticking causing the shoes on that side to drag on the drum thus wearing them out prematurely.
For the next hour I attacked that cable with all sorts of lubricants and had both Brianna and Loriann exercise the handle. All to no avail. Since I knew Ariel was only driving him back and forth to Millersville one last time, I asked her to please don’t use the parking brake – park the car facing downhill against the curb. That would ensure the brakes wouldn’t rub.
In the meantime, I’ve ordered a full new set of shoes from the Corvair Ranch, and I’ve planned on how I’ll completely remove the cable assembly from the car, clean it thoroughly and then lubricate before reassembling.
No comments:
Post a Comment