Had a lot of other things going on, but today I tried to connect the parking brake cables and... WHAT?!?
Shouldn't there be a lever to connect the brake cable? And a tie bar separating the brake shoes with a spring on it? And shouldn't the adjuster lever face the rear of the car? Something's not right about this axle...
Yup. You're missing some parts. The shoes are on backwards as well. The short liner goes on the front.
As long as I'm working under it, I ought to see why the gas gauge isn't reading right. The sender should read 10 ohms full and 73 empty.
After taking it apart and, well, I'm not sure just what I did, but the top reading is now 10 ohms.
Hi Matt,
if you had a 7.25" Rear Axle before, then the cable adjustment is going to be different for an 8.75" axle that is replacing it.
You need to lengthen the adjustment under the drivers' Seat area below that car.
1/4" and 1/2" open-end wrenches are needed. Likely the square end of the cable for the 1/4 wrench is no longer wrenchable. use vise grips instead.
Thanks! I already backed the adjustment way off to make removing the axle easier, so I was planning on redoing that anyway.
The right rear brake is no longer a left front brake. Was able to switch the parts around without getting new brake shoes, but did need an adjustment lever from a local parts store and a lot of parking brake parts from Layson's.
I had today off, nothing else really scheduled, and so I was able to get a lot done.
Installed the parking brake parts in the left rear brake.
Bent a new hard line for the left side so that the block can sit in the proper location.
Filled the axle with 4 pints of 80-90 gear oil with limited slip additive.
Bled the air out of the brake lines. Noted that the front brake fluid level was oddly low too; I'll need to keep an eye on it. It didn't seem to leak while bleeding the rear brakes.
Went to connect the parking brake cable, and as Slantvaliant noted, it's too short. Unfortunately, it was even shorter than expected; turning the nut wasn't enough. So a trip to the hardware store and...
Some of the threads are boogered up and I wasn't able to get this as tight as I'd like. The cable can pull taught when I grab the handbrake, but just barely. I may want to order some new cables as time allows.
Now, it's down to That One Part. The one you thought you had on hand but you don't, O'Reilly doesn't, NAPA doesn't.
This is the bolt that holds the brake line tee to the axle housing. It uses a 7/16"-24 fine pitch thread. And it is hollow to vent the axle, with a cap to keep debris out. As That One Part, it happens to be the one thing that's preventing me from getting the car together and hitting the road right now. No local parts stores or dealerships have it in stock. Year One has one, but they don't have a parts counter at this time and may not be open today. I've ordered one from them and it should be here soon. This is literally the last part keeping me from driving off with my new axle swap.
MadScientistMatt said:The right rear brake is no longer a left front brake. Was able to switch the parts around without getting new brake shoes, but did need an adjustment lever from a local parts store and a lot of parking brake parts from Layson's.
It might be the camera angle but that's still not quite right. The shoe with the shorter lining is supposed to be on the front. It looks like you've got everything else correct.
Great, no facepalm emoji when you need one. Correct that I put the long shoe on the front. Oops!
MadScientistMatt said:Great, no facepalm emoji when you need one. Correct that I put the long shoe on the front. Oops!
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. At least you've got some recent practice so it shouldn't take to long to fix.
APEowner said: Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. At least you've got some recent practice so it shouldn't take to long to fix.
Could be worse, could have had nobody call it out and I found myself wondering why I couldn't modulate the brakes properly. Incidently, somebody on another forum called this out at almost the same time.
That One Part finally installed:
This should be the correct arrangement of parts to make a correct drum brake... This time!
MadScientistMatt said:This should be the correct arrangement of parts to make a correct drum brake... This time!
I need to do something about the trashed glove compartment liner - especially since it holds the ECU in place. I saved a very large campaign sign from a few free coroplast days ago...
Unfortunately my stapler can't get through, so I need to use tape .
Ok, so this first attempt looks like a "nailed it" meme, but it will suffice until I can get something better. It beats plastic that shatters if you look at it cross eyed.
Took it out for a shakedown drive. It started to rain - and the wipers wouldn't turn on, so I cut the drive short. Good thing, too, because when I got back my wife's first reaction was "You're leaking fuel all over the place!" Sure enough, there's a fuel leak. Looks like it's coming from a pair of AN fittings under the hood. Should be an easy fix, but that could have been ugly!
Other bad stuff:
So, I've got a bit of sorting to do - but the axle at least is working pretty well. And once I charged the battery, it starts just fine.
Having a look at the spot where it's leaking.
Braided hose is evil. I can't seem to work with it without getting blood all over my hands. The leak appeared to be coming from the hose itself, a few inches upstream of the fitting. I hoped it was just a bad seal where the hose entered the fitting, so I snipped off two inches and re-assembled the fitting. No, the hose itself is still leaking. Getting more hose on order now.
In reply to MadScientistMatt :
That's the thing I hate about braided stainless. The hose inside it rots out and starts leaking. I've switched over to using all PTFE lined an stuff now for just that reason
I think I may have accidentally used PTFE hose with non-PTFE fittings for that line.
Not turning the key on until I have more fuel hose in place, but the wipers may have been an easy win. When I had previously changed out the speedometer, I plugged both connectors back into the wiper switch.
Unfortunately, when plugging both connectors into the switch, I forgot the switch had three connectors.
Knock on wood but the PTFE lined braided hose I installed in 2017 is leak free. I used Fragola fittings and lines with Koul Tools assembly tools.
Knock on wood but the PTFE lined braided hose I installed in 2017 is leak free. I used Fragola fittings and lines with Koul Tools assembly tools.
Today, I changed out the fuel line, and finally figured out how to adjust the brake light switch (it's a single 7/16" bolt on the brake pedal bracket; loosen it and the switch slides back and forth). So I took the car for a somewhat longer test drive, and here were the results:
The MS3 tune could use a bit more work - it could start a little better in 38 degree weather, and there was one point it hesitated a bit. But I think the brake bleeding will be a higher priority.
Bled the brakes today and took it for a drive. The brakes still aren't where I want them to be; several times I had that sinking feeling with the pedal and had to pump them again. I think I'll order a Motive Power pressure bleeder.
Also kept an eye on the temperature readings in TunerStudio. Looks like even doing the stoplight crawl the coolant temperature doesn't go above 195 on a 180 degree thermostat. I'll keep an eye on this as it was one worry I had about the cooling system, but today's drive was pretty good.
Nice. Just noticed you were in Lawrenceville and that's where my office is off Sugarloaf/316 area. One of these days I want to see this thing around.
The master cylinder looks a little wet around the pushrod from inside the firewall. Thinking maybe I should replace it before bleeding the brakes....
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