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There comes an age when you should stop driving.... How old are you Mal? I think it's around 60 or so when your driving skills begin to falter.... Maybe it's time to let Kath drive or start building a Speedster like me that has no fenders...!

I can still drive as well as I ever did. It's just that I can't see as well.

Maybe it's time to take the fenders off the 400 Randy!

Thursday 24th July 2008

Dropped the '38 over to Col and he's going to fix the scraped rear fender in the next few days. Went and picked up the new hand brake cables for the '41 and fitted them to the car with some assistance from Wade. Also cleaned up the hand brake equaliser lever mechanism. Rest of the brakes should be installed tomorrow I'd imagine, if we can get at clear run a them. Regarding Wades Super 8 points he's leaving them for the moment as they're working fine now. And he took the generator rebuilt with the new armature round to the auto electric shop and it tested out perfectly, so Wades now going to look again at the regulator on the car and go from there. I'll be going back to General Instruments at Lidcombe tomorrow afternoon to drop in the hand brake cables from John's '39 to get new one made. They are worse than the ones that came out of the '41 plus one cable is completely different from the other and isn't correct at all and "bodgie" clamps and fittings have been used. The ones for the '39 seem like they should be identical to the ones from the '41. Now off to enjoy an afternoon with the grand-daughters.

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Friday 25th July 2008

Progess! And with a capital "P" at that. Mounted the rear flexible brake hose and new bleed nuts equipped with nipples at all wheel cylinders to be able to get a length of rubber hose on for brake bleeding, the originals on the '41 didn't come so equipped. Then it was onto assembly of each wheel's complete brake assembly. First time I've done this so Wade basically did the first one with me helping pushing springs, holding things and observing. Then onto the next one with more direct involvement on my part together with a couple of minor snafu's which Wade was all too ready to point out to me! Must have been waiting for this, but I have to say he's been more than patient with me explaining, demonstrating and re-explaining if necessary as we've gone through the dis-assembly and now re-assembly processes. Those were the rear brakes, a bit more complex because of the hand brake mechanism and it's impact on the re-assembly process. Then onto the fronts, where I carried out most of the hands on work but Wade wasn't without a role as I needed a third and fourth hand to hold and help. My hat goes off to all those mechanics who do this solo. Rear brake drums on next after clean up of the POR-15 overpaint and the mild surface rust since the drums were skimmed back in December! Then front drums but first knocked out old bearing shells and put in the new ones and packed the new bearing with grease, a lovely job. Wade couldn't believe he wasn't getting his hands dirty for a change! All axle nuts were nipped up but not tightened fully as this will be done a bit later after the brakes are bled and adjusted. All in all a good days work with very visible progress apparent.

Then as I was leaving early, going to Lidcombe to have new hand brake cables made for John's '39 110, Wade gave me instructions as to what was required. The short answer would ideally be: 2 cables exactly like the new cables for the '41. But this seemed difficult to achieve because at some stage in the '39's life one of the cables has been replaced with something else and "made to fit". From front to back it's different with a 3/8" clevis yoke in lieu of 5/16", much longer sheathing for which they remounted the clamp from the chassis side rail to the cross member, a metal cylinder at the brake end of the sheathing for which they modified the backing plate clamp by cutting out the shoulder where the cable should pass through the hole in it and also a much shorter spring where the cable attaches to the lever on the rear shoe. In the Pic the top cable is the "bastard" one! Anyway there appears to be good news because Ralph at General Instruments believes he can do the job. Thinks he's got two 2nd hand but serviceable springs as each needs replacement. Also gave me a 5/16" clevis yoke and pin which I'll compare to the one that's on the '39 tomorrow when I'm at the workshop, he doesn't believe the clevis yolk will be a major issue. And Wade, if you read this I'll now be in the workshop on Monday but before that I'll go over to General Instruments to see Ralph and take the old 5/16" clevis if required. BTW - Ralph was pleased to know the cables for the '41 worked out, it's always good to get positive feedback.

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Mal, looking at the left rear brake assembled photo, you may have the primary and secondary brake shoes reversed. It looks to me like the larger lined shoe is on the front. Usually the primary brake shoe is in front and it has less lining than the secondary which is in the rear. I may be mistaken, but thought you might want to look at this. By the way, your project is looking quite good. I admire your mechanical restoration of the '41. I have a great story about a '41 One Twenty I'll have to share with you some day. I am looking at my GeoChron and see that it is about 1:10 A.M. on Saturday. It is 10:10 A.M. Friday here in Austin. And with that, Good Day ---

Don't know much about 1941 120. Or if you did this. But, on my 40 super there where shims in between the backing plate and axle housing to adjust axle run out.

Mal,
I checked in my Motors manual, the Shop manual, and the pictures of my '41 180 wheels before disassembly and I think JW may have picked up on something I didn't see when admiring your re-assembly. The short (primary) lining goes towards the front of the vehicle.

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Todd,

Thanks for your advice, but we covered this back in May when the axles were re-installed.

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John & JD,

Fellers thanks for your concern. Will have a look at the primary/secondary shoe locations on Monday, when Wade is back in the workshop. If I have to swap shoes it'll just be more brake dis/re-assembly practice for me, should get quite good at it if I have to swap them around, not to mention a lesson learned.

Just to confirm what others have already said, on Bendix-style brakes without fixed anchors (like your Packard), the front or leading shoe (which originally also had a different lining material) is the primary shoe and has the shorter length lining, and where there is a difference, also has the weaker shoe return spring. The object is that when the brakes are applied, the front shoe expands first and then applies a camming action to the rear shoe, thus enhancing the force of the rear shoe to the drum. If you put the shoes on backwards, besides a loss of braking effort, the rear shoe (now the shorter lining) will wear very much faster than the front (longer lining) shoe.