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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.

Saturday 26th July 2008

Bit of this and a bit of that today. With Wade not coming in we discussed matters yesterday and I was to re-mount the front sway bar and paint the hand brake pivot and associated clevis yokes/pins and hardware so the handbrake cables installation can be completed next week. To this end, yesterday on the way home after dropping of the '39's hand brake cables at General Instruments, I called into Grippy Rubber at Silverwater. This was to buy replacement rubber bushes for the front sway bar but they don't stock these rubber bushes as they don't have the right rubber compounds for automotive applications. So then called into 2 auto repairers and managed to find 4 of the 8 required. Then this morning managed to pick up the other 4. However, later when putting them all on the bench, dropped one. And do you think I can find it? Of course not!

Actually started on cleaning up the O/D Governer which will be looked at and into more closely later on. Then checked the sample clevis yoke and pin from Ralph at General Instruments for fit and suitability. The "mouth" of the yoke is wider than the '41 one I compared it with but I'd think this aspect would only be a minor impediment as Ralph says he has many different types. So on Monday will check with Wade then take up the running with Ralph on the clevis yoke front. And discovered I couldn't fit my clevis yokes onto the new hand brake cables. After minor palpitations and then re-tapping the yokes to clear the rust and gunk they then screwed on easily, phew! In between cleaning, Marine Cleaning, Metal Readying and POR-15 the hand brake pivot and stuff was mounting the brackets for the sway bars on the front of the Torque Arms and the sway bar to the front of the chassis. However because I couldn't find that one new rubber bush that dropped have not connected the sway bar to the mounting brackets yet. Will set in motion a detailed search on Monday for the elusive rubber bush.

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Monday 28th July 2008

After donating blood plasma early got to the workshop and spoke to Wade about the leading/trailing brake shoes for the '41 and the clevis yokes/pins for the '39. Regarding the brake shoes, the leading and trailing shoe linings are all the same size and no problems or dramas are expected with this setup. Regarding the clevis yokes/pins, the sample provided by Ralph of General Instruments proved to be acceptable so that's where I headed next. Instructed Ralph of the requirements and he showed me the clamp he'd repaired and said he'd got 2 NEW springs and advised the cables would be ready about 11:00am, it was about 10:00am at the time, pretty good service, but I had other things to do so I advised I'd be back later in the week.

Back to the workshop where I cleaned up the handbrake pivot mechanism of POR-15 overpaint while Wade spray painted some old radio parts, his other hobby, he's busy man. Wade also got under the '41 and found the the clamp for the handbrake cable from the handbrake itself to the pivot mechanism was only being held by one nut and bolt. Wade dug out a couple of nuts and bolts to fit which I cleaned up and then installed the clamp on the gearbox cross-member as it should be. Next positioned and installed the pivot mechanism and connected the front cable to it. Then connected the new hand brake cables to the mechanism. This took a bit of fiddling to get the lengths right but the worst part was installing the split pins in the clevis pins and spreading them, but I finally got there.

Onto adjusting and bleeding the brakes. First time I've adjusted the brakes and of course Wade guided me through it. Then onto the bleeding, started well filled the master cylinder with silicon brake fluid, then as I gently pushed the pedal to the floor and held it there, let it return also gently, and repeated many times also checking and replenishing the fluid level in the master cylinder so it wasn't sucking air, Wade bled the right rear wheel cylinder, first of air, then of brake fluid. That is until the fitting connecting the line to the wheel cylinder starting leaking fluid. All pedal pumping was put on hold while Wade re-tightened the fitting, which tightened up a considerable amount. Started pumping again, but only briefly as it was evident that the fitting was still leaking. I then checked the left rear wheel fitting and found it too was leaking so it was also tightened. The right rear fitting was tightened again by Wade but on pumping the pedal again, only about 2 to 3 inches, it still leaked! After some head scratching it was decided to take off both brake lines to check for cross threading, and I'm pleased to say it wasn't apparent on the line fittings. However the wheel cylinders may be cross threaded but this hasn't been checked yet. Wade took the 2 rear metal brake lines round to his brake guy and we're having new ones made irrespective as I damaged one of the fittings on one where it mount's to the T on the diff housing.

While Wade was seeing his brake guy I was searching for the missing sway bar rubber. And found it! Right up against the back wall behind a pair of metal wheel ramps in the shadows, no wonder I couldn't find it on Saturday. Then to connect the sway bar. Easier said than done. I was still at it when Wade returned and his opinion is that I've got the wrong sway bar, sway bar links or both. So, need a bit of advice here, please see pic's of sway bar end and links. I'm looking to find out if either or both are right for the '41 or not. All comments are welcomed. Wade had also brought back a new fitting to check the wheel cylinders with and suggested it might be worthwhile to re-tap the threads for the fitting in each cylinder. To this end I will pick up a 7/16" NF 24TPI Plug Tap tomorrow, probably from Hare and Forbes a machinery, tool and equipment supplier at North Parramatta. I'll also swing by General Instruments to pick up the new handbrake cables for the '39. And Wade told me today he'd been speaking to Harvey who expects to complete the dash woodgraining this week.

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