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October 2, 2019

Rear Brakes

[Click the pics for a better view]

The rear brakes on the GT6 were a very ordinary single leading shoe 8" x 1.25" drum units.

Since new or reproduction backing plates for these brakes are apparently hard to find or not available, I had to make due by cleaning up and powdercoating the originals.  They are pretty pitted, which makes me sad, but are totally servicable.  The backing plates had to be installed when building the vertical link/hub assembly.




I pulled off the brake adjuster assemblies off the backing plates and found them both to be frozen solid.  A little coaxing with penetrants, heat, and threats of violence eventually freed them up, and they finally were operating smoothly.

 


The slave cylinders were similarly frozen, and though I may have been able to revive them, I thought the odds were smaller, so I just got new ones.  Likewise for the hand brake arms.  It's possible, but not really practical to fix the rust pitting, and new ones are cheap.




So, onto the backing plates these pieces went.




The shoes were totally toast.  I'm not sure where the linings went.  Reduced to powder, I guess.  New ones are inexpensive.




There are a number of wrong ways to assemble the shoes and springs.  I tried a few of them, but I believe this way is correct.




I had serious doubts about the drums.  They were very crusty.  Derusting made them look better, but there was pitting on the friction surfaces.  On measuring the ID of the drums, both of them surprizingly were right at 8.000", which is their size when new.  I must have replaced the drums shortly before I mothballed the car.




I have a small lathe, and these drums would barely fit on it, so I turned them until nearly all of the pitting was gone.  The question was then whether they were still within spec for use.  They both came out at about 8.025", while max allowable ID is 8.050", I believe.  I was overjoyed to not have to buy new drums.  A nice powder coat finished them off.




These are buttoned up.  Pretty soon, I'll be able to take the frame off the rotisserie and put her back on the ground.




This was a very quick project--once I got all the parts, assembly only took an hour or so.  I think parts came to around $60.

Comments to Ed at elhollin1@yahoo.com

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