It's been a frustrating time.
Mid week I found the time to sneak into the garage for an hour. The intention was to unbolt the brake balancy thing from its bracket and thereby gain space to fit the nipple spanner in place and tighten the suspect connection. So I rolled underneath the car and looked around for the spanner I left under there a few days ago. Hang on there's a rear brake drum lying under the car over there....
Lots of F words then came out of my mouth. On the failed MOT there was an advisory that one of the rear wheel bearings had a little play. Several weeks ago I pulled the drum off to investigate bearing replacement. I established I'd need to totally strip the brake and pull the half shaft. There was more important stuff to be done, such as pipes that were an MOT fail. I'll leave the drum off for now, maybe I'll do more on it later. Roll on several weeks replacing fuel and brake pipes and I'd forgotten the drum was off.
So I've spent several weeks pumping the damn brake system, all be it with air in the system with a rear drum not fitted to hold the shoes and slave cylinder pistons in place. Mabo you are a prime idiot, you know better than to make this rooky error.
So I squeezed around the other side of the car to inspect the damage, The shoes have been pushed out until they hit a rim on the brake back plate and stopped there. The 2 pistons are well extended but will they slide back ? As soon as I touched it the handbrake self adjusting mechanism fell off, hell were did that fit ?
I then spent an hour doing a jigsaw without the guide picture and all behind the large flange that carries the wheel, studs and all. I got it all together with considerable difficulty. Screwdriver, long nose pliers, long nose mole grips and numerous other bits and pieces. Finished but the shoes are too far out to refit the drum. The self adjusting mechanism isn't right but hell so long as I can get the drum on the local trusty mech can sort it out because my patience is gone. Why the heck wont the shoes retract further, If I push the pistons in they soon pop out again, I guess there is air in there cylinder which I can squash to push the pistons back but soon expands back to hold the shoes out. Heck I've had enough for tonight. I returned to the house in a pretty foul mood at my own stupidity.
Given a few days to ponder and accepting that I've missed the month start to tax the car I returned to the garage today with a plan.
Pull the other drum off and check if I've got the first side assembled right. Job done, I made some minor changes and now I'm confident the handbrake self adjust is the same on both sides. Refit the drum on the good side.
Now, bad side push the pistons back in, wrap a tie wrap around the entire slave cylinder to hold the pistons retracted, Set the self adjuster to 0 so it isn't holding the shoes out, Partially refit drum. Cut off the tye wrap then drive the drum fully home, It's very tight but at least it's on. Next I gave the brake pedal a few strokes, wow I've actually got a pedal, I know it must still have air but at least there's some resistance there.
Work stopped whilst some errands had to be completed for the trip to Valencia. A few hours later and I dived back into the garage. OK lets see if I can sort this possible hydraulic leak.
I unbolted the brake balancy thing from its bracket and even with 3 copper pipes and a flexi in place I was still able to lower it an inch or so. Slide the nipple spanner onto the fitting, brace the housing against its own mounting bracket and heave on the spanner. I probably achieved about half a turn on it, any more and I might strip threads, that's enough. Ease it back onto the bracket, fit one of the 2 bolts. Climb up top, foot onto the pedal, lots of resistance and no squirty sound. Now we're getting somewhere refit the 2nd bolt and tighten them both up.
OK time for bleeding again, I got much reduced bubbles but still more than I'd expect. Maybe it's sucking in through the bleed valve. Pull it up tight closed, move the bleed bottle to the end of the line, on the brake I blew apart. WD 40 the nipple, Vaseline the hose fitting in an attempt to stop it sucking in air, Open the nipple. Several strokes of the pedal and I can hear air bubbling out of the bleed pipe, several more strokes of silence. Top the master up, repeat several times, no more air bubble heard. Visual shows the bleed hose free of bubbles. OK, Close the bleed nipple, remove the bleed pipe and bottle, try the pedal, wow that's good, feels much less travel than I had before this farce was commenced.
I do believe we can call this job a success. The drum on one side is still way too tight but I'm not for stripping it again at the moment. Plan is finish re assembly and give her to my MOT man.
Free off the dragging brake and MOT her will be the instruction. It's going to take some time to finish reassembly and get her back on the ground. I've also found the one front brake pad slider that I lost when working on the front brakes so I need to fit that before she goes to MOT.