01 November 2013

31 October 2013 - Mintex shoes now on rear

After cleaning the shoes up the other day they went back to their old games of locking as I backed out in the morning again a few days later. So the new Mintex shoes arrived from P'dcks today and I decided to fit them in between rainstorms.

They went on without too much of a hitch (other than I fitted trailing shoes on one side and leading on the other initially) and adjusted up easily. The old shoes were always a PITA to set-up and I think the snail cams were jumping off the pins on the shoes?

With the new shoes I no longer have the need to do a quick short pump on the pedal before a good hard stomp. They are now ready to go on the first press which echoes my thoughts above. The back now locks up good a solid every time!

From now on I will stick with Mintex for Series brake shoes. The cost difference is <£5 an axle ! ;)

26 October 2013

26 October 2013 - Rear brake mis-behaving

For the third time this week I reversed Trigger out of the drive and the offside rear drum locked with only a dab of brake. The difference in the amount of pedal stroke required to cause it to lock was major. Just a nudge with my toe and I nearly ended up over the rear bulkhead! Rolling back across the drive I could feel the shoes causing a lot of resistance so something wasn't right. Once I drove forward the issue went away.

Looking at the drums today in between wind and rainstorms there was nothing obvious on either rear assembly. All the springs were present, shoes were perpendicular to the rear plate, no fluid leakage, but there was a build up of powdered shoe material on both the drum and shoe. More so on the offside hub. Not the fine powdered stuff that would be expected to blow away but flattened lumps of it.

Now I remember that this time last year I was having issues with a weeping offside hub seal at the rear. Though I managed to get all the EP90 off the shoe could it have made it's way into the material and was causing it to break down? I don't believe I changed them. There's nowt in the blog records...mmm. Anyways these shoes aren't Mintex. Prob ChingChong?

This is the offside leading shoe. Note the surface breaking up at the top edge.


After giving them and the drums a wipe down with some solvent and a rag they were re-assembled and adjusted up so they were just dragging. Took the 109 out for about 30 miles and all seems fine...for now.

I will get a set of quality (probably Mintex) shoes ordered up for the rear next week.