Emergancy Brake - not working / Drum shaft

[ffd129]

1990 Festy 5sp

I have two problems. Car is in shop for New York State inspection

Tech is reporting that in order to pass inspection he needs to replace the two "connectors" (not sure i got this correctly - he spoke so fast) at end of cable that attach to the inside the of the drum.

Also, he finds the shaft that a nut attaches to that holds the drum in place is stripped. (right side)

Any chance any of this makes sense to someone..and if so..can u help me locate what i need ?

I know this is a shot in the dark..but this Forum has always come through in the past.

Thanks in advance for looking and responding.

[WmWatt]

The end of the brake cable is attached to an arm which pivots on a pin (called a Clevis pin). It's on the outside behind drum and gets rusty and sticks. My home made fix was to put each in the vise and after several applications of penetrating oil and whacks with a hammer over 3-4 days for each one they broke free of the rust. I replaced the pins with same diameter bolts thorough which I drilled holes for cotter pins. I slathered the levers and pins with grease and inspect them once a year when I look over the underside of the car.

I would want to know who stripped the shaft. If your mechanic stripped it he should fix it. However he may just be doing a visual inspection and found it already stripped. In either case it should be possible to clean up the tread, probably not a big issue.

[Pu241]

Yes, it does make some sense, only because I have experienced these issues myself.

The "two "connectors" (not sure i got this correctly - he spoke so fast) at end of cable that attach to the inside the of the drum" are the mechanical links that force the brake shoes against the drum when you pull the E-brake handle. This mechanism has a riveted pivot joint that becomes frozen from corrosion and lack of use. They can be freed up with BP-Blaster and some mechanical working of the joint. Sometimes it takes quiet a bit of work others it's an easy job. Then lube the joint with some oil and use the e-brake regularly and you should be OK. The Connectors do not have to be replaced just worked over a bit. I don't even know if new ones are available.

The pass rear spindle nut is left hand threaded.
Often mechanics use an impact wrench to remove them and destroy either the nut, the spindle, or both through ignorance.
In this case they destroyed the spindle. These are not available new, and are hard to get because of exactly what has happened to you.
A driver side spindle will work and you can get a new crush nut for both sides, but if you have to specify which side the nut goes on.
You might want to post a [WTB] after reading the rules of that forum.
Good luck

[walth]

sounds right to me.

As far as the self adjusters go you can get them free in about 5 minutes each. I put mine in a vise, use WD40 (pb works well too but WD is an awesome cleaner, either one will do), and take a hammer and beat the mess out of them back and forth, 3-5 hits one way, 3-5 hits the other, back and forth, over and over. You want to do this until you can hold one end and the other falls quickly on the pivot (or to where there's actually a lot of play in the joint). That's when you know they're good to go.

and yeah, I mean...people do screw up spindles...but just like John said, the mechanic could have been ignorant of the fact that it's a reverse thread on the right wheel.

you can also check the cable by making sure that when you push or pull on the cable it is not ceased up from years of not being used. Your ebrake will still work if the cable is ceased...but it won't work very well and will actually technically be on or applied at all times (you'll know because when from a stop you go to take off it'll make the car squat really hard in the back end or in reverse feels like your backing up onto a hill because of the brakes being applied)

anyways, call em up and find out what they screwed up, if anything, and now you are knowledgeable with how the brakes work and possibilities of what could have happened. Hope it isn't as bad as what we'd expect!