Hi All:
Another chapter in the continuing saga of "Lets replace the leaking
grease seals":
Tore down all 4 rear wheels and replaced inner and outer bearings and
seals and replaced all brake pads. Put it back together per the 209 and 361
manuals, plus a few tips from list members.
3 out of 4 wheels could only be turned with an open pair of 20 inch
water pump pliers, cushioned handle under lugs and other end tugged on,
fairly hard. Broke and Retorqued spindle nuts a second time, still hard
turning. Checked clearances on brake shoes per manual, shoes are not even
close to drum. Talked to a couple of people, consensus was new seals needed
to be run in. Put axles in, started truck (on jackstands) and put in gear.
Only right side turned in forward and only left front turned jerkily (sp or
even a word?) in reverse. Right front drum got too hot to touch after 3
minutes of running (and took about 4 hours to cool down).
Shut down and proceeded to tear down tightest wheels, starting with left
front. All drum assemblies pulled right off and went on easily, but both the
left front, right front and rear showed evidence of drum/pad contact near
top center of all shoes. All eccentrics on top were fully backed off with no
contact to shoe backings and anchor pins had the "dots" close to each
other(left side at 3 and right side pin at 9 o'clock). I took a piece of
wood and with a hammer, was able to seat the shoes on all positions so they
were in contact with the top eccentrics. Step on brake pedal, all shoes
moved out, but would not 'seat' back against top eccentric without tapping
assistance. A-HAH!!! Wheel cylinders obviously have a problem retracting
fully due to sitting in storage for 10 years. I order new wheel cylinders
(off shore cause the three vendors who claimed to have or could get NOS
Gov't. surplus ones don't respond or their source won't). They show up and I
get to work on the truck this AM. Put the first one on the left rear front
and put every thing back together and guess what. Drum is still a bitch to
turn.
Truck has 17 k miles on it. Drums are pristine inside with no 'ridges'
on inside or outside. Drum doesn't start to drag on shoes until you get over
25 foot pounds of torque on inner spindle nut, but that is too loose to
leave it there since there is still up and down play in hub with no wheels
on it yet.
Bearings are brand new Timken, seals are off shore manufacture, like the
wheel cylinders. Brake shoes are NOS US Gov't. surplus in sealed boxes with
the right part numbers matching the manuals. But you can see by the scuffing
on the shoes that they have been 'machined' at the 1 to 2 o'clock and 11 to
12 o'clock positions, so the feeler gauges don't make contact between the
drum and shoe when checked. If I adjust the shoes per the manuals, they'll
just get tighter where they are touching and hotter.
Opinions? Manually grind off the high spots on the shoes? Would photos
of the scuffing help the diagnosis? I'll go get some shots and get back to
ya'll.
A very frazzled, Ron
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Dec 07 2001 - 00:36:57 PST