10-15-99
To My Fellow Forward Look Mailing Members:
Below is a little story on one of my recent brake inspections on my 60
Plymouth, with a little tongue in cheek humor thrown in. I hope you all
enjoy reading it.
Ben
BEN’S AUTOMOTIVE
NEWSLETTER
60 PLYMOUTH REAR BRAKES
Oh yeah, old cars present quite a challenge!
Bolt breaking is not as much of problem with my Plymouth, as it never
sees road
salt, and very rarely is caught out in a rain storm, but other gremlins
do sneak into jobs I
have had to do on the car.
Lucky me, the Plymouth has what we call "Historic Plates" on it,
and therefore no
longer has to go through inspection every year. Thank g-d! Given the
fact that I'm not one
to drive an unsafe vehicle, and the fact that my brake inspection
involves actually
removing the drums to inspect the brakes, not simply driving on to what
is called a
"skidpad", and jamming on the brakes to see if all four grab equally, I
think driving
public of America need not fear the sight of my Plymouth coming toward
them. New
Jersey vehicle inspection is a bad joke.
Well at any rate, my inspection revealed the following: 1. the wheel
cylinders were
dry, 2. the shoes had plenty of lining left on them, 3. the “hold-down”
and “return” springs
were also fine.
So, I finished the brake inspection on my Plymouth, and this time
everything went
without any problem. I didn't even crack a brake shoe lining this time
around when removing the brake shoes to get a better look into the wheel
cylinders. As a matter of fact, the first task in the brake inspection,
that of pulling the rear drums on my Plymouth went well, even though it
is a bit
more involved than simply removing the wheel, and then wiggling the drum
off. See, the rear drums on my Plymouth are
fitted to a tapered shaft, and you have to use a 3 arm puller to remove
them. Needless to
say, those drums don’t always want to come off easily. However, thanks
to some good
fortune this time, I was done by 9:00 p.m., including clean up. Yeah!
See, my automotive adventures don’t always turn into a nightmare.
|
|
Back to the Home of the Forward Look Network