brakes

Brakes, brakes and more brakes...

This describes the brake project, sort of in reverse order...

Got Brakes? Use em!

In the days since Stu and I finished installing the disk brakes I've been driving the OldSub to work almost every day. I gave up on the vacuum powered wipers, and replacing them with electric was a bigger project than expected. But hey, its on the road again, and its fun to have the brakes really work! Merry Christmas!

Hey give me a four-day weekend and I might get something done!

Its amazing what you can do if you have enough time to focus!

Thursday was Thanksgiving, and we spent it being thankful. Thankful for lots of things, among them full tummies, and cool trucks.

Friday Stu and I got out there real early about 10:30 and made the remaining brake lines. It didn't take long, and I only wish I'd have stopped and taken a few pictures. But I'm lazy, and was eager to get this finished. We installed the $20/ea. residual valves, poured in some brake fluid and started bleeding.

It took some doing, since the lines were empty, but after a while we had a hard pedal, and were ready for a little test. The motor wouldn't start. Spins and spins and spins. Squirting ether in the carb doesn't even make a difference. So I decided to check for spark. None.

I quickly checked the wiring and found that the points were not doing their thing. I'm assuming they stuck closed because of moisture. Opening the distributor, pulled the points out, cleaned them up a little, put them back in and set them using my precision eyeballs (I was wearing my glasses). That did it. It started right up.

Because it has been sitting outside in the weather for about 10 weeks without the heater even being turned on, I decided to let it run while we wiped down the inside of the windows. Great idea, the windows looked great, but before we got done it died, and then refused to start. But this time it was because the starter wouldn't catch.

After some wailing and gnashing of teeth, I remembered that there was a started in the cab of the red pickup. Didn't know why it was there, but hey, its handy lets see if it works. Stu and I carry it near a battery, and use jumper cables to test it. It spins.

It took about an hour to pull the old floor switch starter off the sub, and install this newer old solenoid type starter, including running a new starter wire from the ignition switch. Once we were done it still didn't start.

Somewhere along the way my every sharp son asked if we were out of gas. I said of course not, and kept troubleshooting. After a while we went and got some gas. It was out of gas. Its almost worth feeling stupid to see your son gain confidence is his own troubleshooting like that. Almost.

All this fooling around did finally result in a test drive.

It stops!

I'm not completely satisfied. It still does some funny pulling when you nail the brakes, but I suspect the problem is slop in the tie rod ends, the spring bolts, or some other part that allows movement when it shouldn't. Its a lot better than it was, even if still short of perfect.

I plan to drive it this week. Next Saturday I plan to crawl underneath and add some clamps to hold the lines down. It has a few, but I'd like more. I'll also exercise my paranoia about the brake lines I made, by double-checking each connection for leaks. I don't like the thought of suddenly having no breaks...

And there is one remaining brake issue to deal with. It seems the brake pedal doesn't always fully return to the top of its stroke. It doesn't feel like the brakes are dragging, but the brake lights stay on. If I put my foot under the pedal and lift, they go out. Not an ideal situation...

So, after weeks with little or no reported action, the OldSub is back in service!

Sunday, December 1, 2002

Real STOPPING Power!

I've just finished converting the front of my truck to disk brakes, using the conversion kit from ChevyDuty and rotors and calipers from the famous '73 Chevelle wagon.

I did the passenger side first, and it took several episodes to get the kit and various other components all figured out. The driver's side took a couple hours... My plan has been to also convert to a dual master cylinder as part of this process, though I've not finished that part yet.

This has been quite an adventure, and when its all done I plan to write a complete story about the process, hopefully allowing others to learn from my experience (don't anyone misinterpret learning experience to suggest I made any mistakes!).

Last updated: December 31, 2006