Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[norustplease]

Still running well. I belatedly took it round to a friend's to take advantage of his car lift to check the flange bolts on the prop shaft, it being some time since I used it to change the pinion oil seal. All seems well, but the car started to pull to the right when braking on the way home, something it hasn't done for some time. The offside brake is not locking on, so I wonder if the nearside flexible is furred up and making the brake lazy on that side. I will keep driving locally (carefully) and see what happens. It has done this before, and then cleared up for no apparent reason.
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1953 Citroen Traction
1964 Volvo PV544
1957 Austin A55 Mk 1
Boring Tucson SUV

[norustplease]

The brakes, as ever, stopped pulling unevenly just as mysteriously as they had started, so we carried on motoring into the beginnings of winter.
However the car has now been sat in its garage for several weeks whilst all the salt and snow and ice have held sway, and may not come out until New Year's Day, assuming suitable road conditions.
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1953 Citroen Traction
1964 Volvo PV544
1957 Austin A55 Mk 1
Boring Tucson SUV

[norustplease]

Second trip of the year to St Caths second Sunday morning in February. Then a sunny drive round in the afternoon. Didn't really want to put it away but commonsense and another coating of salt on the roads made it a necessity.
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1953 Citroen Traction
1964 Volvo PV544
1957 Austin A55 Mk 1
Boring Tucson SUV

[norustplease]

Nearside front brake acting up again. This time not pulling unevenly, but binding once the pedal is released, sometimes freeing off with an audible clonk.
Dismantling reveals a very gunged up wheel cylinder, full of sludge, although not leaking, and with a very sticky piston action. This in spite of a complete fluid change when I replaced the master cylinder during lockdown.
Time for a general overhaul, so I am waiting for parts to reline and replace hydraulics on all four corners. Initial stripdown also reveals that front offside linings are full of cracks radiating from the rivet holes and the leading edge of the lining. I haven't exposed the rear brakes as yet, but am assuming that they will also need attention.
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1953 Citroen Traction
1964 Volvo PV544
1957 Austin A55 Mk 1
Boring Tucson SUV

[Vulgalour]

Degraded rubber seal, perhaps? At least you're on top of it.

[norustplease]

Rubber seals looked okay. The gunge was a greasy gingery brown rather than black. the piston was rough surfaced, and binding, but not obviously rusty. There was obviously enough friction in the cylinder to slow down recuperation of the shoes after the brakes were released.
I think that my main problem is too many cars, friends with only one or two cars obviously use them more frequently. Three cars or more mean that one car can have long spells of inactivity. The trouble is, I don't particularly want to get rid of any of them.
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1953 Citroen Traction
1964 Volvo PV544
1957 Austin A55 Mk 1
Boring Tucson SUV

[Penman]

There are sometime problems with the inner lining of flexible pipe sections, it can collapse inwards thus blocking the pipe and usually preventing flow back to the Master Cyl.
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Bristols should always come in pairs.

Any 2 from:-
Straight 6
V8 V10

[Rick]

[badhuis]

Someone I know has a fleet of 8 classics, all in running condition. He keeps them in a big barn. Every three months he exchange a car for daily use. Seems to work well for him.
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a car stops being fun when it becomes an investment

[norustplease]

[norustplease]

[norustplease]

Front brakes stripped down. Nearside cylinder is very sticky as noted previously. A week's holiday in Suffolk, and incorrect parts supplied have prevented the completion of the exercise (a front and a rear cylinder supplied rather than to fronts!!!)
Resolved now, I have kept the rogue new rear cylinder and have another one and some new shoes so will move on and do the rear when I have the front ones both reassembled.
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1953 Citroen Traction
1964 Volvo PV544
1957 Austin A55 Mk 1
Boring Tucson SUV

[norustplease]

Finally all reassembled, but then an enormous leak discovered from a front brake when the bleeding process begun. At first I wondered if I had forgotten to tighten something up properly.
Turns out that one of the front wheel cylinders is assembled with only one piston seal. So, once under pressure, fluid just squirted out of the bore past the piston. Fortunately the cover seal directed it backwards and it ran down the backplate and hasn't, as far as I can tell, polluted the linings. I gave everything a good spray with brake cleaner and clamped the flexible and am awaiting a new cylinder. No wonder I wasn't getting anywhere near a firm pedal!
This the second daft mistake made by the specialist supplier, although I will concede that he would not have been able to deduce the fault without dismantling. He needs to review his suppliers.
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1953 Citroen Traction
1964 Volvo PV544
1957 Austin A55 Mk 1
Boring Tucson SUV

[Bitumen Boy]

[alastairq]

With regards to ''new'' parts these days, [as distinct from, NOS parts!]....I have learnt, not quite the hard way, to do as Bitumen Boy says, & strip the items down and inspect them. Especially when the vendor isn't able to [or prepared to?] give details as to where & how those parts were made.

I purchase a new oil pump [for a 100E Ford engine], dunno where it was made [suspect China, to the specs and orders of a UK spares supplier?], but I stripped the very smart shiny thing down, to find the internal passageways chokka full of casting sand!!

This took a lot of cleaning out.....and I was reluctant to send the thing back for replacement, since the replacement part could have been in exactly the same condition.

Still, better to find the problem before fitting, than to totally wreck the engine?

It does ''amuse'' me [disappoint me??] to read how many folk seek advice for a problem, but insist ever so trustingly that ''this, that, or the other'' is brand new, so cannot be the problem!

As an ancient old car enthusiast, 'trust' is something I rarely if ever, indulge in!

Which is sad really, especially given the amount of money we enthusiasts put into the entire industry?

Yet so many folk seem to equate the amount of money they have parted with, to the disproportionate increase in trust & faith displayed?

Also annoying to me is finding, after all the work involved in cleaning out , etc of the oil pump, to immediate find I had a spare pump [not new] in a box, hidden away, that I had forgotten about!!

Another issue I have with new stuff , concerns the apparent uselessness of modern rubber, in components, or stand-alone?
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Dellow Mk2, 1951 built, reg 1952.
Fiat 126 BIS
Cannon special [1996 registered. Built in 1950's]
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Ford Pop chassis, Ashley 1172 bodyshell, in pieces.