I think I need to do something about my rear brakes (on the 1982 Spesh). They squeal and the CT (=MoT) tester said they were out of balance.

I'd like to start by simply adjusting them. But when I put a spanner on the adjusters, they didn't want to turn - and I didn't want to round off the heads, either. The Haynes book warns against using too much penetrating oil for fear of contaminating the linings.

But presumably - and despite Haynes' warning - I might as well start dosing the adjusters every day until I am able to turn them, because it'll be virtually impossible to get the drums off without loosening the adjusters a bit. Or is that wrong?

After all, in the end the chances are that I'll have to re-line the brakes anyway.

Does anyone have any other advice? - this is one of those jobs I've never previously felt brave enough to try.

Thanks in advance.

re line the brakes - just buy some new shoes they are usually cheap enough?

soak the hexes heat the hexes soak the hexes heat the hexes use a close fitting 14mm socket in a fixed bar and wiggle it , heat it soak it...... you get the message. soak it with as much oil or penetrant as you like ill guarantee none of it will get on the shoes unless you take the arms off and dip them in a bucket.

squeal is badly set up eccentrics and take care to fit the leading shoe and the trailing shoe properly ( front shoe is the one with the wide gap, or the most steel showing, towards the cylinder)

grind the wear lip of the edge of the drum or its a pain to fit

Sean - thanks, that's helpful. I'll see if I can lay my hands on a 14mm socket with only six flats - that might help. I hadn't thought of using heat. And I'd better be prepared to settle down for a few days of crawling under the car with an oil-can.

I've got new brake shoes ready to fit if needed. Would it be a good idea to fit new cylinders too at the same time? The existing ones aren't leaking.

in my experience they are never far from leaking, again you can pick em up cheaply enough and while your at it stick some internal springs in - look at the ones inside the rear lamps for the right size and as a final tip hold the union and unscrew the cylinder, then loosen the union on the pipe.

Sean

Thanks again. I have now got all four adjusters free - it probably was the heat treatment that did it, though I must admit I felt a bit nervous waving around a blow-torch so close to the plastic fuel tank.

The adjusters are still very stiff to turn, so I'll keep at them a bit longer, then see what difference just adjusting them makes.

After that, I'll prepare myself for doing the brake shoes - although I have the shoes, I haven't got the dust caps that I would need. Or the cylinders, for that matter. At least I do have a 3/4 inch socket set with the required 1 3/4" socket, even though at my enfeebled stage of life I find it difficult to pick up the box it's in with all the rest of the heavyweight sockets.

I appreciate the advice.

[Edit: later on....
I got the adjusters moving fairly freely, and have re-set them properly. The brakes are now working as they should, stopping nicely and without any sign of pulling - and doing so in total silence, for the first time in a couple of years.

I will have to take the hubs off sooner rather than later and check the brake linings, if only because one of the dust caps is missing and the other one is butchered. ]

I may have missed it but you also need to centre the shoes in relation to the axle/drum. That is assuming that you have eccentrics on the bottom shoe mounts. It's all in the Haynes manual how to do it. Once done and the drums fitted you adjust up the cams you've spent time freeing off , so the shoes just drag on the drums. Having done so you will have nice quite brakes. Mine howled like mad when I first had mine, did the work 4 years ago and all that has been needed is to adjust the cams up a bit and no noise at all from the outset

If you are thinking about a long run, I would fit new shoes and try to bed them down well before that. I have found that old shoes get hard and don't bite so well as new shoes. Any update on the vaccuum advance ?

your well away from the tank at the back of the hub! petrol isnt as prone to spontaneous explosions as Hollywood would have you believe - witness a field of 2cvs trying to start on a dewy morning that petrol can be a bugger to ignite

if you do get round to fitting the shoes 1 buy plastic caps 2 heat and oil the adjusters with the shoes off and turn them the full 360 a couple of times then seal up the area round the washer with copper grease.

Thanks Sean (and Bob). The plastic caps are on order and I'll make sure that the adjusters are properly free to move before I put everything back together. I can see from the cross-section view in Haynes that there's plenty of surface for them to stick on, inside the hubs.

As the brakes do now seem to be pretty good, it'll be interesting to see the state of wear when I get them apart. The car is fairly low mileage (about 80k miles, I think).

its not so much the wear more that the lining tends to separate on cars that have done a fair bit of standing still.