@ Ruby and drum brakes.
#1
04-12-2012 | 12:18 AM
Thread Starter
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Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 1,912
From: Peoria AZ
@ Ruby and drum brakes.
Don't know what happened to the lid that changed everything and the brakes quit working. But today after breakfast I went out to finish rebuilding for service a MOPAR 8 and 3/4 rear axle that will end up either under the back of a 1948 Ford P/U or my 1976 Hornet Wagon. It has a 3.24 final drive and could have been under a 1970 Plymouth Satelite back in the day. So I am putting the rear Brakes back together after changing the Wheel Cylinder and cleaning up road grime when I discover -------!!! The last person that serviced it put the drivers side brake assembly together incorrectly which means it did not work very well AND
I need to by parts I did not expect to have to buy.
Damn.
This is the 4th or 5th set of drum brakes in a row I have discovered was incorrectly assembled.
No wonder some of this stuff ends up in wrecking yards.
Oh well, I will go out in the morning and drill and tap a hole in the pumpkin to serve as a drain hole for the rear axle and install a 1/8 pipe plug in it. Flush the 50 year old gear oil out of it and refill it.
The MOPAR 8 3/4 does not have a drain plug. You have to pull the axles and remove the differential as an assembly to drain things. I was hoping to get a Ford 8.8 but did not find one. (Cheap)
Have a good day.
I need to by parts I did not expect to have to buy.
Damn.
This is the 4th or 5th set of drum brakes in a row I have discovered was incorrectly assembled.
No wonder some of this stuff ends up in wrecking yards.
Oh well, I will go out in the morning and drill and tap a hole in the pumpkin to serve as a drain hole for the rear axle and install a 1/8 pipe plug in it. Flush the 50 year old gear oil out of it and refill it.
The MOPAR 8 3/4 does not have a drain plug. You have to pull the axles and remove the differential as an assembly to drain things. I was hoping to get a Ford 8.8 but did not find one. (Cheap)
Have a good day.
#3
04-12-2012 | 05:24 AM
Thread Starter
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Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 1,912
From: Peoria AZ
I am not going to say that they don't build things the way they used to, well I am, but that is a good thing.
They are built better, last longer and are more reliable.
They cost a ton more to fix and require a huge increase in knowledge to do so, but rarely need fixing unless some one who is clueless attempts to fix what ain't broke.
I am not saying being Old School is the way to be.
I am saying I am old school.
I learned how to rebuild drum brakes and make them reliable a long time ago. I also rebuild my own carburetors and adjust them correctly.
There is nothing at all wrong with an ignition system that requires points to function.
Other than both a points ignition system and a carburetor requires proper maintanence to function correctly. Proper and frequent.
Todays smog cars run more efficient, cleaner and more reliable than anything built in the muscle car era did then or does not.
When a 3.5L v6 is developing 300+ horsepower on 89 Octane Gasoline when in the muscle car era it took a 350+ cu inch V8 and 101 octane gasoline to do it?
Things are better.
3.5L = 214 cu in.
Todays V6 will do that. Run 75,000 miles on the factory tune, get close to 30 mpg and do it with a lot of drivability.
Yesterdays carburated muscle car was lucky to get 10 mpg, need a tune up every 15,000 miles or it quit running and required 110% attention to driving it in city traffic. They were a hand ful and still are.
I own a couple of each.
But at a price.
The last and only fuel injected engine I built and ever intend to cost me about $6000.00 to do so and $2500 of that was the fuel injection.
And then the package ran poorly untill I figured out that I was using a torque converter with the wrong characteristic and the engine management computor did not like it at all.
The thing was a dog under 2000 rpm.
And no adjustments.
My current engine and transmission combination built with finances as an objective to be true, has less than $1500.00 in at total. I will use a 700R4 automatic and probably a Carter Thermoquad 4bbl carburetor.
It should develop something over 400 hp and when I get done with it and pass a smog test. If I don't like the Thermoquad I have 3 AFBs I can use.
I can use a modern HEI 1 wire distributor or one with a set of points. I have both. It depends on a physical interferrance with the distributor when I get it in.
The point?
I am old school. I know how to
Adjust my ignition.
Adjust and rebuild my carburetor
Diagnose, repair and adjust my drum brakes.
I have the tools, knowledge and experiance to do that.
A lot of people don't.
Which is why a lot of good cars are junk or extremely costly to repair. Poorly.
I looked at a potentially expensive 1923 Chevy Coupe recently. Why potentially? The owner had problems with the vacuum operated fuel pump so converted it to electric. That took about $3000.00 off of the market price of the car and totally destroyed it as something that could be judged as a restoration.
Something is with an electric fuel pump is not restored. It is modified.
Not knowing how to deal with it was the owners problem
Saturns, although newer, suffer from the same malady.
There are failure mode Saturns have experianced over time that are directly traceable to technology change and the lack of understanding as to what it did to the car.
And that can not be handled in a forum format when in some cases the people trying to help some one and the person needing help, neither understand nor know how to deal with the technology the things were built with. And why certain answers are given the way that they are.
Oh Well.
They are built better, last longer and are more reliable.
They cost a ton more to fix and require a huge increase in knowledge to do so, but rarely need fixing unless some one who is clueless attempts to fix what ain't broke.
I am not saying being Old School is the way to be.
I am saying I am old school.
I learned how to rebuild drum brakes and make them reliable a long time ago. I also rebuild my own carburetors and adjust them correctly.
There is nothing at all wrong with an ignition system that requires points to function.
Other than both a points ignition system and a carburetor requires proper maintanence to function correctly. Proper and frequent.
Todays smog cars run more efficient, cleaner and more reliable than anything built in the muscle car era did then or does not.
When a 3.5L v6 is developing 300+ horsepower on 89 Octane Gasoline when in the muscle car era it took a 350+ cu inch V8 and 101 octane gasoline to do it?
Things are better.
3.5L = 214 cu in.
Todays V6 will do that. Run 75,000 miles on the factory tune, get close to 30 mpg and do it with a lot of drivability.
Yesterdays carburated muscle car was lucky to get 10 mpg, need a tune up every 15,000 miles or it quit running and required 110% attention to driving it in city traffic. They were a hand ful and still are.
I own a couple of each.
But at a price.
The last and only fuel injected engine I built and ever intend to cost me about $6000.00 to do so and $2500 of that was the fuel injection.
And then the package ran poorly untill I figured out that I was using a torque converter with the wrong characteristic and the engine management computor did not like it at all.
The thing was a dog under 2000 rpm.
And no adjustments.
My current engine and transmission combination built with finances as an objective to be true, has less than $1500.00 in at total. I will use a 700R4 automatic and probably a Carter Thermoquad 4bbl carburetor.
It should develop something over 400 hp and when I get done with it and pass a smog test. If I don't like the Thermoquad I have 3 AFBs I can use.
I can use a modern HEI 1 wire distributor or one with a set of points. I have both. It depends on a physical interferrance with the distributor when I get it in.
The point?
I am old school. I know how to
Adjust my ignition.
Adjust and rebuild my carburetor
Diagnose, repair and adjust my drum brakes.
I have the tools, knowledge and experiance to do that.
A lot of people don't.
Which is why a lot of good cars are junk or extremely costly to repair. Poorly.
I looked at a potentially expensive 1923 Chevy Coupe recently. Why potentially? The owner had problems with the vacuum operated fuel pump so converted it to electric. That took about $3000.00 off of the market price of the car and totally destroyed it as something that could be judged as a restoration.
Something is with an electric fuel pump is not restored. It is modified.
Not knowing how to deal with it was the owners problem
Saturns, although newer, suffer from the same malady.
There are failure mode Saturns have experianced over time that are directly traceable to technology change and the lack of understanding as to what it did to the car.
And that can not be handled in a forum format when in some cases the people trying to help some one and the person needing help, neither understand nor know how to deal with the technology the things were built with. And why certain answers are given the way that they are.
Oh Well.
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