Hi list, Tom, Howard, Clint (where-ever you are) et al...
Today was reorganizing day at the Last Chance Garage. I invited my friend
Bryan over for breakfast on a whim and he stayed....or rather his wife LET
him stay. Rather amazing as I am, no doubt, considered a bad influence by
his wife.
Well, having boxed up many of the sub assemblies of the Scout as I removed
them, I needed to get them organized under my already overflowing carport
(if this sounds like your house too, say OOOO-rah!) Bryan helped out, all
the while glancing over his shoulder at the bones of the Scout like maybe he
wanted to play mechanic. I've seen "the look" before...you know the
ones.....not a chance in hell their wife will tolerate a project vehicle at
THEIR house, so they're dying to turn a wrench on something! The carport
shaped up pretty quick so we strolled over to the Scout and with me feeling
just a little like Tom Sawyer, (where he suckers the fella into whitewashing
the fence) we looked over the sandblasting I had done yesterday.
Inevitably, Bryan suggested he'd like to work on the Scout a little. The
hook was set and I reeled ol' Bryan right in. "Gee, maybe we ought to have
a look at the left front brake as it has always dragged but has recently
become nearly frozen as some sandblasting media has found its way into the
drum and I don't know what we'll find when we get in there." Bryan responds
with some rather clinical suggestions, etc and THERE WE GO!
So I broke out the tools and we sat down and backed the brake shoes off as
far as we could. Drum STILL didn't want to turn, durn it! My actual words
were a little more colorful as I feared the bearings and races were probably
a wreck. Next we popped the axle shaft hub off only to be greeted by a
soupy black goop that was formerly some kind of lubricant (not good but no
particulates and no shiny sparkly stuff either.) A few raps on the hub body
itself and out pops the prettiest Timken bearing you'd ever wanna see.
THANK GOD! And I was worried the bearings were trashed, especially since
the danged thing didn't wanna turn even after the shoes were backed off.
Well, it didn't take much to get the hub and drum off and what a MESS we
found. To simulate, take axle grease and add liberal amounts hypoid gear
oil, North Texas red sand and brake dust and pack solidly in an enclosed
metal container and bake repeatedly at 100 plus degrees for 30-40 years till
hard as a rock. This crap looked like asphalt and I ain't kidding! I
couldn't tell when the brake linings ended and the rest of the guts of the
thing started. The inner bearing looked even better than the outer bearing
by way of some small compensation for the rest.
So we excavated for the nuts and off came the brake backing plate complete
with its Macadamized interior. The drum looked fine by the way....not bell
mouthed nor scored and no hot spots or cracking. Bryan left for home (I
guess the reality of what we had uncovered was too much for him to bear) and
I hunkered down to the usual disassembly protocol....i.e. clear a flat spot
and lay out the parts that come off. Thankfully, as tough as the black
stuff was, it was quite brittle. In fact, once I got under it it mostly
came off in chunks (my LUCKY day!) By the end of the day I smelled like
kerosene but most everything was cleaned of grease and "asphalt" and
awaiting next weekend's visit to the sandblasting tent. Very soon, those
old Scout bones are gonna roll just like new!
TJ
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Sep 02 2000 - 09:32:31 PDT