Brakes off

Brake off, actually, but I’ll come back to that in a moment.

I had to make a late start today so I had a fair bit to do in quite a short time. The first thing I wanted to do was finish off the panel. All I had to do was fit the remaining gauges (slip ball, airspeed indicator, altimeter and vertical speed indicator) none of which have any electrical connections, but it wasn’t that straightforward because I wanted to re-use the existing mounting screws all of which were quite serviceable but a bit tatty. I decided to give the screw heads a light wire brushing followed by a coat of Hammerite mixed to match the colour of the panel. Judge for yourself if you think the result was successful.

I like it and the slightly annoying thing is that unlike the paint I mixed for the panel repairs, the screw heads have stayed nice and shiny! Why couldn’t the panel paint have done so as well 😕

The next job on the list was to remove the main undercarriage wheels, check the brakes for serviceability and regrease the wheel bearings. I started with the port side and here is a pic of the stub axle with the wheel and brake drum removed.

I was glad to see that there is still plenty of meat on the brake shoes but when I checked the mechanism I found that it was seized solid. As you can see in the next pic, the mechanism is very simple. The cable operates a lever which causes the small plate against which the bottoms of both shoes rest, to rotate forcing the bottoms of the shoes apart. The tops rest against a round pivot so by forcing the shoes apart they are pushed into contact with the brake drum. Simples 🙂

Trouble was the spindle connecting the operating lever and the rotating plate was seized where it passes through the back plate. Nothing for it – spray on WD40 and work the spindle without causing any damage until it was free. Luckily I was successful and I’m glad to say that I got the brake working again. I also checked the other one, although I haven’t stripped it yet, and I’m pleased to say that that one is free and working properly.

While the wheel was off I took the opportunity to re-pack the bearings with fresh grease. Lucky I did as they obviously hadn’t seen any for years! I was then able to reassemble the hub with all of the work done. It should be a doddle doing the other side (famous last words) and with all of the ‘under-panel’ work then done I’ll be able to look forward to refitting the instrument panel, gauges and wiring. That really will be progress and I’m looking forward to it immensely 😀