ALT-1 When to Service your Trucks Brakes
I saw an ad for a 1966 Ford truck in the Greensheet for $500 so I saved up my money and before long, I owned a 1966 Ford truck. The truck had been sitting in a field for close to a year, but all it took to get started was a new battery and some gas. When I tried the brakes, the pedal gave no resistance at all. This must have been a long standing problem because I found most of a gallon of brake fluid behind the seat. The wheel cylinders were not in the best shape, but with regular additions of brake fluid, the brakes worked o.k., if you don't count the steering-wheel yanking hard to the right if the brakes were applied with any force.One fateful, rainy day, I had a near-wreck and blew out the rear wheel cylinders completely. Taking the truck to a shop was out of the question. I had pulled this thing out of a field and got it running like a top. I could fix the brakes, too, thank you very much. First, I had to buy a jack and a lug wrench. Then, the nuts were frozen but a neighbor had a length of pipe we could put over an arm of the wrench to give us more leverage. The pipe bent. Finally, we pushed the truck (slowly) down to the corner gas station and had them break the nuts loose with their air wrench. The commentary ran along the lines that it was a good thing I hadn't had a flat tire. This is especially true since I didn't have a spare.The primitive drum brake system on a 1966 Ford truck shouldn't be hard to repair: a couple of springs, some shoes, two bolts holding on the wheel cylinder. When I got the drum off of the left rear, it was just shocking. When my partner saw it, I was admonished for having risked our lives, and advised to just put the tire back on and take it to a shop. Ha! It was a beautiful Spring day. Armed with a pair of pliers and an adjustable wrench, I went to work. It turned into an ugly Spring night two nights later.Fortunately, I had an auto parts store just down the street. Also fortunately, they stayed open late. I got the brakes off without much trouble and was feeling good about myself. When it came to taking off the wheel cylinder, the brake line was frozen in the fitting that screws into the side of the cylinder and snapped like a twig when I tried to take the fitting loose. Ah well. Brake line is easy to find. I would need a tubing cutter and a flaring tool. No big deal. O.K. Not O.K. I didn't pay enough attention, I guess, but the wheel cylinders I got were not exactly the same as the old ones. The difference was very small. The proper parts would arrive from the warehouse tomorrow. As the project was shut down for the day, I once again was advised to hire an actual mechanic.Next day. The proper parts in hand, the wheel cylinder part of the job was quickly finished. The brake shoe part of the job was just beginning. For those who have only encountered disc brakes, the complexities of the shoe brake system would quickly discourage them. An intricate system of springs and levers is involved. A pin goes through a hole on the brake shoe and then a retaining spring is used to hold the brake shoe in place. Putting this spring on this pin takes a pushing and twisting motion together with a holding of the pin so it doesn't turn that is tricky. My partner offered to help, but after a few unsuccessful attempts involving the flying off of the spring into the grass somewhere and some choice words describing the duties of a helper, the help went away.Eventually, the left side brakes were put back together and some lessons were learned. Oh yeah, another trip to the parts store was required to get more springs to replace the ones I lost in the yard and the ones that were old and broke when I stretched them out. Anyway, I thought I had learned. The right side presented a whole different set of problems and required more trips to the store. When I asked my partner for help on something, her reply was that the only aid I would get from her was to call a mechanic.I did get the truck back together but fixing the brakes turned into a thing I will avoid in the future. While I was lying under the truck fixing the brake lines, I noticed some other problems with rust and structural weakness, but hey, at least I can stop now.
