adamdinat

One down One to go! This has been an experience.The purchase of an impact wrench has move this project along. Still I needed to heat the caliper bolts to get them out. Making no progress I decided to try and split the caliper halves. These came apart nicely revealing the mounting tabs for the rear half of the caliper I was now able to apply heat directly to where the bolt threads in instead of a small corner visible with the caliper assembled. One of the bolts was so rounded off i needed to grind off the head and slide off the caliper. I am soaking that one now. After almost 2 hours with the saws all I was still not through one side of one bolt yet so I decided to give it a rest. This afternoon I applied a new strategy and was able to pry out the some shims. Yup there was the bolt cut clean through. I was just hacking away at the shims. Sticking a chisle in the other side I was able to relieve the pressure on the other shims and get them out. That bolt took 5 minutes. Things don't look too bad. The rot in the pocket appears to be all surface rust. The stuff i was pulling out was mostly what was left of the shims. The emergency brakes look ok with plenty of meat on the shoes. They are just real dirty. I may clean them up. and reassemble them. The drivers side is next weekend. One of my problems there is the brake line is original and is stuck at both ends. I just cut it to move things along but will have to get it out. Any suggestions for that problem? You can bet I will make getting shims out the first priority this time. What a job! :banghead: :cuss :cuss :smash: :cuss :smash: :smash: :cuss :hurray:


[Modified by adamdinat, 7:41 PM 3/23/2003]

OldSchool

I am doing the exact same job, and am in the exact same place!! I have the drivers side out and am going to do the passengerside next week.. Air tools are a beautiful thing!! When you can get the hammer in there!! Are you going to pull the half-shafts too? I need to <want to> replace the u joints while i'm in there.. My project started as an Ebrake cable replace, and has just spiraled..T Arms rebuilt,shocks,u joints, calipers, rotors, pads..Now I'm thinking about the spring..Good luck, and know someone else is 'wrasselin'' with their car just like you!!! :smash: :thumbs:

NHvette

:cheers: Adam !!

That's one hell of an undertaking. Did the strut rods come out OK ? Those are
usually seized up good. I bought 2 rebuilt assemblies a few years back, and I
didn't even attempt to pull the steel arm. I just swapped all the new parts
over and saved the T-arms for another day (real soon).

Good luck. From all the posts I've read, you are doing it one of the easiest
and fastest ways.
:seeya

Paul Borowski

If I'm not mistaken here, as I did my '68, '80 & '75's rear wheel bearing/e-brake items a few years ago, but where the "cable ends" go into what looks like a "U" on it's side(at t-arm), this piece is like a clevis which swivels. Every one I've done this clevis(which the cable end pulls, then in turns spreads the e-brake shoes)has been completely siezed up and frozen(aka RUSTED)to the point where the e-brake cable could'nt PULL because it was siezed. I believe the backing plate has to be removed to get to this clevis piece. What I did do temporarily one time was to slot or cut the backing plate so I could remove this "clevis" piece, but I would'nt recommend doing it this way though.

adamdinat

My half shafts look brand new so the previous owner did those when he replaced the spring. My purpose in this repair is to be able to align the rear end and fix the emergency brakes. I am going to have someone check the rear wheel bearings and if they are ok I am going to stay out of there for now. I will be using lots of antisieze upon reassembly.


[Modified by adamdinat, 10:51 AM 3/24/2003]