Rear brake binding

[claude van rouge]

Yet another little niggle with Blanche - but I think we're slowly getting her into good working order. I have a rear brake binding - having dismantled the brake I discovered a seized piston in the wheel cylinder - hopefully this will turn out to be the cause. Anyway my real problem was getting the brake shoes off, they were held on by a conical spring with a hook, is there a recognised way of dealing with these? I'm sure the method I used (levering the shoe against them and sort of unscrewing them was not the right way - but it worked). Although hopefully I will not have to take the shoes off again in the near future (but you never know with Blanche) I do have them to reinstall.

Clementines tech tips How to fit new rear brake shoes was very handy but doesn't cover this particular point in detail.

Chris

PS. Further questions - the rear brakes are bendix but the wheel cylinder has Lucas stamped on it - does this mean a Girling cylinder? And if so what is the difference between Bendix and Girling cylinders?

And I should have mentioned that Blanche is a French 1990 TL

 

[claude van rouge]

I think I may have answered some of my own questions - it dawned on me late last night that the main difference (only difference?) between the Girling cylinders and the Bendix is the type of fitting - Girling 10mm Bendix 3/8ths - mine seems to be 3/8ths.

Chris

 

[malcolm]

A lot of the aftermarket cylinders in the UK seem to be made by Lucas. That probably doesn't help, though good call about the threads - I'd noticed the bleed screws were different between Girling and Bendix, so it would make sense that all the fittings on the Girling cylinder are metric and all the ones on the Bendix are imperial.

I've a feeling the girling cylinder is a little wider too (pushes the shoes apart more). Also the bolt spacing is different between the two so it should be impossible to mix them unless someone has decided to do a little fettling of the backplate (it does happen - mine was like that when I bought it).

Only thing I can think of is the retaining springs are wrong or have lost their tension. It's possible to buy spring kits from Renault or motor factors for cheap, so that might be worth a try.

Remioving the spring clips that hold the brake shoes to the backplate isn't too bad. My technique is to stick a screwdriver or long nose pliers (anything that you can use to push the bottom rings of the spring without going alal the way through), extend the spring, and twist the end of the hole in the retainer. You'll need one hand behind the backplate to stop the other end of the retainer from pushing out.