It all started with a post-purchase check...
Here's the nearside rear brake backplate. Spot the problem. As well as the brake slave cylinder being installed upside-down, there's brake fluid on
the inside of the wheel and out across the tyre. You can see it's leaking brake fluid down the backplate.
I take off the wheel and remove the brake drum. All the bits seem fairly new, but they could have been there for years, because the car has hardly
been used. Everything is soaked in brake fluid. This needs to be fixed before I can take the car out again.
Using my handy alternative parts list, I find that all of these brake components are Triumph TR4 - I go online and order 2 new wheel cylinders and a full set of brake shoes for £60 or so.
First, I spray some degreaser on the inside of the wheel and the brake drum, to remove all the brake fluid, and then hose them off and dry them in the sun.
Dismantling the brakes - the first step is to remove the brake shoes. There are two spring clips with pins through - grip the pin with pliers, push back and turn, and out they come. Then I use a pair of pump pliers to lift the shoes off the cylinder and adjuster, taking care to disengage the handbrake lever. Note the position of the ssprings and off they come too.
The adjuster can stay, but I do back it off a few turns to assist in reassembly later.
Right, now for the wheel cylinder. First step is to loosen the brake hose a wee bit, while the cylinder is still on the car - it's won't come off because the hose is fixed to the cahhsis and it won't unscrew enough without kinking. Then I remove the clevis pin on the end of the handbrake cable - it's held in place by a split pin that has mostly disappeared, but I manage to file off the bit that's left and extract the pin.
Then I have to disconnect the cylinder from the backplate. It's held on by 3 sliding clips that interlock behind the backplate - Nos 113, 114 and 115 in this diagram from a parts suppiers' website. You need 3 screwdivers in 3 hands, and a full vocabulary of swear words, to prise the prongs apart and get a putty knife or something in between 113 and 114, so that the prongs can slide over - then with your 4th and 5th hands, use a punch and hammer to knock no 115 upwards until it pops free. Clip no 113 can't come out yet because the handbrake lever is in the way. Part no 114 is missing entirely from my car...
With two of those clips removed, this leaves you enough space to pull the cylinder out a bit and remove the wee handbrake lever, then you can remove the third clip and separate the cylinder from the backplate. I hoped that the cylinder would pull forward enough so that it could be unscrewed from the end of the hose, but it doesn't - the hose fitting doesn't fit through the hole in the backplate. So I disconnect the hose at the other end and remove the lot, then unscrew the hose from the cylinder and fix it back to the car, clamped, to prevent brake fluid running everywhere.
That diagram also explains the reason that the wheel cylinders look as though they are upside down. On the TR4, the cylinder goes sideways, and the shoes are to the front and rear of the backplate. The bleed screw is at the same level as the brake hose. The Vixen has the same assembly, but turned through 90 degrees, so now the bleed screw is below the brake hose...
Anyway, now the backpate looks like this, ready for new cylinder and shoes...
While the wheel cylinder looks like this... In this photo, I have removed the bleed nipple from its original "Triumph" position and tried it in the
hose inlet - they appear to be exactly the same including the conical sealing surface inside.
and this photo shows the rest of the bits that make up a rear brake!
While I'm manky, I go to the other side of the car and loosen the brake nipple and brake hose connector, then remove the brake hose from the connection and bracket on the car, at the other end. I remove the hose and bleed nipple, swap them over and tighten them up, then refit the hose connector to the rest of the braking system.
Sorted - hose on the bottom and nipple on top!
Now I really can't do any more until the bits arrive, except order up a cylinder fitting kit so that I can obtain the missing clip.
A few days later, with all the new parts delivered, it's time to put it all back together. I'm not going to go through this step-by-step, suffice to say that I got the wheel cylinder fitted after ages fighting with the 3 spring clips that hold it to the backplate, then remember to fit the wee rubber gaiter before connecting the handbraake cable and the brake hose. Fit the brake shoes and drum and adjust it up till just before it's tight.
Then I remove the drum and fit new shoes on the other side - there's nothing wrong with the shoes on that side, but I don't want to only do half the job, eh?
Next task is to bleed the brakes. I try using the vacuum pump method, but there's so much air that it's just not pulling fluid through... so back to the old (and best) way. I engage the services of my glamorous assistant (who is well accustomed to putting the brakes on things) to stomp the pedal while I open and close the bleed valves. I go round all the wheels twice, and the pedal feels nice and firm...
After a short road test of around 20 miles, the brakes feel crap after the Range Rover, but they do stop the car well, and in a straight line, if you press a wee bit harder.
Back home to tidy up a week's worth of random tools and other shit from the garage floor.