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Astra F rear brake auto adjuster

This seems like a rather hit-and-miss affair to me. I don't know whether the little arm is held in place by the cup spring washer, or whether the washer goes on first. When I opened it up, the whole mechanism was wired into place (and obviously no longer adjusting itself), presumably by someone who found himself in the same situation as me. But having re-assembled the thing as it was (without, of course, the wire; and with the arm held in place by the cup washer), I find that the arm is pulled too far towards the shoe, where it just slips under the adjusting arm, and is left dangling uselessly. I found an illustration that shows the cup spring washer going on first, and I can imagine that that arrangement might hold it sufficiently far away from the shoe, but then what keeps it on its little rod? Is there something missing here?

Reply to
Mr. Spigot
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is this your set up

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but in that picture there should be a spring going across the top (connects to the rod on the left) which you can see dangling on the right hand shoe.

Reply to
reg

Yes, that's the one.

Reply to
Mr. Spigot

little cup washer goes against the shoe, then the adjuster lever (thin metal plate) goes over it & this stops coming over the "pin" with the shaped rod.

Reply to
reg

Thanks. So this one was assembled incorrectly all along. I'll give it a go the proper way around.

Reply to
Mr. Spigot

Another illustration of the advisability of doing the brakes one side at a time, then you can compare the side you're doing with the (hopefully) correctly assembled side.

Steve

Reply to
shazzbat

I know, but in this case one brake had completely failed. I removed the drum, and lots of little metals bits (the remains of springs, bits of shoe, etc.) fell out. Unfortunately, the one that was left intact was not assembled correctly (wired into place, in fact). I presume that the other one wan't, either; and that might even have contributed to the failure. This is on my dad's car, which he bought a few months ago. I'd say he was lucky to be alive, since the failure left him with no brakes in the middle of town.

Reply to
Mr. Spigot

reduced braking, but not 'no brakes' . all vehicles have had dual circuit brakes since about 1970 and a bit

Reply to
Mrcheerful

Good point. Maybe there was something else wrong (front pipes full of air?). But it certainly sounds like he nearly shat himself at the time.

Reply to
Mr. Spigot

Your case is another that proves that before driving your secondhand car you should get a proper service and general inspection from someone trustworthy. I have seen newly bought secondhand cars cars with one brake pipe crimped over (because of a leaking cylinder), another with no front brakes at all because of a failed master cylinder, one with the brake adjusters welded solid, one where the discs actually wore through to the vents within weeks of buying, several with leaking master cylinders and the servo full of fluid (so it must have been using gallons of fluid for a long time), loads with frayed hand brake cables or seized cables, etc. etc. and that is just on the brakes dept. !!

Reply to
Mrcheerful

He bought it off someone who said they actually worked in one of the nearby exhaust/brake/tyre places. Either he's lying, or he just didn't want to bring his work home with him.

But yes, there's some scary bodges flying around out there.

Reply to
Mr. Spigot

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