frozen wheel

Apr 28, 2004 3 Replies
A

i've been working on resurrecting a 68 oldsmobile that has been in storage in a fairly damp garage for the last 10 years.



the immediate problem is that one of the rear wheels is frozen. the owner tells me he thinks the parking brake was left engaged when he stored it. in the cabin, the parking brake lever is in the released position, but cannot be pressed in even with a fair amount of force.



my working theory is that the brake cable has rusted in the sheathing and (somehow) has also snapped. are there any other possible explanations for the seized wheel? anything i should look at the next time i get time with the car?



cheers, d



(btw, many moons ago i posted a question about why the ignition system wasn't working. the answer: corroded breaker point, which was fixed by light filing with an emery board!)


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S

or the shoes have frozen to the drum. Do you have the engine running yet? If so you can try to rock it back and forth by going from R to D to see if the shoes will break loose... 'course after ten years your whole brake system could be out in which case this would not be a safe thing to try (do you have still have pressure on the pedal?)

Other ideas: Rock the car back and forth in neutral with a few buddies on each end Use a heavy duty puller to see if you can pop them loose from the drum Back the adjusting screw all the way off to see if that will help loosen them

Steve B.

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A

we just got the engine going, and almost simultaneous to my post, another person involved got impatient and rolled it out of the garage in drive. so it seems like you're right: the shoes were frozen somehow.

the brake system appears to be working fine. we're going to look at that next, probably with a trained mechanic.

thanks for the response!

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