In preparation for a trip to Red Deer, Alberta and back next week in my 78,
I decided to do a little maintenance on it today. I'd noticed a little
front brake squeel now and then over the past couple of weeks so I thought
is was likely time for new brake linings up front. I'd done the rears
recently so it was unlikely those were worn out. I dropped by my local
Parts Source store and the nice man sold me some nice new linigs. On the
way home I also stopped my the car was to scrub the big guy down a bit. I
got the car all washed nicely and was backing out of the wash bay when I hit
the wiper switch to clear the windshield. The wipers made one cycle up then
down then half way up, made a clunk and thud and stopped dead.
When I got home, before I could even start on the brakes, I knew I had to
get those wipers going or this car would be going nowhere on Tuesday. To
aid in accessing the wiper linkage, I had a friend come over and help me
remove the hood. This is tricky and can cause some major paint damage if
you are unfamiliar with the process (as my friend was so I ended up with
huge scratch on the left fender) so I don't recommend it to just anyone.
The hood can also be tricky to realign again upon reinstallation. After I
got the hood removed, I removed the chrome strip at the bottom of the
windshield and the black plastic grilles over the coul openings. I could
easily see that the linkage had simply fallen off the motor eccentric drive.
The parts that holds those two parts together is a soft plastic part that
simply press fits onto the motor eccentric as well as the linkage arm. I
was able to get a replacement part from my 78 NYB parts car (the 78 is the
only year that will do as it was the first year for intermittent wipers in a
NYB and the non-intermittent systems have a different motor and eccentric
assembly). I pressed the new part in place, washed the crap out of the cowl
area, replaced the cowl grille and the chrome strip then replaced the hood.
I took this opportunity to replace the hood with the correct Newport hood
since I intend to convert the car back to its original Newport appearance
over the next few weeks.
I noticed that with the new part, the wipers work far better than they ever
did. They now park perfectly, something they never did since I owned the
car.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
After all that, and after I fetched some food from Wendy's, I raised the
front of the car and began to service the brakes. I'd noticed a slight pull
to the left upon braking so I thought it might be time for a caliper or two.
I took the right wheel off first and noted that I was unable to push the
caliper piston back in order to fit it over the new linings so I assumed it
was stuck (explaining the pull to the left). I had a pair of (apparently)
good calipers that I got from my 76 T&C (that car just keeps on giving!) so
I replaced the caliper with one of those. The piston moved freely so I
installed it and bled the brakes.
I moved to the left side and did the same thing. I noted that this piston
was also apparently stuck. I installed the second caliper (that looked
brand new), bled the system again and reassembled the brakes.
I went for a little test drive around the block and I noted that the car
still pulls ever so slightly to the left on medium brake application but
nothing like before. I also noted that the brakes seemed a little
spongy...maybe spongy is the wrong word. The brakes are very consistent but
the pedal moves farther down when braking is all. I hope it is just that
the new linings have yet to break in against the existing rotors.
I am exhausted but it was a productive day all in all.
Back to the Home of the Forward Look Network