Mr. Wolf thought I’d like to hear the sweet sound of the 2.25 liter diesel engine that will drag my saggy ass around town. He’s been working long and hard on getting the engine right. If you look closely you’ll see some smoke. Not as much smoke as the mosquito fogger that patrolled our streets during the summer nights of my youth… but a little smoke. What the fuck, I’ll buy some carbon credits. I’m hoping there will be less smoke once the engine gets some miles on it. That will happen as soon as he gets the brakes sorted out.
When I opened the brakes up I found some things I didn’t like, so I’ve ordered all new OEM wheel cylinders, new adjusters, and new shoes. Even high quality parts are so cheap for this thing I figured we should just start fresh with nice parts.
If you don’t know shit about old trucks, and I don’t, you need someone like Mr. Wolf. You’d like to think the folks doing the restoration would get everything right… but they don’t.
Thank you, Mike, for pointing this out. The guys at Lucra said they had fixed the brake but clearly had not. We found a number of “issues” when my buyer inspected the truck. We sent it back to Lucra with a list of things that needed to be fixed. Most of those were, but not all. My guy in SF is still finding stuff. This project has been… educational. Once everything is fixed, and I have the truck, I’ll check out the forum again. And when I find new problems, I might be tugging at your sleeve. :)
Steve – In your earlier pictures of the restoration, the brakes were not setup correctly, which would cause the perception that it needed new wheel cylinders. This was pointed out on the GNR thread thread you started last summer – did you share that info with Lucra so they could address?
– upper red spring goes to a post on the backing plate – then to the leading shoe’s spring post (the spring does not attach to both shoes – and, it does not use either of the holes as shown in the picture).
– lower black spring is in the right location but should hook from the inside – out so the spring sits inside the shoes.
Also – the trailing shoe anchor plate should be bolted to the trailing shoe on all brakes – your fronts were correct. Rear looks like it’s attached to the leading shoe.
Hand throttle. For use on super low gear.
What was the switch he flipped?
I have severe truck lust.