TR2/3/3A TR3 rear brake adjuster seized?

[karls59tr]

Had an issue with a rear brake shoe scraping against drum. Took a look and one of the brake adjuster hold down nuts had stripped off the stud causing the scraping. I've got two spare adjusters but both have one steel plug seized....probably the threaded adjusters are seized as well. I've had them soaking in penetrating oil for 24 hours but still can't free up the plug enough to tap it out with a punch. Might try heat next.....heat gun?.....boiling water?.....propane?.....adjuster is aluminum. Anyone have any ideas? Don't want the car off the road for two weeks waiting for a new one. :-(

 

[Twosheds]

I've had success freeing adjusters using the time-honored Holy Trinity:

The Hammer

The Torch

And The Aero Kroil


In reverse order.
Also Patience.

 

[Andrew Mace]

I don't think I've ever had a Girling adjuster that didn't respond to the old propane torch, followed by cleaning up and reassembly with some white lithium grease.

 

[angelfj1]

I don't think I've ever had a Girling adjuster that didn't respond to the old propane torch, followed by cleaning up and reassembly with some white lithium grease.

AND a little anti-sieze on the threads!

 

[Don Elliott]

If you're writing about the adjuster in the rear brake slave cylinder, the adjuster is made of steel in the aluminium casting for the main body. There are 4 flats on the hidden inside end of the adjuster and if the adjuster is half way between flats, it will lock the lining onto the drum. Maybe all you need is to get it loose as above and give it 1/8 of a turn to get it back on the flat, instead of the corner where it binds.

 

[Perrymip]

I like Don's suggestion above. It's not uncommon for those two pistons to become quite fixed in their position, and that will make the adjusting screw seem to lock when you turn the screw past the last easy flat. You will want first to concentrate on backing the adjusting screw off, then attack the two pistons. Usually a screw driver blade between the two will give enough leverage to break them loose.

 

[mtlman8]

just my opinion, but heat expands and cold contracts I have had more luck cooling things down to break them free more than heating them up...once moved an I beam with a fire extinguisher (all I needed was a 16th)

 

[TR3driver]

just my opinion, but heat expands and cold contracts

Thing is, in this case, we have an aluminum alloy outer housing, with a steel piston in it. Both will expand or contract with changes in temperature, but the aluminum does it faster. So if you heat it up, the clearance gets larger. Chill it, and the clearance gets smaller.

 

[karls59tr]

I used the Holy Trinity Method that two sheds recommended. I was freeing up seized piston and adjuster on a spare adjuster I had. Had to soak the adjuster for a couple days. Put the adjuster body in a vice. I put a small socket on the adjuster head and gently worked it back and forth till it was free.With the adjuster backed out I was able to access the piston with a center punch and hammer and heat from a propane torch....a lot of heat and some heavy shots with the hammer. the reason I had to change out the adjuster was that one hold down stud was stripped out and the nut gone and the other stud was bent. Further to different metal expansion rates: On the old sailing ships with cannons there would be a brass rack that held the cannon balls in a pyramid. This brass rack was called the"monkey". During extreme cold the iron cannon balls and brass rack would contract at different rates and the cannon balls would fall.......hence the expression "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey".

 

[Twosheds]

That's just how I have done, karls59.

I have had an adjuster in my vice for months, but I no longer have the energy to free it. It's for a 10-inch brake backing plate, so it's worth more than the ones for a 9-inch. Also the propane torch might not go well with my breathing oxygen...

 

[TR3driver]

On the old sailing ships with cannons there would be a brass rack that held the cannon balls in a pyramid.

Anyone who has ever sailed would recognize that as a myth. Heavy seas or even just hard manuevers are plenty strong enough to throw anything that is not nailed down up against the opposite wall! There is no way that any responsible captain would leave something as dangerous to his crew as a cannon ball, stacked in a pyramid and held only by gravity.