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Rear wheel aduster issues???

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Brosky

Brosky

Great Pumpkin
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Anyone ever have the studs fall out of the rear wheel adjusters? I have two new ones and I was driving back from the body shop today and heard a bad grinding in the left rear wheel. I got home and pulled the wheel and drum and the adjuster was loose, but then I looked around the back of the backing plate to tighten it up and the studs are gone.

Luckily, I didn't destroy a new Alfin aluminum drum.
 
Things come in threes, first Julian loses a wheel, you lost an adjuster. What is next? Glad my car is in restoration.

To answer your question, I have never heard of this happening. Does not bode well for "new" parts. Perhaps over torqued or not seated properly?
 
Might I assume that the "new" ones are NOT genuine Girling? Never saw that happen before! I've also never replaced an adjuster, but I've saved more than a couple by heating them with a propane torch until they moved again, then disassembled and cleaned them up and put them back together with some white lithium grease.
 
Ray,

In three's huh? Have you forgotten my little involuntary front end renovation about two weeks ago? This makes three, but why did I have to have two????

No, I don't believe that it was over torqued or not seated properly. They were both lubed properly and installed with great care.

I won't know what went wrong until the new ones get here, but I am going out to the spare parts bins in the garage and look for my old ones that I put on about 10 years ago. They probably have about 6,000 miles on them and they will be taken apart and cleaned, just in case the new ones look crappy.
 

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Brosky said:
Anyone ever have the studs fall out of the rear wheel adjusters? I have two new ones and I was driving back from the body shop today and heard a bad grinding in the left rear wheel. I got home and pulled the wheel and drum and the adjuster was loose, but then I looked around the back of the backing plate to tighten it up and the studs are gone.

Luckily, I didn't destroy a new Alfin aluminum drum.
Click to expand...

I nearly lost the both the rear wheels on my GT6 one time. While I was replacing the brake pads on the rear a friend of mine said I should clean up the threads on the studs. He got out his tap & dye set and went work on all the studs.

A few days later I was driving home from work and heard a thumping from the rear. I pulled over and checked out the rear. One wheel only had 2 lug nuts the other wheel only had one and they were all loose. My friend had done too much 'cleaning up' on the threads. He had cut the threads down so much there wasn't enough thread left on any of the studs for the lug nuts to stay tight. I had to borrow a couple of lug nuts from the front wheels to use on rear just to limp the car home. Of course I replaced all the rear studs. Needless to say I never let my friend help with the car again.
 
Paul-

I was thinking the mounting studs failed, but in your picture, did the center adjusting screw fail? That is an awfully chewed up adjuster, very strange.

Oops, looked at it again, am I just seeing anti-seize in the center? Stud still looks intact, though.

Randy
 
Paul, I addressed cleaning them up in this post, "TR6 half-shaft removal", starting date 5.3.08. Perhaps it will be a little helpful....
 
Randy.

You are correct about the anti-seize. That pic was taken from my web site where I posted it to show that these need to be lubed before installing. And it is the two mounting studs that go through the backing plate that have disappeared.

I did find my original Girling adjusters. If the new ones are not Girling, I will put the originals back on. I just sprayed them with brake clean and they look like new, so no worries about having good replacement parts.

These are only simple four piece units. A housing, an adjuster screw, and two sliding slotted pistons that move the shoes outward or inward. Easy to clean and reassemble. I didn't see Kevin's post but it probably addresses just that.

The picture above shows the adjuster screw in place, but the pistons in each side are out to allow the lube to go in.
 
Mother of all that's sacred.... Those studs would be expected to be LOCKED into the adjuster body, no question!

This protends some safety issues with regard to supplier(s)... Now if I ever fit "new" adjusters, the studs will be GREEN LockTite mounted in 'em.

Doesn't matter which supplier they came from, they ALL get that part from the same "cottage industry" source. Anyone having fitted "new" adjusters needs to now pull 'em off and MOUNT the studs with green LockTite, IMO.

That's AWFUL. Be sure to call whichever vendor and apprise 'em of this potentially catastrophic failure.
 
Doc,

I agree. They SHOULD lock in tightly. And the housings are not cracked from over torquing. One way or the other, I'll either use my original Girling units or be sure that the new ones are solidly locked in before they go back on.

I may do some testing of the other side just for the heck of it when this is all said and done. I'll be curious to see if they are tight. They look it from under the car, but I haven't taken a wrench to them yet.

I'm really hoping that this was a fluke and it's just my run of bad luck as of late with the car.
 
It's more than threes. Last weekend, I had to spend some time fixing thunk in the rearend of my 6. The frame had cracked. It is a rust free AZ car.
 
Brosky said:
I may do some testing of the other side just for the heck of it when this is all said and done. I'll be curious to see if they are tight. They look it from under the car, but I haven't taken a wrench to them yet.
Click to expand...

Maybe just to be sure take off the nuts and use some Loctite on them before you put them back together. That way you'll be sure they won't come loose.
 
I understood it to be the studs into the body of the adjuster wot walked.
 
Paul, what did your supplier say? I would think they would be VERY concerned as this is a major safety issue. Most companies do not like lawsuits....
 
Let me clear up the confusion that I may have caused. It was the studs that are gone. I have not yet pulled it off, so I don't know if they have broken or fell out.

First picture is of RR backing plate with the adjuster studs showing and the nuts and compressed lock washers.

Second picture is of the LR backing plate with the adjuster in place, but no studs or nuts & lock washers.

Third picture is of the LR brake assembly and all of the aluminum shavings. Luckily, the bottom corner of the metal portion of the brake shoe only cut into the drum in an area that has no affect on the braking or contact surface.

And the last picture is a close up of the last time you will see a no name part in this position. My original Girling's are cleaned, lubed and ready to go on this weekend.

I have notified the supplier and they have sent new parts. After I receive them and get these off to inspect them, I'll contact the supplier with my findings. They said that they have had no such problems reported. I have no reason to doubt that and I will give them every opportunity to make this right. They are concerned and are anxious to see what the problem is so that they can take appropriate action.
 

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It's the material used in the BODY of the adjuster, Paul. My guess is they're POT METAL! The "to-and-fro" from brake application precipitated the failure. Look to the holes in the failed adjuster to ascertain whether or not they have a perceptable "ovality". I'm betting they DO.

...some detail photos of the offendiing bit and those holes would be nice. :devilgrin:

Just an old Level-II N.D.T. metal mite's opinion. :smirk:
 
Doc,

I had a 13 hour, nearly 300 mile day today and was just too tired to play with this tonight. I'll have this off soon and be sure that I'll have pics of what went wrong.

I'll bet that you're on the money about the ovality. I've heard from others that the threads are a hair too big and that this causes the problem after there is torque applied and the forces of the shoes moving to stop the car aggravate the situation.

Night-night!! From a tired old fart who hates looking at a wrecked car in his garage.
 
And here's an even wilder thought! The original part number for the washers under the nuts holding the adjuster was WN0707. The WN prefix indicates a "shakeproof washer" under Standard-Triumph terminology, which is what I tend to call a "star washer." I just double-checked one of my adjusters, and it happens to be an "internal tooth" version.

I don't know if this relates at all to the problem you had, but I did notice conventional (and thicker than the star version) lock washers on yours, and I'm just wondering if the OE star washer might be better in this application?
 
Andrew's correct...same adjuster and washer on the spitfire...definitely star lock washer not split lock washer.
 
OK, I'll go along with the star washer being OEM because that's what's on my originals.

Now let's assume that it's for a "shakeproof" assembly. So far so good, that keeps the nuts from falling off.

So where are the studs?
 
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