Brake Cam Lever. cotter pins & bushes

[Ruairidh Dunford]

I remember you talking about doing this before Ian - nice work!

[Urgent Austin]

Sorry to reawaken an old thread, but this may have just saved my sanity...so there are thick brake bushes, and there are thin brake bushes!

Last weekend I knackered three oilite brake cam bushes trying to fettle them to size. I assumed that everyone else was just a more skilled fettler than yours truly!  It took me a step further to getting a lathe, that's for sure!

I did notice that one of the bushes I took out, or at least its mortal remains, were not bronze.  So now I know - zinc.  The one I took out was perforated, or perhaps just dinged, with lot of little dents.

I re-bushed a crossshaft a few years ago and used a bit of zinc spring interleaving to do that.  So I assume the same would work here, provided it's the right gauge?  No "special" quality of zinc required?  I'm always a little nervous going off piste with brakes.  Most other experiments, if they go wrong, cause the car to STOP going.  Brakes, on the other hand...

[JonE]

another thread re-awakening (and this is another thread which goes well with the other recent brake one).

Do I assume that newly supplied (A7C, A7W etc) brake cams are only for use in new thicker bushes... and that one can't just pop one into an original 'ole to replace an original (wrong) cam?

["Slack Alice" Simon]

The cams are the same, whether the bushes are thick or thin.

Like Ruairidh, I drilled mine out to take the usual bushes.

I think the originals were a sort of honeycomb zinc.

I like originality, but I also wanted it to be an easy fix, if needs doing again.

Simon

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Hi Chris

Looks like a thick walled bush.  

No, you are not Girling equipped.

Sometimes you can push the old bush out using a new bush and a piece of tube big enough for the old bush to slide inside on the far side, all lined up on the biggest bolt that will go through the lot.

Wind it all together with a nut and maybe a suitable washer or two, the old bush is pushed out by the new one.

Sometimes this method just starts damaging the new bush because the old one doesn't shift.

If a bit of heat doesn't work, I (carefully) cut through the old bush with a hacksaw blade which allows it to collapse and come out.

Simon

[Bob Culver]

Just as I consider a post on steering arms should be repeated at regular intervals, so should Peter Britton's post about pressing out cotters. I suspect most resort  to hammers without even considering the press option.

[JonE]

Thanks Simon. I understand now.
I read on one of the other threads about the cotter direction and note R's 'front (Austin) cotter nuts forward, rear cotter nuts rearward'. Could someone explain precisely why the wrong cotter pin direction makes a difference please? Or is it linked to indicating whether the cam is the right one?

["Slack Alice" Simon]

Its obvious when you try it - because of the angle on the cotter, it makes the lever slope forward if it goes in one way, and backwards if it goes in the other.

Not by a lot, but enough to stop the lever being in the best position, if its in wrong.

And with Austins, every little helps.

Simon

[Ruairidh Dunford]

I found that semi Girling brake cotters should be fitted in the opposite direction to Austin brake cotters. I.e. nuts rearward on the front levers etc.

["Slack Alice" Simon]

I've sent you a PM, Chris

[Graham Honnor]

I found that semi Girling brake cotters should be fitted in the opposite direction to Austin brake cotters.  I.e. nuts rearward on the front levers etc.

...and nuts frontwards of the rear levers?

I'm just asking as if this is the case then my fronts are correct and the rears aren't on my '37 Ruby system.

Thanks for any help.