Bring a 356 to the UK

[neilbardsley]

I'm going to have a look at the brakes this weekend with my brother in law (who thank goodness is better mechnically than me). The rear left brake is making a tinny noise under braking. Strangely it doesn't happen all the time and not immediately as I get in the car since when I tried to demo it to my brother in law it didn't make the noise!!

Roy was kind enough to suggest this

"How old are your flexible hydraulic hoses?
and when last did you check all the wheel cylinder operation? Hoses after years can start to close on the oil delivery holes so the brakes drag and sticking or worn cylinders cause no end of problems with uneven braking.
The linings unless totally worn out or contaminated with brake fluid from a leaking cylinder are the 3rd items to check.
Of course presume your wheel bearings have the right adjustment as well as the front geometry. A lot of things can influence straight braking."

All I know is that the rear brakes were serviced by Jack Staggs in Nov 11 (I bought the cars in Jun 12)

So I thought that I would replace the hoses & check the cylinder as a first step.

So I had a look on PRS for a hose and was surprised by the length (maybe the picture is bad)? I had assumed the master brake cylinder was somewhere need the front so would need a longer hose?



Can I only bleed one brake? Do I need any special tools? Lets assume that the cylinder is the issue and it's a bit stuck. Can it be as simple as taking it off wd40/greesing it then putting it back on?

[neilbardsley]

Roy gave me a nicely detailed response on this and pointed out that I needed a 400 ft lbs torque system to take off the axle nuts. Now having never used a torque wrench before I had no reference for what 400 ft lbs meant. However, last evening we started to assemble our play Ford engine and we had to torgue some of the bolts to 90 nm which was hard enough. Then I mentioned to the instructor about 400 ft lbs and he said I must of heard incorrectly.

What do others do have a wrench for torquing normal stuff and an air gun. I found some air guns and compressors on line but I was struggling to find any with variable torgue settings?

[hot66]

neil, have a look at abrake line schematic , you'll see there are hard lines ( copper , kunifer) that run from the master cylinder ( located behind the pedal) to the front & rear ... the flexis you have bought are only used where the lines have to go from the chassis to the moving part of the suspension. It will all be obvius when you have a look under the car.

The rear axle nut .. make sure you have a beefy enough socket and breaker bar + a length of scoffold tube or similar and make sure the car is chocked, in gear & with the handbrake on. You don't use a torque wrench to undo things.

To refit ....... Not many of us have a torque wrench that goes up to the level required. I use a piece of scaffold pipe on the breaker bar. To calculate the correct torque, I weigh myself in kg , then mark on the bar where I need to stand on it ( or hang off) ..... torque is length x force .... so 400Nm is approx 80kg weigh standing 1/2 meter along the bar

http://www.convertunits.com/from/kg-m/to/newton-meter

This gives approx correct torque ( you can also do this the other way of standing on some weigh scales & measuring how mush force you are using to tighten the nut by seeing how much your 'weight' increases as you lift the breaker bar .. then just tighten until you can get the split pin into the hole

[Andy m.]

How about using a torquemeister tool, you can undo a rear hub nut pretty easily on a bug using one of those, but Ive never tried doing a 356, ssp sell them for about £80,

cheers

andy

[neilbardsley]

Looks like the torque meister has 12mm holes and 14mm holes are needed for a 356.

http://porsche356registry.org/356talk/1/28874.html

However, the breaker bar method looks doable.

[neilbardsley]

Roy was kind enough to send me some pictures/instructions which I printed out and put on the desk with the manual. However, I left them there rather than taking to Daventry with me. Doh!

However, I had the car raised over the weekend. I checked the rear wheels first and they seem to be sticky a little. In particular the rear left wheel is catching. As I moved it around by hand it moved freely then catch/slowed. I'm guessing this means that the brakes need adjusting as the shoes are touching the drum. However, I don't think the cylinder or lines are at fault because I put the brakes on (and the handbrake too) and the wheel ran the same as before. The rightside rear wheel runs better but neither of the rear wheels run as well as front wheels which spin very freely when turned.

Is this normal do front wheels generally turn better because they aren't connected to the drive chain? I didn't check that there wasn't any lateral play in the wheel (ie the bearings) but will next time. I took the car out for a 15 mins spin and it ran and braked well. I also tried to wb40 then greese bit under the car.

So next weekend check the lateral play and see if I can do a basic adjustment (I didn't want to attempt this without the manuals) to move the shoes on the rear wheels.

[neilbardsley]

Hopefully rear brakes sorted. In the end it was a pretty easy procedure however there where a couple of lessons.

1) Get a jack with a long lever and good height. The small one I got which will lift 2.5ton but had such a small lever that I was also reaching under the car when jacking didn't make me feel comfortable. In addition it only went to 36cm high and I actually needed a little more to get one of the wheel off the ground. So I had to use my Halfords Trade Card and I bought a large jack for £40. Pictures to follow.

2) Once I had the car up the procedure is pretty straight forward.

a) Take the hub caps off
b) rotate the wheel until the hole in the wheel aligns with the front or back adjusting screws. Mine where botton near the bottom of the drum.
c) lossen, the manual tells you which way, until the wheel turns by hand and you can't feel/hear it catching.
d) I put a bit of greese on the pin on the locking nut before replacing the hub cap
e) take for a test drive to ensure that the car still stops

[neilbardsley]

I continued my pre/check of the car for the DDK European Trip. The car drove well back up from London to Daventry however I noticed that the rear right light wasn't coming on. After an investigation we (brother in law) & I concluded it was blowing the 8amp fuse straight away. We took out the light fitting & cleaned it. Check that the positive in wasn't earthing to the body. Then measured 6 volts & 9.7 amps to the light. The manual says 8 to 15 amp for the fuse so a bit strange that we had a 8 fitted? We fitted a 16 (it was the next one up in set I have. Strange that it's working ok on the other side on a 8 amp fuse? Well I have lots of fuses for the trip.

[roy mawbey]

Neil,

Fuses 7 and 8 control both red rear lights, the licence plate lights and the side lights in the headlights. These fuses are bridged to allow connection to the dash panel light switch.

Maybe I am wrong, but a fuse failure of either 7 or 8 would not just affect the one red light?

The rear light cluster has an earth strap at the rear. A faulty light at the rear can be sometimes a faulty earth. The earth wire is a strap rather than a single wire.

I would not increase the fuse value on one of those 7 or 8 fuses. Are all those other bulbs as mentioned above working on the right side of the car?

Did you clean the contacts as well on the fuse panel?

Maybe a good auto electrician on here could advise, maybe your rear licence plate holder earth should be checked as well.

Only my thoughts Neil, maybe someone else can chime in here. Not much fun if miles from home you only have one back light again.

Roy

[neilbardsley]

Apologies what do you mean by a strap earthing the rear cluster? On the light were looking at there was only a positive in & the body of the light fixture connecting to the body?

Did you clean the contacts as well on the fuse panel?

No but I will

Maybe a good auto electrician on here could advise, maybe your rear licence plate holder earth should be checked as well.

OK will do

[roy mawbey]

Neil,

I forgot, you have an early A with beehive rear lights I guess. Mine are tear drop versions as mine is a late A. Even so the light must be earthed I presume you looked underneath at the back of the light to see if the earth is there? Mine has a thin metal strap say 100mmx 12mm x 0.5mm thick. Yours might just be a wire.

The main live wire might also have a break in it somewhere?

Roy