Leona
Bigger Hammer
Hi Folks
When I was around 5 yrs old, I was with my dad somewhere in the Los Angeles area. We were driving down a busy street and he saw a yellow Willys flatbed on a used car lot. He stopped and bought it and it was that truck that we used to move to northern Calif. shortly after that. About 5 years ago I saw a Willys flatbed sitting in a guys yard with a For Sale sign in the window so I stopped and bought it.
Now why a guy that is in serious contention for being the world's worst mechanic would do something like that is beyond me. Some-thing to do with being my dad's son I guess. I was smart enough not to try driving it home despite the fact that the fellow assured me that it ran. That wasn't a lie, really, it started up and ran just fine. It also heated up. Instead of tackling the heating up problem, I decided that I would start with something that I couldn't foul up. I decided to jack it up and take the wheels off and take them in and have new tires put on them. That's when I learned my very first Willys lesson: Some lug nuts come off one direction, some come off the other. Go Figure.
So that's the way it's been now for about 5 years.
I've got about a bazillion questions for you people but I'll start with an easy one. I decided to replace the emergency brake cable a year or two ago. I believe it's called a rear handbrake cable. It loops from one rear wheel up to an attachment on the front cable and then back to the other brake drum. I measured it when I took it out and purchased another the same length. I couldn't however get it to work so I bought another one,online, and I couldn't get it to work either. Duh. The problem isn't the total length of the cable The problem seems to have something to do with the length of the sheath around the cable. The ends of that sheath fit in some metal cups that are bolted to the bottom of the frame and the amount of bare cable that extends from the sheath to the brake drum is wrong. I believe they were too short. I tried making some brackets and moving the "metal cups" closer to the rear wheels and that sorta helped but it still isn't great. And yes, I ran the adjustment all the way out where the rear cable comes in contact with the front cable and then returns to the other side of the vehicle. So has anyone here had experience with a similar problem. I hope the answer isn't here, already, in the archives. I don't what to get my bum chewed on my first visit. Thanks in Advance, JIM
If anyone needs a new rear cable, I have an extra. I'll sell it to you for half what I paid.
When I was around 5 yrs old, I was with my dad somewhere in the Los Angeles area. We were driving down a busy street and he saw a yellow Willys flatbed on a used car lot. He stopped and bought it and it was that truck that we used to move to northern Calif. shortly after that. About 5 years ago I saw a Willys flatbed sitting in a guys yard with a For Sale sign in the window so I stopped and bought it.
Now why a guy that is in serious contention for being the world's worst mechanic would do something like that is beyond me. Some-thing to do with being my dad's son I guess. I was smart enough not to try driving it home despite the fact that the fellow assured me that it ran. That wasn't a lie, really, it started up and ran just fine. It also heated up. Instead of tackling the heating up problem, I decided that I would start with something that I couldn't foul up. I decided to jack it up and take the wheels off and take them in and have new tires put on them. That's when I learned my very first Willys lesson: Some lug nuts come off one direction, some come off the other. Go Figure.
So that's the way it's been now for about 5 years.
I've got about a bazillion questions for you people but I'll start with an easy one. I decided to replace the emergency brake cable a year or two ago. I believe it's called a rear handbrake cable. It loops from one rear wheel up to an attachment on the front cable and then back to the other brake drum. I measured it when I took it out and purchased another the same length. I couldn't however get it to work so I bought another one,online, and I couldn't get it to work either. Duh. The problem isn't the total length of the cable The problem seems to have something to do with the length of the sheath around the cable. The ends of that sheath fit in some metal cups that are bolted to the bottom of the frame and the amount of bare cable that extends from the sheath to the brake drum is wrong. I believe they were too short. I tried making some brackets and moving the "metal cups" closer to the rear wheels and that sorta helped but it still isn't great. And yes, I ran the adjustment all the way out where the rear cable comes in contact with the front cable and then returns to the other side of the vehicle. So has anyone here had experience with a similar problem. I hope the answer isn't here, already, in the archives. I don't what to get my bum chewed on my first visit. Thanks in Advance, JIM
If anyone needs a new rear cable, I have an extra. I'll sell it to you for half what I paid.