1967 Plymouth Barracuda

Archive for December, 2012

After installing new brake lines/master cylinder, it was time to bleed the brakes.  We pulled the rear wheels and were a little surprised by what we saw.  The rear drums are 11 inch drums, not the expected 9-10 inch drums.  It was strange to see…take a look at the pics.  The drum is not tight around the axle, heck, it’s not even close.  But the super strange part is that there are washers on the studs placed behind the drum to give it a little breathing room from the backing plate…that cannot be good.  I’ll need to figure this out.  Most likely get it back to what it was originally… 9 or 10 inch drums with correct shoes, springs and wheel cylinder.

Needed to replace the brake line from the distribution block to the back… the line was 47in. and the replacement piece was 51in.. didn’t want to cut it and have to flare it, so I created a little detour taking up the 4inches.

The z-bar needed modified as the rod to the clutch fork didn’t reach and the z-bar itself was a very, very tight fit.  The z-bar was cut in half and about 1/16 – 1/8 of an inch removed.  Then we fabricated a sleeve using some pvc pipe and some masking tape.  This allowed us to put the 2 pieces together and keep them lined up while we twisted the halves of the z-bar into the best position.  After we got it lined up, we marked it, tacked it with the welder and then ran a nice solid bead around the whole thing.  The weld was ground down, then the z-bar was primed and painted, then cleared.

Got the engine and forward light harness mostly figured out.  Installed the fan… Getting closer to firing it up.