Thread: Ahhhh... The little things

Tweet

I have a 1971 C10 that sees very little drive time. We bought it for my son Ryan when he graduated from high school to haul dirt bikes and such. He used it a lot until he went to college and then the reality of a vehicle that gets 13 MPG set in and he started driving a Ford Escort (30 MPG). The dirt bikes are long gone and the truck has lived at our house for years as Ryan is now 39 and has his own family and no extra parking space at his place (about 40 minutes drive from us).

A couple years ago, I bit the bullet and had the truck taken down to bare metal and repainted. Ryan picked the color (2018 Jaguar metallic blue – very pretty) and since that time it’s been in my driveway or garage. Joanie and I will occasionally take it to Home Depot to pick up lumber or to the nursery for plants but it didn’t see a thousand miles last year.

The last time I drove it, I heard a strange sound from the rear end – and the “Brake” light came on. It has drum brakes and sure enough, they needed some attention. I was proactive and bought shoes and a couple AC-Delco “complete rebuild/spring sets” from the local NAPA folks and on the rare sunny day here in Tigard, I dug in. I had forgotten how much “stuff” is behind the brake drum. Eight springs (color coded) and all the self-adjusting mechanism. Good news, the kit from AC-Delco was 90% what I needed – bad news, it did not include specifically: a strut spring (the oval shaped blue spring with an extra curly-cue) that keeps tension on the parking brake strut). A return visit to NAPA (at 4:40 Saturday afternoon) confirmed that these springs were not part of the kit nor does NAPA have a listing for them. Fortunately (and one of the reasons I like this particular NAPA) the guy behind the counter said, “Let’s take a picture of the broken one and search the web.” In 30 seconds he had found the little beggar - -at Amazon. Six bucks and delivered the following Tuesday. I bought two, which ended up being two sets so I have “extras” to put in my little plastic box labeled “Drum Brakes Springs” that contains lots of springs, pins and clips from fifty years of wrenching on various cars.

Today I put one side back together. I don’t remember those springs being so stiff the last time I did drum brakes - probably 20 years ago! I’m 73….. I’ll do the other side on Tuesday as we’re supposed to have a 70 degree day!

Ah the little things… like having the exact spring.