Well, the truck is proving to be a worthy adversary. I'm still working on it on the weekends, but I'm spending much less time on it than I could be, due to a voluntary rearrangement of priorities that are outside the scope of this blog. At any rate, Tropical Storm Fay gave me a good reason to hurry up and finish the shed. We got it together and loaded up with truck parts and lawn tools just in time for it not to get blown away. You know, by several inches of rain.
The storm gave me another day at home, so I cleaned out all the junk in the bed of the truck. This allowed me to weigh down the shed (and the trash can) with truck parts. I threw away years of trash, and looked at half of it and wondered why I had kept it so long. Of note, there was the rubber floor mat that I had taken from the parts truck nigh a decade ago, which due to improper storage had torn and broken and was no longer worth saving.
In addition to that, most of the weekend work has involved trying to pull that anchor pin out so I can finish that front right wheel, and working on running the new lines. The lines have been going in fairly well, though I think I may have gotten some air in the brake system. (That's a joke.) Mike and I have been cutting and flaring brake lines, and the back lines are done, as well as the long line leading to the back of the truck. Shockingly enough, today I was able to buy some clips to hold the lines in place at AutoZone. The real reason I was at the store, though, was to trade in the third breaker bar the truck claimed while we were trying the anchor pin again. They were out of stock of the 18" ones, so I traded it in towards a 24" one. This one looks pretty stout.
I came home and decided to re-evaluate my strategy. Obviously no mere breaker bar is going to break this one. I removed the anchor pin on the drivers side and examined it. I re-checked the cylinder to see if there was any way to rebuild it in place. The plan that came up with was one involving, brute force, cutting, and breaking. As usual. I decided to try to remove the old cylinder by breaking the loop off that was being held in by the anchor pin. This would accomplish three things- first, I'd be able to put the socket farther onto the bolt in my attempt to break it loose. Second, it would give me better access to the bolt threads, for direct application of lubricant. Third, and possibly most importantly, it would reduce the pressure on the bolt itself, which could make it easier to loosen.
I drilled into the loop from either side, them proceeded to hit the cylinder with a hammer until it broke off. Unfortunately, it didn't break where I had drilled, rather at the bottom of the loop. So the rest was driven out by drilling another hole at the top, and much beating with a hammer and chisel. As it turns out, this was what it took. The anchor pin has been removed (it came out rather easily), and now the brake can be rebuilt.
Oh, by the way, I missed my August 31st goal of having the brakes done, but I'm on vacation this week, so I expect to be finished before I have to go back to work.
