Odyssey rear brake line replacement

The Honda van failed the state motor vehicle inspection on several counts . 

 So I figured I might as well start with the easy bit . Light my home built wood stove and back the car in the garage .

Seems the rear brake lines have succumbed to seventeen years of  winter road salt and calcium chloride. These are the short hard lines that goes from the flex line along the rear swing arm to the brake cylinder .

Easiest way to get them off is just snip them with a pair of dykes . That way you can get most of the rust off the fitting with a steel brush , as well as crimp the line shut so it don't leak all over the place and . . .

. . .  get your ten millimeter socket to fit . If you try removing it without cutting the line you can only use an open end wrench and that will usually mangle the fitting and then it will never come off . A bit of PB Blaster helped loosen things .

Once I had the offending piece on the bench I taped the fittings back on just to have an example of what I needed . Purchased some new 3/16 line but of course the offering from NAPA was too long .

After some measuring with a piece of wire, I determined the necessary length and cut the new pipe .

And deburred the inside edge of the cut pipe .

Then we need to add the flare back on the cut end . Traditionally we use one of these tools to do the job .

But for once I got lucky and found this splendid and rather expensive looking, Eastwood brand pipe flaring tool, among dad's arsenal . Truth be told it was a bit puzzling as I had never seen such a device ever . Hmmm , I think I can figure this one out .

After a bit of head scratching I selected the right size mandrel to fit the 3/16 pipe .

And setting the mandrel in the tool affixed in my bench vice , I set the pipe to the appropriate depth .

And clamped it all down tight . The idea here is to do a double flare. The first step should crush the pipe down on itself and effectively fatten up the end so it has a shoulder around the outside perimeter. So you select the correct mandrel from the rotating turret, and swage the captive pipe back on itself .

So that it looks something like this .

Then you rotate the turret and select the mandrel to swage the inner bevel on the pipe .

End result is something like this on the outside of the pipe .

And the conical bevel on the inside of the pipe . So far so good .

Then using this handy pipe bending tool I bought for fifteen dollars . . .

. . . we need to bend the pipe into some semblance of the original .

Kinda , sorta , like that ????

Hey that's not so bad , and it might just work .

After some further persuasion and a few choice words, it looks like it might do the job . Note this is the left side of the car . So this is the first side I actually did and the learning curve was a bit steep , thus the brake fluid over the back side of the backing plate .

As the brake shoes were a bit worn . . .

. . . I replaced those as well while I was at it .

I taught myself the easiest way to deal with those pesky springs is to put them on the shoes and then fit the shoes to the hub .

Not bad for a hack . I even remembered to take photos before I dismantled the brakes so I had evidence of how it all was supposed to go back together .

Then you bleed the brakes to get the air out of the line . Real handy with the one man brake bleed device . A bit of fiddly work to adjust the shoes so they are tight and the emergency brake actually works .  But I got it sorted after a couple tries . Next chapter we deal with replacing a broken engine mount , worn sway bar bushings , and a minor patch on an otherwise solid exhaust system .

Micarta

Micarta is a composite material typically made up of fabric or paper , bound together with two part resin like polyester or epoxy . The material was invented around 1910 and is used  mostly as electrical insulators and aircraft or marine pulleys . I have been tempted to experiment with it for a while .

Not half bad for a first try .

Started with a cheap three dollar knife from Wallyworld . The scales are cheap hollow plastic though the rest of it is not half bad . It could be improved by replacing the scales .

 So, some cheap burlap from an Indian rice sack .

Once layered up in epoxy  . . .

. . . and cured it results in something like this .

The basic idea is to lay up some pieces of the fabric on plastic or wax paper . . . .

. . . and using some polyester resin  . . .

. . . mixed to the right proportions of ten drops of catalyst to one ounce of polyester resin . . .

. . . you layer up the fabric with the resin . 

Once you have as many layers as you figure you want for your finished thickness , you wrap it up in your plastic sheet, and clamp it together for a couple hours between a couple pieces of wood .

And a couple hours later the results once trimmed on the table saw .

Experimented with a few other pieces of fabric remnants we had . . .

and even just some resin mixed with some of that paint flake used for finishing cement floors .

The possibilities are endless .

Final results here require a bit more sanding but it all makes for a much more solid and comfortable grip .
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Post script.. here is the second one of those I did 

Quasimodo came to live with us

Mom called last Thursday to notify me that she had gotten a quote from a bunch of gypsies to take down some more trees on her property and they were coming on Saturday morning to do the job . No contract, no insurance , you know the drill . Same bunch of dregs that run around offering to seal coat your driveway on a Sunday afternoon cause they have some left over from the job next door . They quoted seven hundred dollars a pop and they were not even going to clean up and chip the brush . Guess who gets to do that part ? . . . . Yes and I am not even done with the crap from last October's storm .
I tried my best to talk her in to delaying it a couple weeks until I could get a couple other quotes but she would not hear of it , no amount of reasoning and no matter how much I pleaded .
One of the trees in question was an 80 foot tall pine that stands about 8 feet away from the plastic boat barn where dad kept Quasimodo , the 1962 Volvo PV544 he left me when he passed in November. Mom had not even taken that fact in consideration . It left me no other option than to run out and buy a new battery and see if I could get the thing started before some knuckle dragging mooks with needle marks up and down their arms dropped a tree on it . We ran up to Freeport on Saturday morning and had to shovel it out from behind a four foot snow bank . After about forty five minutes of work and several false starts, I was able to coax it to life and make the thirty mile run to bring it home with me .

It now gets to live inside a real garage , and the daily drivers are out in the weather .

Original paint is a little rough in spots but has no rust .

Not what you call the prettiest girl on the block , but it is different enough it draws a good bit of attention .

Dad swapped the original B18 engine for the larger two liter B20

He also changed the original four speed  M40 transmission for the M41 with the Laycock de Normanville overdrive . It has been a couple years since we have able to get the overdrive to engage, limiting speeds to about sixty mph . So after I got it home I rolled the thing up on the ramps and put power directly to the solenoid that engages the overdrive and heard the telltale clicking indicating at least that part of the equation is operational . As the relays on the firewall are clicking when I move the switch I suspect the faulty part is the fourth gear cutout switch on the gearbox , which of course is completely inaccessible under the transmission tunnel . So I ran a couple new wires (the red ones running across the battery in the photo above) directly to the overdrive solenoid bypassing the cutout switch and the relays . . . .

. . . . . and tied them to a new toggle switch temporarily mounted under the dash , and took it out for a run on the highway . Hit the switch once in fourth gear and it shifts in to overdrive cutting rpm and decibels by a thousand allowing us to reach about seventy five mph and purr along at 2800 rpm . At which point things get a bit squirrelly as the bias ply tires are really not meant for those speeds .

If you are inclined you can read dad's lengthy account  about how he shoehorned the overdrive transmission in the PV here: http://www.vclassics.com/pv_od.html

Best mouse trap

Seems every fall we have an issue with field mice in the barn where we store dad's old 1962 Volvo . They find a way to get in and chew the small wires and the interior upholstery . They do a lot of damage . The overdrive is now non operative as they chewed the wire to the solenoid that engages it . To repair it I will need to disconnect the drive shaft and lower the transmission in order to access the top of the transmission where the wire was chewed . We have tried just about every deterrent in the book but nothing seems to stop the mice . So more aggressive methods were in order .

 Remove the wire handle on a five gallon plastic bucket and straighten it . Drill two holes near the edge on opposite sides of the bucket . With an ice-pick punch holes though the center of the ends of a beer can and thread it on the wire . Center it and add some small rubber O-rings to keep it centered on the wire . Slip the wire in to the holes you drilled in the bucket and bend the ends over to secure in place . Fill the bucket with about three inches of water . If you have below freezing temps use radiator antifreeze . Using a drywall screw and a two foot piece of wood add a ramp for the mice to climb up . And finally smear a thin ribbon of peanut butter around the middle of the can.

About one week's haul last November . They climb onto the can , it spins , they loose their balance and go for a swim . It is a simple system that keeps catching mice without need to be reset so you can leave it unattended for a few days and it keeps working . Works real well and seems to put a dent in the population that the local foxes don't seem to care to go after . So far it is the first year I have not found any mice inside the Volvo .