An-nd back into the shop. Still no anchor pins but have enough to the passenger side. Had already set the e-brake cable into its pocket so todays was about hanging the shoes. Come to find out that the spring that wraps the e-brake cable between the lever end and the backing plate pocket was too long and kept pushing the back shoe off the plate. So, very, very, carefully, I used my trusty Dremel to, one by one, clip coils from the spring to shorten it by about an inch. The remaining amount still covers and protects the cable ,length inside the brake drum but it looks like i get a little more adjustment available to me out at the 2 into 1 plate.
That sorted out, the rest of the assembly went fairly smoothly until....(insert ominous music here) I found out that the retaining plate that sits on the upper pivot stud, looks like a heavy washer with ears, and both holds the shoes down and acts as a locating washer for the springs had gone MIA. No sign of it anywhere on the floor. Had not apparently made it to the layout cloth where all the new parts were sitting according to how they went into place. Not on the paint stand. Not in my wrench drawer, where I tend to stash things that I do not want to wander off. NO Joy.
Plan A was new aftermarket; Not. Plan B would have been new from the dealer but around here you can't get parts for a five year old car, never mind a 35+ year old car, so scratch that. Did phone my yard and John thought that he might have a few kicking around somewhere; have to phone him again tomorrow So on to Plan C; that being hit the rear end rack and harvest one from one of the 10 bolts that I had hung onto. Get to the rack, an exercise in itself, and pull one drum, and no joy, its guts were long gone, probably from before I scored it from the salvage yard. On to the next unit and eureka, still intact and one there for the snatching. it is on the paint stand and freshly black for tomorrow. Anything that I score from the yard will be used as a replacement for the one I robbed to put that assembly back together.
Which still leaves me with the conundrum of WTF happened to the original one? Part of me thinks it just turned sideways,slipped through a crack in time, and will re=-appear some time in the future. Another aspect wonders if it was ever in there to begin with. Pretty sure it should have been but not being there would explain the bent anchor pin as no plate would let the shoe try to kick out and away from the backing plate during braking. If so, then when and where it go awol? Had to have been at least a decade ago and could easily coincide with the introduction of the mismatched brake drums if someone had tried to do a shade tree brake job and had parts disappear in the grass or the gravel. Those drums, by the by, are both GM 10 bolt but one looks like those on the Cutlass 10 bolt while the other resembles the Monte unit. Might both have been aftermarket and just from different manufacturers; Made in America back then did not necessarily equate to being made identically.
So tomorrow has become a parts run day. AT Least I can now get into the stores and the yard to deal directly for stuff. ##&^&*^%$& n^%@#$#*&^ lockdown sucked/sucks.
Nick
