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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Stuck rear brake adjusters

Had a rear brake drum off this afternoon to check the shoes.
There seems to be plenty of meat left on them and as the hand brake has a lot of travel I tried to adjust them. Stuck solid. I've tried a judicious squirt if WD40 but still stuck. I'm loathe to apply too much force as I don't want to shear the square end of the adjuster.
Any ideas would be welcome.
Roger D

Heat?

And try a proper penetrating fluid. WD40 isn't one.
GuyW

Roger,

I had the same problem and I was reluctant to apply too much force or take a blowtorch to them for fear of making things worse but when I did do it it was easier than anticipated. They are easy to round off because you can't get a proper grip of them, even with the proper adjuster spanner, they are not a good enough fit to apply that amount of force.

I liberally sprayed them with release oil, not WD40, in the days beforehand but they were still stuck, and I too felt that I was going to round off the adjusters. Once I had new replacement adjusters to hand I got to it with the blowtorch. A little heat to start, give it a try, then more heat, another try and so on till they freed off. Don't apply too much heat too soon and try to turn them both ways. In the end it didn't take a lot.

After cleaning the threads in the backplate with a little brass wire brush (actually a suede shoe brush) the replacements still didn't fit and screw as well, or easily, as the old ones. So I painted the threads of the backplate and adjuster with Copaslip and refitted the old ones, turned them through and through several times.

They adjusted up fine, not stiff and I could still feel the 1/4 turn "flats" and I can use my adjuster spanners without thinking they're going to round off the peg.

Actually, now that I've typed this I must check them this weekend.

Cheers
NigelB
N Broomfield

After many hours of heat and penetrating fluid I ended up welding the thread of a spare bold to it and the with two nuts managed to turn it though the hole. It took me about 4 hours to do!
James Paul

Thanks for the suggestions, seems like there is no magic easy trick!

I'll try some PB blaster.
Roger D

When you get the adjuster free, remember that you have to remove it from the front (brake shoe) side of the backplate. It will not come out of the back.

Good luck!

Jon
Jonathan Severn

Plus Gas in a tin, cheapest I can find but the p&p is steep so ordered two. Will last me forever,
https://efix.uk/eac803-plus-gas-500ml-spout-tin

Jeremy MkIII

This thread was discussed between 27/09/2022 and 29/09/2022

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