Yes, they were open wires that frayed on the right angle turns at the end of the tunnel then again to go down the radias arms pivots, always plastered them in grease. I had a mate who would throw his mini into a bend then yank the handbrake and skid the back wheels to complete the sharp turn.
Bloody thumper of an engine…deutz of course, still make air cooled diesels, although the smaller ones are generally badge engineered
Always thought that era of Rootes vehicles had real style.
Moskvich was at the bottom? Maybe the Polski Fiat - derived from the Fiat 125 but with the old pushrod engine - would have slotted in pretty much next in line. We used to get them through with no oil in the gearboxes or diffs - presumably the ones with no oil in the engine didn't make it as far as the ship? and we even had one where the actuating rod in the servo - yes it had a servo! - was adjusted (or not adjusted) so far out that the recuperating port in the master cylinder wasn't being uncovered. Result? The day after the customer took delivery of his lovely new car one of the lads had to go out to him at the end of Princess Street where the car was immovable with the brakes "jacked" fully on. He didn't know what was wrong but discovered that he could free them by slackening a couple of bleed nipples. It took about half a day in the workshop to discover what the problem was which then took about 10 minutes to solve by winding the rod back in - meant taking the master cylinder off to access the push rod. We also used to get cars with vinyl roofs - all the rage at that time - only we hadn't specified the extra cost vinyl roof. We tended just to keep our mouths shut about that one and use it as a bit of good customer relations by not charging them for it (of course we'd paid nothing in the first place) Many years later I was chatting to an older motor trade chap at a wedding and he told me it was because the loaders at the port in Poland had to take their tea breaks in a hut in the middle of the marshaling area - several acres of tightly parked cars - so they ran across the top of the parked cars so they got longer in the hut! Badly dented roofs were knocked out and a vinyl top applied to cover the scratches and slight imperfections when they were offloaded at the UK receiving centre! Don't know if there's any truth to the story but it makes a good "myth". It was a big shock for us going from the DAFs to these. I remember the foreman saying a PDI on a Polski would take about 3 times longer than the DAF and even then you couldn't be absolutely sure you'd "got" every possibility.
As you probably know this was almost always due to the fulcrums under the swing arm seizing. Wasn't unusual to come across them with the spindle rusted solid into the axle arm and the half moon cable guide, having broken away from the spindle, turning against the spindle on the steel of the guide itself. Actually, once they'd done that they worked ok again - for a wee while - until the whole lot came loose altogether and fell off.
Steve. Well done with the scooters. When I was younger and not nearly as wise (haha) as now I would not have been seen dead on a scooter. I was never a "Rocker" nor a "Mod" but it was always bikes for me.How wrong I was! Although not a two stroke, sadly, my wife's Peugeot Tweet (Stupid name) is a brilliant little 125 and very convenient, more so than a bike in some circumstances..Love the two strokes , the enduro looks mint, I’ve had vespa & lambrettas since I was 16 doing lots of miles to rallies etc during the eighties with my wife and lots of luggage and minimal tools on board great fun
I have four scooters at the moment one vespa and three lambrettas one is a 1971 gp 200 that I bought when I was 19 that I still use regularly 33 years on , it’s a slightly tuned one over sized 200 using a Honda mtx 200 piston and Yamaha 4 petal reed valve conversion quite outdated now with the modern ally barrel kits but it still sounds fantastic, I run it on a castor 927 oil which smells great , just reading i the thread about the freewheel mechanism on the Saab , after a fast run on the scooter if you just shut off the throttle the engine might heat seize so you always needed to pull the clutch and blip blip the throttle .
Many years ago I must admit to having built up the internal actuating levers with a spot of weld. As you no doubt remember the rear shoes sat in slight grooves which used to wear so a spot of weld on them restored the correct angle that the arm exited the drum. That and a bit of copper grease on the pivot between the two levers made a huge difference. It was possible to overdo the weld and I seem to remember that the wheels would then lock very easily on the handbrake.Yes, they were open wires that frayed on the right angle turns at the end of the tunnel then again to go down the radias arms pivots, always plastered them in grease. I had a mate who would throw his mini into a bend then yank the handbrake and skid the back wheels to complete the sharp turn.
I had lots of seizures a long the way , the first Vespa I had I fitted a big bore kit for 125 to 177 it ran sweet for a couple of years doing loads of miles using it for work and rallies through the summers , it started to loose power and had a bit of a rattle so had a strip down and the rings were almost gone and only half the small end bearing was left by it still ran
Had to do the weld trick a few times in the past.
Same thing with the first Pandas - like "Felicity" who appears in my avatar picture - Apart from the almost always non working self adjusters, the hand brake levers inside the drum would wear you could build them up with weld, although not worth doing if the pivot pin was badly worn and file the ends back into shape which "recocked" the position of the levers thus allowing more mechanical advantage on the shoes giving a much better handbrake action.Had to do the weld trick a few times in the past.
One of the ways that we used to properly centre rear shoes, (after fitting new or wehn the car inevitably came back for poor handbrake) was to drive forward at 20mph and jam handbrake then do same in reverse…repeat until you were happy
My way is to manually adjust the self adjusters along with a light application of a large copper mallet, until optimum achieved, all done with love and kindness
Are we talking the "old" mini here? if so both the front and rear brakes were manually adjusted with a wee square adjuster. Fronts had two on each wheel, one for each shoe. I found the fronts were often seized and badly out of adjustment. It was very common to find the square adjusting "peg" was rounded off so you couldn't get the key to grip. I also remember you could buy replacement kits which were quite effective.
I don't doubt what you say but I think you were lucky with the drum brakes then. May have been a bit different on "neglected" customer vehicles compared to one, like your's which would no doubt be getting more frequent attention but the adjuster which "hid" behind the steering arm was often rounded off and I've seen many with hopelessly seized rear adjusters.
I still have my old square brake adjusting spanner that I ground a relief on one end. Long time ago now but I believe it might have been for those adjusters behind the arms.
Re the front drum adjusters seized, often had to take the drum and shoes off and free off the adjuster from the inside with heat etc.
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Quite early on I bought a set of brake spanners which included the open ended one for doing that adjuster behind the steering arm on the Minis. It, the set, consisted of two single hex tube nut split rings, one metric and one imperial - at that time British Leyland (or whatever they were calling themselves at that time) were doing "funny" things with tube nuts and you could never be sure if you were going to need a metric or imperial tool - I remember particularly the allegro which had metric on one end and imperial on the other Maybe metric on the rear and imp on the front? Memory is dull though. Also there was a full ring double ended square to fit adjusters generally and the mini one, at the bottom of the picture with the open end on one end and a hex to do the rear cylinder bleed nipples:
Re the front drum adjusters seized, often had to take the drum and shoes off and free off the adjuster from the inside with heat etc.
I had a Renault 4 Van with my oxy/acetylene full size bottles to do mobile Mot welding jobs when times were hard, the oxygen you could leave laying down, but I could stand up the Acetylene through the little "ladder" hatch? at the back of the roof to use it. Easier with the Mig, customers electricity and I bought gas bottle so only had to pay for filling, unlike my BOC charges , I was paying more in rental than the gas I used per year
