Rear axle; brakes and hubs,

This is my complete rebuild and restoration of the original spiral bevel rear axle assembly from my BN1..

Here's some before pics of the assembly as I took it apart:

Upon further disassembly, the left hub showed evidence of some heavy trauma, there were cracks found in the drum, and the inner hub around the lug nuts.
This meant I had to source a replacement brake drum, and a new inner hub.

The brake back-plate also showed signs of being dragged, as if the wheel must have come off at some point!?
- Jason at Jetstream did a great job at repairing the slice!

I thoroughly cleaned and inspected the rest of the axle.
I replaced the pinion seal, axle seals and gaskets, as well as the bearings, axle nuts, and a new inner left hub to replace the cracked one...

After thoroughly cleaning the body to bare steel & aluminum, I gave the body a coat of gloss black 'Por15' rust proofing that gives a very strong and chip resistant layer of protection. Then I followed with finishing it in satin black enamel...

The back plates, inner hubs and axle shafts going back together...

With the axles and hubs reassembled, I then installed all new brake lines, and the emergency brake rods with new rubber bushings and white felt spacers in all the links...

I had the brake shoes all re-lined by Senco Brakes with rivets like original, they also made sure to correctly arch them so they conform to the curvature of the drums exactly...

After carefully inspecting the wheel cylinders for any scratches or corrosion, I found I was able to rebuild the original rear brake cylinders and adjusters with rebuild kits.
- (the front cylinders however showed some corrosion so did NOT pass inspection)

I assembled the cylinders with some Sil-glyde brake grease that is safe and compatible with rubber parts and brake fluids.

I installed the rebuilt cylinders and adjusters to the axle back plates, and connected the new brake lines and emergency brake levers...

Then I made sure to back off the adjusters, emergency brake mechanisms, and the brake shoe steady posts all the way as I installed the brake shoes and springs...

Then came the drums; I had all of them turned at a machine shop first so they had a nice even and fresh inner face to mate with the pads. Then I gave them a fresh coat of matching silver wheel paint.

It took several attempts to get the drums to fit on correctly!
- the adjusters needed to be backed off all the way and the shoes needed to be equally centred which took a lot of careful tapping and prising of the shoes to get right!
I also learned that the little adjuster pistons have slightly different angles on them and if you get them mixed up (top-bottom) they won't allow the shoes to compress all the way!

I finished by painting the brake lines black as original...

I finished the rear brake assemblies with fresh new splined hubs & Knock-offs ready for the wire wheels:

and there you have it! - the rear axle is all freshly rebuilt and ready to be topped up with fresh 90 weight gear oil before going back on the car.

Until next time...