OT: The perennial cascade problem...

[paredown]

Some of youse know that New York has an annual (or bi-annual as your vehicle gets older). So I have until the end of June to get my Tundra through the test.

I've had a persistent (but intermittent) Check Engine light for a single code. Started down the trouble-shooting path, did all the easy (and cheap) stuff--and finally ended up replacing the MAF. So I am code free. Great, I think!

All lights and signals--check!
Wiper blades--check! (this is NY Test scam to claim you need new blades...)

Go to bed happy--wake up the next morning--parking brake? Not working properly, so I try to adjust. Nada--

Adjustment hah!--because Toyota in their wisdom have the parking brake cable hooked up to a pivot--that is NOT weather tight, and made of dissimilar metal (metal arm and pin, alu body)--and we all know how NYS loves to dump salt on the road if it is even thinking about snowing. The arm and body have turned into one lump of rust & crud.

The answer is of course, wheels off, brake drums off, all shoes off (and only then can you get to the bolts that hold said device in place), clean, wire brush, drive out pivot pins, paint arm, reassemble with new pins and all well greased.

And while you are there--oh hell, might as well put on new brake shoes (even though the truck brakes probably 75/25 on the front) and the originals are not that bad @135,000 miles. But at this point is seems senseless to put the old shoes back on... Wire brush drums and scuff brake tracks (can't find anyone in the area who is still turning drumss...) so the originals will go back on.

One side complete, one side apart, second pivot assembly soaking so I can drive out pin and do the rehab.

Cars!:mad:

[Gummee]

I'm doing something similar with my F150. VA/WV truck and it's rusty as well.

New discs and pads in the back. New pads (pending) in the front. Need to get an EGR valve so the CEL goes off. ...but wait! the engine came from the junkyard and the PO welded a bung into the EGR valve port in the manifold.

...so that means get someone to hopefully get it out for cheap-ish or buy new headers. Grrrr

Good thing I got the thing for cheap!

M

[zennmotion]

Heh heh. Nothing useful to add, except I know a guy (in Seneca County) that will count your wheels (maybe twice) and hand you a sticker. Though his garage may (or may not) be a front for a meth lab. Good luck! I miss upstate roads, but not upstate salt!

[cachagua]

The "cascade"... ain't it the truth. Property-manager guy I used to work with had another term for it: whenever the faucet washer was blown, the valve seat was pitted; whenever the dryer element burned out, there was a hole in the vent; whenever the doorknob was sticky, the hinge screws were wallowed out in the jamb. He used to call it "the two-problem problem", and for him, it was an automatic assumption: every problem was a two-problem problem.

And of course, innumerable instances where you see that on your bike. BB creaks, headsets that won't stay tight, unreliable shifting, the list goes on.

And yet, it's true -- cars are the unchallenged champions for this. Houses can be appalling, bikes can be infuriating, but nothing touches a car for interconnected un-cooperativeness.

Best of luck with the brakes. And, that welded-shut EGR valve port? Maybe there's room to drill and tap it? Shame to have to replace it...

[paredown]

Happy ending--sort of.

Car passed test (although I got dinged for a brakelight bulb--so used to having the cap on the truck that I never even looked up at the third brake light on the cab that's usually obscured by the cap).

Then he tells me that I have a sticking front caliper (still passed though), and now I will probably have to argue with the guys who did the front brakes that they didn't do it right.

Or do them myself...