Popped to Halfords yesterday to get some axle stands, a four ton bottle jack and an 18 inch breaker bar. This allowed me and Jay to get the front wheels off and investigate the brakes and drive train.

A mixture of good and bad news again. I’m starting to think that everything on the ‘drover is broken!

We started with the front left wheel and were pretty depressed to find that it wouldn’t turn when lifted off the ground. The brake drum took quite a bit of persuasion to get off, but once it was off I was very pleased to find that the axle itself was free and moved smoothly with no play. The brakes have a good layer of pad left and the drum is clean and smooth. The problem was the cylinders which both have crystalline deposits under the rubber seals. I guess this means they’ve been leaking and will need replacing.

On the other side, things were better. The wheel spins easily, again with no play, and the brake drum came off without a fight. We tried some light pressure on the brake pedal and the pads moved outwards as expected, but the bottom one did not return completely. Whether this is a fault or just because we’d pushed it out too far I do not know. After pushing it back by hand the drum went back on fine.

So, slightly depressed that the brakes are going to need some serious attention - especially because it’s a four spanner job according to the manual. The good news is that the front diff seems fine! More Christmas money will be spent on The Duke over the next couple of weeks. Hopefully I have enough to finish the electrics and get the doors and locks fixed too. Then I’ll start saving up for engine bits!