How important is this brake spring?

All in, for all your work, what have you spent?
$293 so far. I did stop at the garage to get a quick estimate on the dust shields; that's a grand. Bit more for those cables. I'm just assuming I'll drop $3k to get the car back up to snuff for another year.
 
thanks, will omit for now.
very important. many years ago i learned my lesson, omitted this spring and the shoe jumped off the piston and fluid dumped out.
It was a stick and i could downshift and drive home, you can buy the hardware kit at many AAP stores
 
very important. many years ago i learned my lesson, omitted this spring and the shoe jumped off the piston and fluid dumped out.
It was a stick and i could downshift and drive home, you can buy the hardware kit at many AAP stores
This is a mechanical parking brake assembly. Still though you don't want parts flopping around and potentially jam up against the rotor drum.
 
So I have to think the root cause of this problem as the disc brake pads freezing to the rotor, and needing to be hammered on to free up.

But I don't know why the parking brake was dragging afterwards...? I blamed the cables at the time but after working on it today they seem to be just fine.

Bang my head over my sheer stupidity.

After driving for a few days sans parking brake, I decided to see what was up, as it was bothering me. I used chocks on the wheels, jacked up and cribbed the car so I could adjust the brakes. Perfectly safe. Adjust the adjusters, everything seems fine. Sets ok, no drag when off. I swear it's got an exhaust leak so I started and let it run so I could get under and look. Then shut down and because I've been driving autos the last few years I forgot to put into gear (manual trans)... and of course, my mindset is still "the parking brake is bad"... Jacked down, removed the last chock... and down the driveway it went. Thankfully I have a large rock in my driveway. But now I don't have a radiator. :( Or a bumper. Driver's door is tweaked too, it was open when it hit the rock (tried to jump in, failed), radiator core supports are tweaked, I'm sure the list goes on.

I've been thinking lately that I shouldn't work on my cars anymore, I think after paying out from this one I might just be done.
 
Yeah I was thoroughly put out with myself (still am). Plan to swing by the garage tomorrow and see if I can have it towed over. Or if they have a collision shop to have it taken to. Condensor, radiator and front fascia for starters, the rest might be bent back into shape? Might not be too bad.
 
Yeah I was thoroughly put out with myself (still am). Plan to swing by the garage tomorrow and see if I can have it towed over. Or if they have a collision shop to have it taken to. Condensor, radiator and front fascia for starters, the rest might be bent back into shape? Might not be too bad.

@supton don't beat yourself up too much. We have all had the case of the brain dead.. from time to time, we wouldn't be human if we didn't! It's always like that, get so focused on solving the problem just totally forget the other stuff. But the best part? You're humble enough to admit it! That's the best part and now you can just go get stuff corrected, never know.. could be a blessing in disguise! Imagine the shop finds something that wouldn't have been found if this didn't happen!?
 
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Got my estimate: $6,600. Ouch. Most expensive brake job ever...

Not sure what I'll do just yet, KBB says fair trade-in is $2300 while private sale is $3900. NADA gives trade-in from $2k to $3k, but clean retail is $6k--which this car could, pre-accident, probably be cleaned up to maybe hit in today's market.
 
Got my estimate: $6,600. Ouch. Most expensive brake job ever...

Not sure what I'll do just yet, KBB says fair trade-in is $2300 while private sale is $3900. NADA gives trade-in from $2k to $3k, but clean retail is $6k--which this car could, pre-accident, probably be cleaned up to maybe hit in today's market.
Insurance. Honestly, any premium increase you’ll see this should far outweigh it. Let them pay you out and total it. Insurance value will be more than you think.
 
Insurance. Honestly, any premium increase you’ll see this should far outweigh it. Let them pay you out and total it. Insurance value will be more than you think.
That's what the shop thought too. I made sure to ask for their opinion, and it was that he wouldn't put that kind of money into a car this old. [I still have struts and other maintenance work too, on top of that bill.]

I shot my insurance rep an email about it, will wait until I get that back.

I'd try to go the hack route and bend things back, just live with it, but that's beyond my capabilities (radiator support etc are all bent out of whack).

Not sure how I'll live this one down, first time I've had an accident to claim--and I managed to total it--in my driveway!--and I wasn't even driving!!! Somedays it doesn't pay to get out of bed.
 
Eh, several years ago I was diagnosing something with the starter solenoid on my old '88 Ranger. I don't remember what exactly I did but it was dumb and I of course engaged the starter while standing in front of the vehicle.

Fortunately it lurched forward slowly and that poor 2.3 just ain't that powerful....I was able to jump aside and it stopped a few feet ahead running into the F150 in front of it....there it sat chugging and kinda sorta spinning the rear wheels in my gravel driveway with each turn of the starter.

The F150 had a tube bumper I had built so zero damage to that vehicle. Cracked grille on the poor Ranger

I'm just glad I'm not the only one who does dumb shtuff!!!
 
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