You mean you actually wore out a set ? :omg_smile:

Honestly never heard of it, and I've known dozens of them. 1.4s, yes, somewhat notorious, but not 1.7s. No idea what that's about then!

Could be - I'm far from sure about the shoes - just never heard of it. One cylinder type (I'm sure it was 340...?) was definitely common to Escorts. Of course there was much more sharing back from the OEM parts bin in the day anyway. The front calipers (after 79?) are the same as certain VWs and Audis, too.

cheers

James

I've worn out 340s shoes owing to the stupid adjuster seizing up (as they seem to with appalling regularity). Not a 360 issue, of course!

cheers

James

It was how they were when i bought it and yes, they were well and truly worn out! Was touch and go whether the drums needed replacing but i got away with it by the skin of my teeth.

I came across the odd B14 with headgasket failure , but always caused by overheating for some reason or other . Never in my 45 years working with them on a daily basis had a 1.7 headgasket fail not even on the turbo models . maybe neglected ones overheated too ....

also worn rear shoes was very unusual , the only ones i changed in work were fluid contaminated ...

we have a 1980 340 in the family since new with 250,000 miles and that has it's original rear brakes ,

Also had a 1982 GLT and that had 150,000 miles with original rear brakes ,

as does my present 1988 343 !!

Yes, fair point - my only 'bad' B14 was overheated due to the electric fan not working (and the driver not noticing what the temperature gauge was doing. It cracked the head! I think the bigger issue is that the risk of liner-shift is very significant if you just lift the head straight up, and re-seating them can be a bit hit and miss (I assume unless you're taking the pistons out of the liners, etc).

Maybe it's an age issue, but the 340-style handbrake adjusters seem to seize up very commonly now. They had both seized completely solid (and both at both ends, too - a really comprehensive job!) and worn out the shoes on my 343, and when I mentioned it to friends there was a lot of muttering about "complete pain" and "annual job". Maybe it's a case of incorrect servicing or use of the wrong grease? Even Mac (ex-VCUK in-period) said it was something they were prone to (although he didn't specify whether that was "then" or "now"!). Doesn't seem to affect 360s at all, but of course the design is completely different.

cheers

James