Today I attempted to balance the brakes firstly by using a chunk of wood that I jam between the brake pedal and the seat moving the pedal by about an inch. Then I jacked the car up, the RF wheel was hard to move so I adjusted the LF to match and then did the same with the rears but not quite so. Drove the car up and down in front of the garage in the gravel jamming the brakes on….the LR Wheel locks so I back it off and try again, this goes on for a while until I finally go out on the road do an emergency stop and again the LR wheel locks, with smoke this time. I think it’s back to the drawing board for this one.

Also today I took the Citroen SM out for a run and it’s developed a rattle somewhere, which is worrying as I just had the engine rebuilt so that’s up on the hoist getting an oil change while I think of what the hell that noise is.

Worked all day “fitting” the Sunbeam backing plate, it appears that although Sunbeam and Darracq were the same company in 1925 they only shared rough castings so the file and I became good friends. Took the car out today to the local car club’s “Breakfast Club” and the brakes were lousy…. Will adjust them tommorrow and try again.

It’s been a long story with the brakes, I think I have had the front ones relined 3 times so far but this time maybe there will be success. When I bought the car they were covered in oil so that was the first time, at that time I also replaced the drums with new cast iron ones, I had great hopes that the car would stop but alas no deal.
So last year I tried again but the radius of the new shoes were all wrong and couldn’t get the shoes to contact the drums on the right side without filing off a stack of lining. So I have continued the drive with great care. I think I have discovered the problem and it goes back 30 years when the right front wheel fell off at speed (knock on hubs were reversed) and car skidded to a halt on the brake backing plate, this was repaired but the shoes were now pivoting from the wrong spot, so that’s the theory anyway. I have found a Sunbeam backing plate in the spares, have modified it to fit so fingers crossed.
The back brakes were just covered in oil again so new oil seals and I think the recommended oil level is too high in the diff as its nearly up to the axle tubes. So less oil and I might use 250 grade just to make it harder to for it to make a nuisance of itself again.