Today I bit the bullet and chopped the old, very rusty, spring pads off the axle and replaced them with new shiny ones.
My main concern was getting the new ones back in exactly the right place. To position them laterally I marked the axle with the ends of original spring pads with a centre punch. I then cut of the first mount. The axle was extremly rusty due to the design of the spring pads allowing water to collect - I hope the strength hasn't been compromised.
axle1 by
Robin Martin, on Flickr
I then levelled up the new pad by axle using a spirit level on the remaining pad and then again on the new pad.
axle2 by
Robin Martin, on Flickr
And then welded the new pad in place. The process was repeated for the other pad.
axle4 by
Robin Martin, on Flickr
Ok - so my welding won't win any prizes but its strong enough...
And finally, cleaned up the brake back plates which were in suprisingly good condition considering they are 50 years old! The shiny bits in the picture are good clean bare metal.
axle6 by
Robin Martin, on Flickr
Just needs a coat or two of paint now....
Cheers, Robin