drum brake crash course, or refresher

[Ranger16]

I understand EXACTLY what Billccm is saying. I have the same phenomenon with my '69 Road Runner. 11" HD brakes, no self adjusters, new master cylinder, wheel cylinders, shoes & hoses. Bled a dozen times. New tires and bearings where repacked and adjusted. No pull at first, but the longer I drive it, the more it pulls. Drums look fine to me, but a light skim cut is the ONLY thing I have not done yet.

 

[oldbee]

You could possibly have one or both frt. drums that have been turned once or twice and are now at the outer limits on allowable diameter. Once hot they expand too much.

 

[Cranky]

Only glanced over most of the posts but are both sides of the car wearing the same shoes and are the long shoes on the back side with the short shoe on the front side? As for self adjusters....I'm the self adjuster and continued pulling those bastards off of cars well into the late 80's with the last car being a Dodge Shadow. Wife would back out of the driveway pretty fast and stop just before the road and the rear brakes would be gone within 10k miles. After pulling the adjusters off, the next set of shoes went 40k miles! She's rough on brakes but the Shadow had tiny ones so when she fell in love with a Durango in 99, I ordered a 2000 with heavy duty suspension (trailer tow package), 15x8 wheels, the whole 9 yards and came with 11" on the back. That thing still has the original rear brakes after 100k miles! They are getting thin now so it won't be long before swapping them out....

 

[Glenwood]

It seems all of my old aerosol cans are out of gas; no brake kleen. Here is a picture raw with no cleaning.

View attachment 390438

the lower spring doesn't look right and appears to be hitting the adjuster. Might tighten things up on you while your braking?

here's a pic from my 64 with 10" and no self-adjusters for example.

 

[Cranky]

As long as both sides are set up the same, you can use the springs like that but you also have to make sure the adjusters can't turn by themselves. A while back someone posted a pic of what manually adjustable brakes should look like....don't think that's them....?

 

[Moparparts]

Make sure your drums/hubs match the year of your car/spindle and backing plate. Some year of drums/hubs have a different offset and if one was replaced it could be the wrong year

 

[Billccm]

Here is a picture from HotRod Network "example of basic bendix drum system without self adjuster".

 

[Glenwood]

Here is a picture from HotRod Network "example of basic bendix drum system without self adjuster".

View attachment 390590

Interesting that the spring is like that. Mabe it helps to prevent the wheel from turning? Maybe mine is missing the cables.
Here's a pic from my late 60s axle with self adjusters.

 

[brian6pac]

The correct manual adjuster is in picture #6, the adjuster has wide rounded teeth and the spring goes over it.

 

[Cranky]

The correct manual adjuster is in picture #6, the adjuster has wide rounded teeth and the spring goes over it.

Ah yes. Didn't see the difference in the adjuster wheel and then enlarged the pic and saw it.

 

[SoCal440GTX]

the lower spring doesn't look right and appears to be hitting the adjuster. Might tighten things up on you while your braking?

here's a pic from my 64 with 10" and no self-adjusters for example.
View attachment 390577

The adjuser is supposed to hit the spring to keep it from turning. Your adjuster looks suspicious. From what I have seen, self adjusting brakes have very fine teeth in the adjuster, like yours shows, and manual adjusters have coarse teeth like Bills.
I suspect you have the wrong hardware.

 

[Glenwood]

I learned something new! Awesome thanks.

 

[threewood]

the lower spring doesn't look right and appears to be hitting the adjuster. Might tighten things up on you while your braking?

here's a pic from my 64 with 10" and no self-adjusters for example.
View attachment 390577

Wrong spring. The correct one has equal length hooks and the spring contacts the adjustment wheel. Self adjust parts are available from Rockauto. Need the adjuster arm, adj wire with hook and loop, adjusting wheels (they are L and R and are NOT interchangeable ) and the wire pivot.

I do not think the spring is produced anymore. I kept the old ones from my 69.

 

[threewood]

Here is a picture from HotRod Network "example of basic bendix drum system without self adjuster".

View attachment 390590

Correct. First thing I would do is crack the bleeders up front and make sure fluid comes out. A faulty, rusty wheel cylinder will cause pulling as well as a bad rubber brake hose. If rusty fluid comes out of a cylinder I would pull it and clean it and rebuild if possible.

Adjust both sides off the ground for a bit of friction when turning the drum. If they are self adjust make sure you have the correct adjusting wheels on the correct side. They are marked L or R. Wrong side will pull the brakes away from the drum as they adjust.

Primary and secondary pads in the correct place? Think of it as a mullet, business in the front and party in the rear (short front, long rear).

 

[threewood]

From my 69 manual.

 

[oldbee]

Post#6 is correct like others have said. I always went with pretty heavy rubbing when adjusting, gives ya a nice high firm pedal. Now that that the years are catching up with me I'm worried about turning the rears w/position to listen for the sound&feel!

 

[oldbee]

Correction--w/posi..

 

[Billccm]

OKAY! Drivers side from brakes look identical to the passenger side. No wheel cylinder leaks, shoes have material, short material in front and long in the back.

Still can't find my adjuster tool; will go by O'Rielly on the way home form work tomorrow and buy a new one.

I'm going to repack the bearings, quick bleed, adjust shoes, and see what I get.

Thanks again for the help and moral support. Take care, Bill

 

[Billccm]

Well I was going to bleed the brakes tonight, but stopped when I saw that you really can't get the bleed fitting open on the passenger side? I don't recall bleeding brakes being this difficult?



The picture on the right shows the bleed fitting kissing the drop.

 

[threewood]

Well I was going to bleed the brakes tonight, but stopped when I saw that you really can't get the bleed fitting open on the passenger side? I don't recall bleeding brakes being this difficult?

View attachment 390689 View attachment 390690

The picture on the right shows the bleed fitting kissing the drop.

If it is touching the knuckle something is wrong. It is tight and I had to bend a small wrench to get in there on mine. If those are replacement cylinders the bleed valve may be metric and thinner than oem. Hit it with Kroil or penatrating oil. You have to hold your mouth right too