VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 New axle seals in place

I did notice something odd. When I installed the new brake shoes I adjusted them to the point of being easy to get the brake drum on without to much trouble. After I took the car out for a testdrive I noticed the brake pedal was not good. I had to pump the brakes to get a good feel. I jacked the car up and adjusted the shoes without taking the drums off to the point that I could feel a drag while turning the tire. I test drove the car again and had a full pedal. I guess now the drum would not come off without adjusting the brakes to make is more loose. Interesting.
I think I'll adjust the front brakes the same way since these old cars don't have self adjusters.I guess that's just part of the maintenance required.

It sounds like your brake drums have a lip on the edge ,and are worn where the shoe contact area is.

The manual instructions for adjusting brakes is with the drums in place, and have always worked well for me.

Remember that the shoes are not self adjusting and will need periodic adjustment , depending on how much you drive your vehicle.

The drums were just turned. As far as a lip on the edge,I'm not sure what that looks like. Everything looks good as far as I know. Like you said, the adjustment needs to be with the drums on.

You never make a final brake adjustment with the drum off, it's always made with the drum on. The reason you had to pump the brake up is the same reason that you have to pump your car jack up. You're running out of travel at the master cylinder because of the excessive clearance and you have to pump more fluid into the system to bring the shoes out to meet the drum.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I guess I'm not use to brakes having to be adjusted manually. The self adjusters on modern brakes takes care of that everytime you back up. I'm learning....slowly

Becuase you have had your drums turned, the contact area of the brake shoes will have been reduced due to the changed radius of the inside of the drums. if you have used the same brake shoes, they may be only contacting in the center of the shoe and not giving you full shoe contact.

Normally , the new brake shoes are ground to suit the same radius of the drums , at the same time that the drums are turned.

Its against the law to grind brake linings in the US....and for many years now. The shops don't even have a "grinder" anymore.

Hi Gene,
So do they offer oversized shoes then, ?

Had my drums turned. Bought (not-oversize) brake shoes from Chevs of the 40's. Brakes work great. Can't figure why people disparage Huck brakes.

Ground brake shoes? You guys are pulling my leg..right? I've sure never heard of that one.

With fully drummed braked vehicles, when the drums were damaged or scored, the drums would be turned and the shoes taken to the brake shop to have them matched at the same time and give full brake shoe contact as soon as fitted.

Modern disk brakes are flat on the contact surface so if the the disk is flat, you have full contact as soon as you fit new brake pads.

Disk brakes do develop runout ( wobble of the steering wheel when applying brakes) and are also turned to remove the minimum to true up the contact areas.

The processs was ofically called "Arcing" the drum = like make the arc of the shoe the same as a drum. Depending on how much was taken out of the drum its even possible to just let it wear in.
Oversize linings are OK also. It came in .030" over for most applications and .060" over in some after market shoes. They would require arcing to fit due to being oversized.

Huck brakes arn not too bad on vehicles weighing around 3000 pounds. Generally they were sucifient for normal drivng. The 1949 and 1950 cars required an excessive amount of pedal pressure and the 1950 Power Glide required still more. The 1949 and 1950 used the same master cylinder as say a 1948, weighed a few pounds less, and for some reason the pedal feel was completely different.
The Power Glide car weighed a bit more plus the loss of engine braking do to the torque converter and the 3.54 rear end put more load on the brakes.

I agree wit you 100% Jon, if they are restored to the way they were originally built they work just fine, I've had to make panic stops and I can lock up all four if I have to and I taint no big feller.
Zit, years ago when you got your brake drums turned they would grind the radius to match the new diameter. The grinder had a micrometer adjustment on it so you could match it perfectly. Right after a fresh brake job the brakes contact area was at its maximum. The EPA put the squash on that because of the health hazard with air born asbestos.
Now days they just give you the stock diameter shoes and only the center of the shoe contacts the drum initionally. This gives you a bit of a spongy feel at first and depending on how much they took out of the drum, less than maximum braking capability. Eventually the shoes wear themselves in and you get the maximum contact and the brake pedal becomes to feel firm when applied. Because of this, the shoes need to be adjusted often the first thousand or so miles. An adjustment is indicated by the brake pedal moving closer to the floor board.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

One of the first things I did when I got my '38 was to replace the brake system. The new linings were too thick to allow the rear drums on. At first, I thought the emergency brake rod inside the wheel was the problem so I ground the notch in it a little deeper so the shoes could come closer together. No luck. Since the drums were fine, I did not want to have them turned. I then turned to this site and the one guy that knows Chevys inside out told me I could have the linings ground if there was a place in my town that did it. There was. I had it done. The drums went on without further problems. However, I did not replace the lines as they looked fine. Later, someone told me I should have replaced the lines as the old steel lines deteriorated from the inside and that with the new master cylinder and wheel cylinders, the first time I hit the brakes real hard the lines would look like a sprinkler system! Now if I could only generate the energy to replace the lines!! Beamer

Beamer, You can give the brake lines a test. Press down on the brake pedal as hard as you can (car not moving), use two feet if necessary. If a line will ever blow out it would be at this time. Not a substitution for replacing the lines but a good indication if the lines are safe.

I don't know about brake likes wearing out from the inside out, but when I did the brakes on my car, I did replace the steel brake line that runs across the front. It is in front of the front frame member and it looked like it was all rusty and pitted. It was easy to replace. The rest of the steel lines looked fine. I also replaced the flexible lines at the front and rear. I then flushed the lines by pumping a lot of brake fluid through the system. After that, I cleaned everything up and installed the wheel cylinders, shoes and new springs. I rebuilt the master and all wheel cylinders and installed new parts from the kits in them.

After I completed this work I took the car out and did a few high speed (50 mph) quick stops, not really a panic stop, but a very hard stop. I wanted to see if it was pulling to one side and how the car would react. At that time I had the bias belted tires on the car and I could lock up the tires. I have since done a test panic stop both with the old bias belted tires and with my radial tires. It is very difficult to cause the radial to lock up. They have about 25% more rubber on the road and they have more "grip." Since installing the brakes, I have driven about 2,500 miles.

Several months ago, I did readjust the brakes and greased the front wheel bearings. This restored the "new" feel to the brakes. The peddle height was restored to what it was when I first installed the brakes. I could not really notice any wear on the shoes, but there was brake dust inside, so you know they are wearing. I did not measure anything, but I would not be surprised to see the brakes last for 30K miles.

Rich

Chev Nut, Thanks for the tip. I might try that but not right away. It was 3 here this morning when I got up and while that may be warm for you, it is cooold for me! Beamer