VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 any ideas, 32 front brake squeal

Started with a bad front brake squeal and serious inability to stop but I'm right back where I started with the squeal..

History:
Started with a bad squeal
- We could look at the cross bar under the seats and see how rather than rotating nicely the bar was wobbling and only applying brakes to the driver side.
- Found a frayed front brake cable on right side which seemed to be forcing the front driver side to do all the braking/squealing.
- replaced the cable
- re-shoed the front/rear brakes with the right coper woven materials
- replaced the drum on the right side too as it had a lot of groving

Now:
- WOW this thing can really stop right now, no problems, can even lockup the wheels.

BUT...
- The right side wheel squeals badly
- looking at the cross bar under the seats the right side gets good rotation but now the left side not so well.

Taken things apart countless times, adjusted the brakes over and over, swaped drums left/right but I can't see what could possibly be wrong. Any ideas what I should look at?

The brake squeal is due to the drum vibrating. If the drum is too thin it will squeal or if the surface is irregular then it will tend to induce vibration.

The rotation of the brake cross shaft is regulate by several factors most notably the individual brake adjustment (including the rod adjustment as well as at each wheel). The condition of the cross shaft bushings is another factor.

Get your hands on a 1942-1948 shop manual and go to pages 5-7 and 5-8. They recommend that you eliminate squeaky brakes by using a brake shoe lining clamp. Start in the center and then move on to the next pair or rivets etc. The clamp eliminates air pockets between the shoe and the lining. You can make up a simple clamp using a strip of wood and a C-clamp. This technique should eliminate a short squeak or chirp noise. If you are getting a long squeal, then you have a different problem.

Long squeal for sure.

My dad took the drums off but we were told they could not be resurfaced as there's not enough meat on them. I still have the drum that is heavily grooved and we could put that one on and see what happens.

The bushings in that bracket thats rivited together looks like a BIG job to repalce those but after looking at them they are worn, in particular the upper bushing that the bolt which mounts to the fame is thru.

If you can get a machine shop to make nylon or brass bushings in two halves you can get replace the bushings relatively easily. Otherwise you will need to take off one of the ends and weld it back on when the bushings are replaced. Don't know if anyone makes the bushings and has them available or if they need to be custom made. One of these days I am going to have to replace bushings on several brake cross shafts. So far have had enough used ones that are in good enough shape to use.

Felipe,
It sounds as if you are becoming an expert on the brake system. Maybe you can help me adjust my brakes and stop the locking up of the right front wheel when backing up.
I do have some front drums and I will be happy to give you one to see if that will help. It will have to be turned.
I can have Dan bring it to the meeting this Wednesday if you want. Give me a call to set it up.
Steve
(209) 204-2366

Thanks everyone,

Yesterday we took off the Drum we just purchased as a replacement for the grooved drum and put back the old/grooved one and the squealing went away.

We took all 3 drums to a brake shop. They wouldn't turn/resurface any of them but the "new" one was the thickest of the bunch according to the tech. It also has a strange pattern almost looking like water stains in the area the pads touch, which was weird. It became the thing to blame but no one knew what that was. I think we'll be catching up with Steve on a different "new" drum and maybe turn this new one into a wall clock :)

Thanks everyone for all your help!

When you figure out the brake lock up when reversing, please pass it on..thanks,

Mike

I'm also interested in the results as I've experienced both problems.

Today 8-8-12 was a very good day in the garage. A good friend who just retired from a restoration shop spent the day and we found the cause of the front brake lock up and squeal. The link anchor pins were frozen in the backing plate. Removing and cleaning and some neverseize and now they do not squeal or lock when braking in reverse. Also repaired the gas gauge and found that the sender was not grounded. The tank has insulator under the straps and the gas line has a plastic in-line filter thus no ground. We ran a short jumper to the x/member and then had a good ground. Also had to replace the gauge as it had a bad ignition side winding.The dash lamp was not working as the lamp socket had a bad ground due to overpainting. We also removed the battery cut-out switch as it was causing a one volt drop resulting in slow turning. I think it is now ready for the six cyl tour in Ontario which I am looking forward to attending

Glad you got it sorted out. Sure helps when an experienced hand is there.