VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 Centralizing brake bolt

Hi Guys,

How do one loosen the centralizing brake adjustment bolt. It seems like there is little to no room to loosen the bolt from the back plate and the fine adjusting screw assembly (part where the brake rods connect to) seem in the way of loosening the centralizing bolt.

Please advise how to loosen these or do you need a special spanner?

Oukar
Are you looking at the right one? You should be able to loosen it while it's in place. You only need about 1/2 to a full turn. Notice that the plate on the inside is that you're screwing into. And there is a cotter key on the bolt so that you can't unscrew it very far.

I've circled the right bolt in red.





Don't forget to un-bend the locking plate before you try to loosen it.



--Bill Barker

Thank you Bill, yes I was onto the wrong bolt

I thought it was the bolt you indicate in your photo's but the arrows in the service manual show the top bolt (the bolt about 2" away from this one)

Timely topic for me. I'm having an issue with my left rear brake grabbing, sometimes locking up temporarily, especialy on loose gravel. When I got back from a 5 mile run the drum was noticeably warm/hot compared to the other. So yesterday I followed the manual and re-centralized the brakes. I see the "F" bolt for the rear as shown, but up front there are 2 similar bolts side-by-side, so I loosened the top one only.

Anyway, I centralized them as per procedure, and then adjusted all the lever arms as recommended (G H nuts). However, I still am getting some grabbing of the left rear, suggesting perhaps a different issue. I plan today to adjust the G&H nuts to give a bit more shoe clearance at this wheel only. Any thoughts on what might cause a shoe to grab or stay on, and can further adjustments be made without having to pull the hub off?

This was helpful to me too. I worked on brakes today.
Jim31chev

Gunsmoke, I had a wheel grabbing earlier this year. After tryins some simple external adjustments, finally I removed the drum. The shoe had some grease (and brake fluid) on it. (It was my '36 - first year of hydraulic brakes.)

So the shoe was grabbing whenever I applied the brake because the shoe got hot and the grease/oil became very sticky.

So - axle grease on your early 30's car could be causing it.

On the other hand, slightly backing off the adjustment is a good first step. And if it's still grabbing, back it off some more. You might even need to do this a few times if you're being too conservative with your adjustments.

Finally, testing it on a dirt/gravel road is a GREAT way to get immediate feedback.

Good luck.

--Bill

Thanks Bill. I've adjusted the levers back a couple turns and that seems to have solved it for now. However, I think you may have identified the root cause. When I had these rear brakes apart 2 years ago during rebuild, I recall I got a bit of oil from the rearend accidentially (read carelessly) on these particular brake shoes. I quickly cleaned it off and soaked the shoes with some lacquer thinner to absorb/dissolve the rest. Left very little sign of the oil, but I expect it was there, just not as obvious. If the problem persists in future, I may need to remove hub and consider replacing the shoe material.