Taking a break for some brakes.

[Art Newland]

New brake shoes arrived today, popped a new one on in place of the one that was extra thick and she spins free and the brake seems to operate smoothly. For the life of me I can't see much difference but all seems well.

[Art Newland]

My bolts arrived yesterday and they look great. $40 for an entire set of backing plate bolts, nuts, and cotters, front and rear. Now if I can get my wife to let me ignore the "honey-do" list for a few days...

[fixitphil]

Last Saturday I drove to Randy's shop (pre-arranged time and day) about 3.5 hrs away from my house with seven drums with hubs and new brake shoes from Snyder. (I would have had Randy do my linings but just recently heard of him, being a Newbie myself). Randy picked out 4 good hubs, switched hubs to his new cast drums, looked at all my bearings and races, had suggestions to replace most and had the whole job done in 4 hours. My wife and I went to the Autry Museum while we waited (just 30 minutes away). When we got back he showed me all he had done (along with arching my shoes to my new drums) helped me load them in my car and we were off for another 3.5 trip home to central CA. I am totally impressed with his knowledge, experience and ability to explain each detail of my "inexperienced questions".
I saved all that shipping and had a great experience.

[fixitphil]

Last Saturday I drove to Randy's shop (pre-arranged time and day) about 3.5 hrs away from my house with seven drums with hubs and new brake shoes from Snyder. (I would have had Randy do my linings but just recently heard of him, being a Newbie myself). Randy picked out 4 good hubs, switched hubs to his new cast drums, looked at all my bearings and races, had suggestions to replace most and had the whole job done in 4 hours. My wife and I went to the Autry Museum while we waited (just 30 minutes away). When we got back he showed me all he had done (along with arching my shoes to my new drums) helped me load them in my car and we were off for another 3.5 trip home to central CA. I am totally impressed with his knowledge, experience and ability to explain each detail of my "inexperienced questions".
I saved all that shipping and had a great experience. I would recommend him to any one.

[Art Newland]

Wow Phil, had so much fun you went twice! He is a pretty nice guy.

I'm starting to smell blood! Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel! One rear assembly is complete and torqued down... yahoo! It wouldn't take long to do the fronts but I want to get the more difficult rears finished and out of the way. Time to go read through the adjustment procedure... again. I'll probably have to go do it wrong a couple of times before it sinks in.

[Art Newland]

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Well, nearly 7 weeks later, I went for a Model A drive today. What I'd expected to take a couple of weeks turned into almost 2 months! I rigged each wheel to activate the brakes, probably 80% of the pedal before much of anything happened. but I spent about 30 minutes putt-putt-ing around the neighborhood working the brakes to get all the high spots knocked down on the new shoes. Once my back quits hurting, I'll go through the procedure to properly adjust everything. Had to video the first engine startup, wasn't much different than if I'd have run it just yesterday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzrx71Kb68s

[Dick Steinkamp]

Congrats! One day late. You missed a great cruise to Mt. Vernon.

[Art Newland]

Proably another day of adjusting too!

[Big hammer]

Congrats! Get them adjusted be for you have to do some body work :-(

[A31Woody]

Right on Art! I got mine going this weekend too. I had a bit of a temperature issue on my passenger front (according to my IR thermometer) but got it under control once I went through and checked the bearings and reset the brake adjuster. I ended up putting 31 miles on it this weekend. Good stuff.

[Tom Wesenberg]

After I do a brake job and adjust them, I like to find a gravel road or sandy area and give it moderate braking to check the skid marks to see if they are even. Then I find an empty parking lot or side road, and give it moderate braking to see if it pulls to either side. If need be I will loosen one side a click or two to make it pull even side to side. Then drive it a few miles and use my temp gun to shoot all the drums to make sure none are hot.

[Art Newland]

The shoes obviously have a few high spots, I'm hoping to smooth those out before adjusting. My guess it will need adjusting again after a few miles.

[RawhideKid]

Hey Art,

Did you notice just how many bolts and nuts that fit metric tools better than SAE?

[Art Newland]

I have decided that you can't have too many 7/16, 1/2, and 9/16 wrenches, they're all a little different.

[Art Newland]

I snugged up brakes and rods and went for a real drive. working much better. I'd like to get 50, 100 miles on it then go through the adjustments outlined in the service bulletins. I think I may need to pull the front drivers back apart and add a shim/pill.

[Tom Wesenberg]

Originally Posted by Art Newland

I snugged up brakes and rods and went for a real drive. working much better. I'd like to get 50, 100 miles on it then go through the adjustments outlined in the service bulletins. I think I may need to pull the front drivers back apart and add a shim/pill.

Are the front levers not at the correct forward angle?
Replacing the two push rods was all I had to do to fix that problem.

[Art Newland]

Drivers side doesnt cant forward as much as I'd like.
Hey Tom, do you sneak a little jt-6 on the clevis pins?

[Art Newland]

Also, what kind of temp were you finding on the drums after a drive?

[A31Woody]

Originally Posted by Art Newland

Also, what kind of temp were you finding on the drums after a drive?

For me it was about 150 after a 5 mile test drive with moderate braking. Outside temp in the 60's.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tom Wesenberg]

Originally Posted by Art Newland

Also, what kind of temp were you finding on the drums after a drive?

I don't recall the temp, but it was likely about 125* after an easy brake to come to a stop.

I like to use Mystic JT-6 High Temp red grease on any pins or moving parts, including both ends of the push rods for the front brakes. I also use it where the brake shoes rub against the backing plate. Just go light here so you don't get it on the shoes.