Model A Brake adjustment

[Fred K-OR]

On the old barn, someone had a method of adjusting brakes using a stick between the brake pedal and the front seat. Can someone put that info on the new barn? I need to adjust my brakes and I lost the print out I had for that info.

Thanks

[Michael in Sedona]

Fred,

if you have Les Andrews first Model A Mechanics Book, it covers it in there and has photos. I make the notched stick like he explains, and it works really well.

Michael

[Fred K-OR]

Man, I guess the old eyes are getting bad. I looked through Andrews book one and did not fiind it. I will put the old byfocals on again and give it another try. I have made the stick which I used awhile back but had lost the instructions on how to use it.

Thanks guys.

[SoCal_Alden]

Hi Fred, I've made a brake "tool" (stick) using an old 1x4 I had lying around and it worked on my 29CCPU just like Les Andrews said. It butts up against the seat front and the brake lever get pushed down one notch at a time during the adjustment process. Measure twice cut once

[Fred K-OR]

Hey, I found it!!!!! The old eyes did mess me up. First time I didn't bother to look in section 2. But there it was.

[Dave in Boise]

Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)

I was taught a way to do this by a senior member of our club..

After fully inspecting the shoes, pins, springs, actuator pins, wedges, etc we put the a up on blocks and made sure the wheels could spin freely. We then made sure that the brake pedal would travel all the way back to full up, checked for play in the brake shaft and pin.. if all was good, we would wedge the brake pedal up from the floor at full "off"

We then tightened all the brake adjust wedges to full on (about 35 ft lbs of torque tight I'd guess.

We then pulled the brake rods and made sure there was about 10#'s of tension on them at "rest" and adjusted them for length as needed to have just the right amount of tension to pull them back onto the clevis links when reassembling the lines back onto the components

We then reattached the rods and readjusted the wedges (backing off just until you could not hear the brake rubbing)

Once adjusted, run it down a gravel road and hit the brakes.. You should get pretty much all of them to lock.. Adjust the wheels individually until you are having equal drag lines in the dirt left to right and try for about 60% of the slide in the front.

This seems to work really well and I trust my brakes in traffic now ..

-- Dave in Boise

[Fred K-OR]

Thanks Dave. Will give it a try. I live on a gravel road so have a good testing ground.

[skip]

Skip.

[modelaer]

My original tech article and drawing is now posted on our club website.
http://vtmodelaford.org/sbam.pdf
The original Restorer Article can be found in the April 1994 issue.
It can also be found as stated in Les Andrew’s first book under adjustments. In a later book he modified the method so the front drums lock first. This later method is counter to the original Ford adjustment and design. I do not recommend the method of adjusting the front drums to lock before the rears.

Peter Crosby

[Fred K-OR]

Thanks guys for the ideas.

[Stephen Cohen]

Help I have a early Model A Ford with split brake system I need a service book to adjust them Mac's does not have anything on them

Stephen

[Bob C]

You need the Service Bulletins. http://www.amazon.com/Service-Bullet...vice+bulletins

Bob

[Growley bear]

Model A brake geometry is best left the way Ford engineered it. Adjusting so that front brakes apply first is unwise.

Chet