The Ford Barn - 1948 Super Deluxe brakes mysteries solved

As I’ve searched the forum, I see there are numerous posts about brake bleeding and other issues. I’ve struggled with replacing the brakes on my brother’s 1948 Tudor, but finally have them working well. It was a hard road, so let me share some things that might help someone else.

1) Incorrect threads on rear wheel cylinders: we found that the inlet threads on new out of the box rear wheels cylinders from a major vendor were incorrect. They should be 7/16x24. The threads are either totally incorrect or not properly tapped. We switched to get new cylinders from a different supplier, but lost several days in the process;
2) Master cylinder push rod: Don’t assume the push rod is set up correctly for your new master cylinder. If it doesn’t have the correct clearance, it will play havoc with your bleeding efforts. I found I had to disconnect the brake pedal return spring to feel for the right amount of push rod free movement (per the book 1/4” at the pedal);
3) Pedal still almost going to the floor?: In our case, despite numerous bleeding efforts, the pedal was firm, but went almost to the floor. Very frustrating because it seems to be such a straightforward system. So I re-read the service manual. I discovered I was adjusting the shoes incorrectly. The 11/16” adjusters at the front of the drums rotate toward the front of the car to tighten, and the ones on the rear of the drum rotate toward the rear of the car to tighten. So this morning I adjusted again, this time the correct way, and nice high pedal, firm good brakes.

Oddly, turning the rear adjusters the wrong way gave me a false positive. The shoes would snug up against the drum, I could back off a bit and the wheel would turn as expected. That’s what was so deceiving and made it hard to diagnose.

Any questions or objections, let me know!