Front and Rear Brakes, Drums
 

This is the first time I've had the brake drum assemblies off the car. Being a somewhat newbie mechanic, I wanted to get your opinion on how the pads and rear drums look. I'm getting two front drum assemblies already but was thinking I could get away with having the rears (see attached) cleaned up.

Honestly the shoes look good, with no cracks in the material, and even wear. Only thing is that the brakes (including parking brake) should be adjusted.

Re: Front and Rear Brakes, Drums
 

I don't know the technical name, but does the front have "floaters" on the lower shoes? LRF

Re: Front and Rear Brakes, Drums
 

Lubrication.

Re: Front and Rear Brakes, Drums
 

All the shoes look good.

Sand down the shoes lightly, sand down the drums, grease the bearings, put white grease on the pivot points, adjust them and take it out on a few panic stops. And go go go.

Re: Front and Rear Brakes, Drums
 

I was thinking the same, some of the standard brake parts are not there on the front brakes.

Re: Front and Rear Brakes, Drums
 

I took a closer look at the pictures again, and I don't think that I have floaters (equalizers); the image attached has floaters in it. It also appears that the front shoe material is unevenly worn (less material at the bottom). Maybe it's a bad picture but I'd like to get a micrometer and measure it.

Re: Front and Rear Brakes, Drums
 

The first two pictures in your first post has brake floaters. The picture in your second post does not have brake floaters. I would have the same assembly on both front brakes. Put a bevel on the ends of the brake shoes.

Re: Front and Rear Brakes, Drums
 

In the first photo, the activator was something that was available many years ago when the wedges, shown in post #6, were not available. It was a lever system that spread the shoes. I had the same on a 29 pickup and, although they worked, the brakes squeaked like crazy. The squeaking may have been due to the type of shoe lining. In any case, replace them with the wedges, as Jim said.

Re: Front and Rear Brakes, Drums
 

How were your brakes working before you took everything apart?

Your shoes along with everything else look great.

Maybe just adjustment is all that needs to be done.

Re: Front and Rear Brakes, Drums
 

Honestly I thought that my brakes worked pretty okay before. There was some fade if I made a long stop with light brake pressure. The rears will lock but the fronts won't on a panick stop. Testing on a dirt road also confirms this. No squeaking or odd noises after the first stop.

The parking brake requires you to go four clicks before it'll do anything.

Also on a side note post #6 is an image I found online and not my own brakes.

Re: Front and Rear Brakes, Drums
 

Here is my 2 cents. Replace the "equalizer" system on the front brakes with the currently available wedge system Make sure both left and right have the same type of activation.


Bevel the leading edge of each shoe liner. This helps prevent brake chatter.

Just so we are sure and clear. Shoes are the metal part. Lining is the fabric/friction part. The linings are riveted to the shoe.


Other than needing bevel your linings look good - very good. The extra wear at the bottom is normal.. Shoes/linings contact at the bottom first.


Using a caliper reach it around the edge of the brake drum and measure the thickness. Measure around in three or four places. The measure should be within one to three thousands. More than three would indicate warped drums. Anything less than .120 thousand would be queationable to use. The thinner the durums get the more apt they are to expand and warp as the heat up during braking. Heating and expansion equals brake fade.


The "emergency" is actually a "parking" brake. Not intended to be a emergency.

Re: Front and Rear Brakes, Drums
 

Sounds like you should be good to go with a little adjusting.

You will always have fading under hard or long distance stopping. Be careful on long hills.

Parking brake? Do both rear wheels hold when brake is pulled up? If not, it also will need minor adjustment.

Enjoy

Re: Front and Rear Brakes, Drums
 

Okay, so based on the above I'm going to:

A) lubricate all the moving parts with white lithium grease
B) Bevel the end of each shoe liner, and check for consistent thickness
C) Check the drums for thickness
D) Adjust the parking brake and ensure it grabs both rear wheels evenly
E) Adjust the main brakes

Do you think it's really necessary to change the old equalizer/floater to the new style?

Re: Front and Rear Brakes, Drums
 

I would change out those floaters with a stock type set up. They were an aftermarket part. They have been known to go "over center" and lock up your front brakes when your brakes become worn.

Not a good thing because you can't get the drum off to unlock your brakes. Not fun while out and about...


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...fdb96702_z.jpg

Re: Front and Rear Brakes, Drums
 

I don't think it is really necessary to change the floaters if you are willing to keep thing adjusted. They look like they were doing a good job keeping the shoes centered. Maybe after a full brake job with new linings and drums it might be time to try another type if you felt like it.

Re: Front and Rear Brakes, Drums
 

Re: Front and Rear Brakes, Drums
 

True, but then anything can fail with inattention. My brakes are stock with the exception of cast drums, and do a good job of stopping.

Re: Front and Rear Brakes, Drums
 

The lever actuators should be changed out with the wedges.

After you get things back together, adjust the brakes for bias towards the front. The car will stop better. The instructions say to adjust the brakes so that the rears start to drag before the fronts. Just reverse that. Adjust so that the fronts start to drag before the rears. When hard braking there is a "weight shift" to the front and even with the bias to the front, the rears may skid before the fronts.

Re: Front and Rear Brakes, Drums
 

My favorite Model A saying after 62 years of owning them is,

“Don’t try to fix something that’s not broken”.

Clean it up, grease it, put it back together and adjust. You will be good to go.

Don’t forget to torque the rear axel nuts to 100.

Enjoy your car.

Re: Front and Rear Brakes, Drums
 

Also, make sure that the tapered part of the axle and hub are absolutely clean, no grease or oil.