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FWIW

Several years ago I had a situation where there was not time to redo a brake job that had been completed years before in a restoration project. The brake work had been done by the owner with little knowledge about proper arcing and brake shoe centering.

With just a short time before the vehicle needed to be road worthy I used 120 grit sticky back sand paper and put three pieces about 3 inches long on the inside of the brake drum and installed the brake drum. I then proceeded to use the sand papered brake drum to contour the shoes to fit the drum.

On the front I made a cranking handle using a length of aluminum angle with a handle on one end and holes drilled to fit over two bolts on the front drums. I then turned the drum by hand using the handle and as I turned the drum I moved the brake adjusting wedge to engage the brakes.

The rears were easier as I locked up one side by adjusting the brake wedge to fully engage the brakes, we started the engine and put the vehicle in gear and on the opposite side moved the brake adjusting wedge to engage the brakes. When we were done on one side we repeated the procedure on the other side.

I used white chalk on the brake shoes to determine shoe contact and removed the drum to clean out the brake shoe dust and re chalk and repeat the process until I obtained good brake shoe contact to each brake drum.

On the front I used an old wheel bearing and was careful not to get dust on the bearings and the races. When complete I repacked new bearing and cleaned up the races and did final assembly.

On the rear I used an old bearing and was careful not to get dust on the bearings and the races. When we had good brake shoe contact I packed the new bearings cleaned up the race on the rear drum and then installed the bearing and seal for final assembly.