Wear on Front Brake Wedge (A-2050)

[bdentremont]

Please see the attached photos. Are the indentations along the rolling face original and or is this part severely worn? Should I replace it or keep it?

I'm doing a complete brake overhaul, including new drums, linings, pins, rollers, actuation shafts and bushing. It doesn't seem to me that the function of the wedge is strongly dependent on exact dimension, since wear will come out in the adjustment, but I don't want the rolling surface badly misshapen.

Thanks. -- Brian

[Jason in TX]

Yours are worn, but they aren't as bad as mine were. You want them to be flat so that you get the most out of your brake system.

I built up the wear area with a welder back to the original dimensions and ground it flat again on mine.

Like Kevin says below, don't file them down. They have to be built up or replaced.

[Kevin in NJ]

Think again about wear.

So you have each wedge moving small amounts to produce braking.

Following poor common advice you would lightly file the wedges to remove the wear spot.

All fine and dandy you now have a smooth ramp, but you are royally messing up the application rate of the wedges. Both wedges are going to be moved the same amount by the levers. You need both wedges expanding at the same rate. The wear will mean that the wedge is likely to have to move more to create the correct expansion so you get less available pedal activation of the shoes which equates to less brakes and more pedal travel. Keep in mind that the loss of a few thou of material has more effect then you might expect.

The wedges are cheap and both NOS and repro are available at reasonable cost. Why do you want to cheapen up on this?

Keep in mind this applies to the rear brakes too.

The mechanical brakes get a bad rap for a reason.
You MUST put some new parts in to get them to work like new.

Link to Brake parts comparisons (sorry no wedge compares)

[Stinch]

Should these wedges be perfectly in line with the actuation shafts? Working on friend on mine's car, his wedges appeared to be slanted in. That configuration would put abnormal wear on the wedges I'd think. Am I missing something?

[jw hash]

I have a few NOS wedges and they were manufactured like that, they did not have a nice machined surface all the way down. years ago I welded and filed the ones in my Victoria it is still going today so I don`t know differance it makes but some then on I only welded and filed the top part where the roller makes contact,

[Mike V. Florida]

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A little touch up is all that is needed.
.

.

[Tom Wesenberg]

Originally Posted by bdentremont

Please see the attached photos. Are the indentations along the rolling face original and or is this part severely worn? Should I replace it or keep it?

I'm doing a complete brake overhaul, including new drums, linings, pins, rollers, actuation shafts and bushing. It doesn't seem to me that the function of the wedge is strongly dependent on exact dimension, since wear will come out in the adjustment, but I don't want the rolling surface badly misshapen.

Thanks. -- Brian

Your wedges look normal, except on the third picture on the right side I can see a small wear dimple on the right side. The lower rounded portion that appears to be wear is the way they are made.