juice brakes drag when rotating - only one way

[benbuilder]

I posted this on the Jalopy Journal, but felt like i should post it here also.
I have a 1931 model A truck I bought that needs a lot of work.
I’m going through all the mechanicals trying to make it road worthy.
It had juice brakes when I got it. Non functioning.
I replaced all the brake lines, hoses and cylinders. I also replaced the master cylinder.
I have bled all the brakes and I have good brakes everywhere.
I went to adjust the brakes and noticed that the rear brakes adjusters were not moving 1939 to 1942 style.
So I took the rears apart, cleaned everything up and installed the components.
I am now ready to adjust the brakes.
On the driver side rear, when I turn the drum as if I’m going in reverse, the drum rotates very easily.
When I try to turn the drum as if to be driving forward, there is a lot of drag.
I can go backwards with no drag.
If i remove the drum, the axle spins freely both ways.
My adjusters are not the problem, they are in a loose position.
I don’t believe it’s the wheel cylinder holding out the brakes because I cannot pull the brake shoes in any closer due to the fact that the emergency brake sets the spread distance of the brake shoes just by design.
I have done some searches but did not find anything.
Thoughts? Thanks.

[JayChicago]

Good photo. Looks to my eye that the parking brake lever is in the engaged position. Can you play with rhe park brake cable adjuster to release some cable? And I don’t see a return spring on the park brake cable.

[petehoovie]

Originally Posted by benbuilder

I posted this on the Jalopy Journal, but felt like i should post it here also.
I have a 1931 model A truck I bought that needs a lot of work.
I’m going through all the mechanicals trying to make it road worthy.
It had juice brakes when I got it. Non functioning.
I replaced all the brake lines, hoses and cylinders. I also replaced the master cylinder.
I have bled all the brakes and I have good brakes everywhere.
I went to adjust the brakes and noticed that the rear brakes adjusters were not moving 1939 to 1942 style.
So I took the rears apart, cleaned everything up and installed the components.
I am now ready to adjust the brakes.
On the driver side rear, when I turn the drum as if I’m going in reverse, the drum rotates very easily.
When I try to turn the drum as if to be driving forward, there is a lot of drag.
I can go backwards with no drag.
If i remove the drum, the axle spins freely both ways.
My adjusters are not the problem, they are in a loose position.
I don’t believe it’s the wheel cylinder holding out the brakes because I cannot pull the brake shoes in any closer due to the fact that the emergency brake sets the spread distance of the brake shoes just by design.
I have done some searches but did not find anything.
Thoughts? Thanks.

[Doublepumper]

Have you tried adjusting them first and then checking to see if there is the drag you describe? Just wondering if the drum is contacting a loose un-adjusted shoe and it's catching enough to cause the drag.
Good luck!

[benbuilder]

the parking brake is very loose. not adjusted yet either
the return spring is on the back side, i think I will get a picture of that
I think i have tried to adjust them, i did alot of messing with them. I will retry now

[cas3]

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I agree, the parking brake arm should swing back quite a bit closer to the shoe, vertical. And, return spring not there

[Terry,OH]

I also agree with cas3 and JayChicago. The spring on the cable is not in the correct location!

[benbuilder]

the spring works as it is right now, but you guys have made me do more research and now i see it not correct.
OK, One more thing to fix

[glennpm]

From 19fordy, thank you

[cas3]

Scroll down the page to the "parking brake spring" thread.

The big pic from Pete, shows brakes that have been converted to self adjusting, but the spring location on the cable is the same as yours

[cas3]

Glenn beat me to it!...nice pic Glenn

[glennpm]

Thank 19fordy for the great pic, not me :-)

Glenn

[benbuilder]

What does this mean?:

Scroll down the page to the "parking brake spring" thread.

I did a search in this forum using "parking brake spring" but did not find a match

thanks for all the help

[glennpm]

What you need is shown in post #9

[cas3]

the parking brake spring thread is another recent thread, still on the main page, but as Glenn points out the pic on post#9 is mo better.

[19Fordy]

Here's a few follow up photos that may help. Look closely and you will see I installed one of those little metal clips at each end of the spring to keep it from slipping into the E-brake tube and also at the other end where the spring slips into E-brake lever arm even though the OEM install only used one clip at the tube end. I made the second clip out of the spring banding used in shipping. Drill a small hole in the banding and then use snippers to trim it. Worked fine. Make sure your E-brake is released when you do this. Then readjust your ebrake cable.

[petehoovie]

Originally Posted by 19Fordy

Here's a few follow up photos that may help. Look closely and you will see I installed one of those little metal clips at each end of the spring to keep it from slipping into the E-brake tube and also at the other end where the spring slips into E-brake lever arm even though the OEM install only used one clip at the tube end. I made the second clip out of the spring banding used in shipping. Drill a small hole in the banding and then use snippers to trim it. Worked fine. Make sure your E-brake is released when you do this. Then readjust your ebrake cable.

[Mart]

It looks like you have found the problem with the brakes. One other thing I noticed in your picture is the axle key. The tapered piece should be towards the axle, and on the inboard end. (the axle casing end).

[glennpm]

Good call Mart.

The other thing I should have mentioned is that the spring clip that goes between the spring and the backing plate tube may have fallen off. When this happens, the spring will migrate up into the backing plate tube so it becomes invisible. You can check this by pulling the boot on the external, to the backing plate tube, and poking a wire or rebar tie-wire into the tube. which will push the spring back into the "visible" world :-)

[benbuilder]

All great helpful information. Thanks so much