juice brakes on model A

[fordfixer]

A week or so ago, I posted about the brakes on a guys 30 roadster. Charlie Stephens was kind enough to post pictures and gave me good information. But i have another question regarding the brakes on the rear. They installed the backing plates upside down, apparently for wheel cylinder clearance. This also puts the shoes in the wrong position. The primary is now in the back and so on.
My question is, is this that critical? If changing the position to be correct, you will then be changing the shoe in relationship to the wheel cylinder pistons. They are two different sized pistons. Again is this that critical? Thanks any input.

[Jim Brierley]

This is not critical, in fact nothing needs to be changed. Imagine this, a complete assembly, all shoes, etc. are correctly and fully installed but not on the axle. Now rotate the assembly and install onto the axle. Nothing has changed in relation to the rotation of that wheel. Yes, that was done for cyl. to shock clearance. I don't do that, Cling's plugs and re-drills the rear backers and rotates them a few degrees for clearance. I don't do either of these because I don't like the idea of the line hanging down so close to the ground where it could be snagged, and connecting the line without rotating is a bit difficult but doable.

[Bob C]

If this is the picture it looks like the shoes and wheel cylinder are installed correctly.

[Russ B]

Installing backing plates upside down and left to right was the accepted installation of 1940 to 1948 Ford rear brakes back in the sixties. You just had to bleed them fast enough to get the air bubbles pushed out on the last few inches of the hydraulic line.

Redrilling and rotating the backing plates was also done frequently as Jim B says, but most folks who did, did not weld up the old holes, making the job look less safe.

Either way, bending the brake lines to keep access to the bleed plug and clearance from other potential contact points was the more difficult part of the job.

[fordfixer]

Thanks for the feedback. Now that I look at it and think about it more, I see the points that were made.

[ursus]

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Originally Posted by Russ B

Installing backing plates upside down and left to right was the accepted installation of 1940 to 1948 Ford rear brakes back in the sixties. You just had to bleed them fast enough to get the air bubbles pushed out on the last few inches of the hydraulic line.

Redrilling and rotating the backing plates was also done frequently as Jim B says, but most folks who did, did not weld up the old holes, making the job look less safe.

Either way, bending the brake lines to keep access to the bleed plug and clearance from other potential contact points was the more difficult part of the job.

Or, as I have seen on a number of conversions, the rear shock mount ball is cut off to make room for the wheel cylinder, the backing plate is mounted in the normal orientation, and tube shocks are employed.

[Russ B]

Originally Posted by ursus

Or, as I have seen on a number of conversions, the rear shock mount ball is cut off to make room for the wheel cylinder, the backing plate is mounted in the normal orientation, and tube shocks are employed.

That is how my cabriolet is setup now. Around 1960-61 when initially making the conversion, I did not want to cut off the shock’s ball mount on the cabriolet’s rear end. Then I ran without any shocks.

[mercman from oz]

Larger picture of this Ford Hydraulic Backing Plate, mounted upside down?