Squeaky Brakes

[Lenny Bruce]

Hey guys hope all is well…The brakes on my ‘30 Tudor always seem to squeak!
I cleaned them up and the shoes look just fine. Nothing I do seems to cure the squeaking. Happens mostly when braking.‘once in a while one of the front brakes will squeak a tad at low speed. Any advice on how to stop it? Thanks

[Mike Peters]

A friend's front brake would chatter at times, so he reversed the brake shoes, front to back and back to front. Chatter went away.

[nkaminar]

Try what Mike Peters suggests first. If that does not work, sand the shoes to roughen them up. If that does not work, consider new shoes with the soft woven pads.

If all that fails, take it to the Ford dealer for service. Ha ha.

[Lenny Bruce]

Any suggestions on what grit sandpaper? I’m guessing something a little aggressive to rough things up a bit?

[WHN]

Have you tried backing you car and hitting the brakes?

I would give it a try. Do it a couple of times, hitting the brakes hard.

It has worked for me. Might have to do it every once in awhile.

Good luck.

[Marshall V. Daut]

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Also sand the brake drum surface that contacts the brake shoes. Chamfer the outside edges of the brake shoes in case the drum rubs against them when the shoes are activated and move.

There is a product sold in auto parts stores mostly for disk brake pads, but it will work with brake drums, too. It's sprayed directly onto the calipers or brake drum surface, as I recall, and allowed to cure overnight. It's been 20 years since I needed any, so I don't remember the name of the product. It's supposed to stop squeaking brakes. Just describe what you need and any good auto parts store should have it.
Marshall

[Dale'45]

Lenny,
Had the same problem on our '30 coupe. Switched everything around on the front and the squeal followed the hub and drum. This winter I put new drums on and the hub was not flat. The drum was only contacting the hub at the studs. Trued that up before swedging on the new drum and the squeal is gone. Dale

[Gold Digger]

The old shop foreman for the Dodge dealership in my town told me that back in the 50's almost all Chrysler products had a problem with squeaky brakes. Chrysler sent out a work order to put one table spoon of dry powder cement in each brake drum and he said it solved the problem. I don't know if it would be recommended in a mechanical brake set up or not.

[Phil Brown]

Chamfer the leading end of each shoe. If the material starts at a 90° end it can cause the shoe to chatter a very small amount which is the noise that you hear. Just put a small 45° across the ends

[1crosscut]

Originally Posted by nkaminar

Try what Mike Peters suggests first. If that does not work, sand the shoes to roughen them up. If that does not work, consider new shoes with the soft woven pads.

If all that fails, take it to the Ford dealer for service. Ha ha.

My wife bought a Honda Prelude new quite a few years ago. Within a few months the brakes were squealing like a semi stopping. Took it to the dealer and the service rep told us that all Honda brakes squeal and my wife should just shift into lower gears as she approached stop lights so she wouldn't need to use the brakes as much. Her car was an automatic.
Needless to say this didn't go over well with me and after that I had an interesting conversation with the manager of the dealership.
The brakes were fixed and not a squeak was hear after that.

[nkaminar]

Brakes are sort of important. 1 Cross Cut's story reminded me of another story without a happy ending. Friend of mine took his car to a repair shop complaining about "spongy brakes." The repair shop told him that they are all spongy and it was nothing to worry about. The brakes failed and he broke his neck in the resulting crash. He is now an invalid.

Moral of the story: If some shop feeds you a line that does not make sense, push on them until they fix the problem or take the vehicle to a better shop. Other countries have better laws regarding who can work on things like brakes and steering.

Lenny, use 80 grit and bevel the ends as others have suggested.

[Flathead Fever]

I was a fleet mechanic and they sent us to a Bendix brake seminar. That guy said that a lot of the time squealing brakes are from tiny pieces of metal getting imbedded in the lining. He said when you machine drums and rotors you need to scrub them good with soap and water to remove any traces of metal particles. That might be true if they squealed right after installation but what about when they start squealing 20,000 miles later. Its either something has gotten into the lining, or the lining is vibrating and causing noise. Noise is cased my movement of the air. Something in the brakes has to be vibrating which is turned into sound. Companywide were forced to use some cheaper brands of lining that were noisy and they didn't last half as long. I also ordered the parts in or shop and I refused to order those crap brake linings. I only stocked Bendix, I had as fleet that wen millions of miles nothing worked better than a Bendix lining. Too bad you can't get them for old cars.

The phone company guys would complain about noisy brakes, and it says in the factory manual that some noise is not a safety concern. I printed that out and gave it to the drivers. We were there to save money, so we were not going to replace perfectly good lining because it squealed after they drove through a stream up to the doors or got mud in the brakes. I could install Bendix shoes and pads. the best brakes made and machine the drums and rotors and in a week those guys had the rotors over-heated and blue and were complaining about noise. Too bad, learn not to abuse the trucks.

The only way to get rid of the noise was with new quality lining and machining the drums and rotors. I did this for the guys that complained about noise that did not abuse their vehicles. The other jerks had to just listen to the squealing they caused. 400 vehicles, I couldn't be replacing squeaky brakes on all of them. 30-years of doing that, literally, thousands of brake jobs. Now I hate doing brakes and pretty much anything on a vehicle.

[bobbader]

I have theory, based on having heard far too many garbage trucks that always squeal and having been a tractor/trailer mechanic for many years. Try a good overall adjustment of the brakes. Even if something is imbedded in the lining, when the shoes are firm against the drums, the noise should dissipate. The object is not necessarily to equalize all four wheels with each other, but to at least equalize the two wheels on each axle. If you haven't done an adjustment in a while (or ever), this might help. One wheel which is not stopping as firmly as another could affect "noise level".