Your thoughts or comments...

Dave · December 28, 2004, 09:37:21 AM

Ive been playing with the 32 the last couple of days and I had the rear up in the air so I looked at the master cylinder for a possible power unit but It dont look good. It looks like it will hit the tubular cross member. I decided while it was in the air to try the brakes with the new shoes on the rear. Now when i first set this puppy up before autorama last year at high idle off the ground the rear brakes wouldnt even lock up. I had to stand on the pedal as hard as I could to get em to stop then it wasnt good. The front discs worked great from day one. As time went on i noticed the rear seals were leaking and I finially bought oring bearings and changed the shoes out in the process.
Ok back to the brake thing. I got in fired er up put it in gear at high idle and hit the brakes. They locked up big time ? Why didnt they work with the first set of shoes that came with the new brake kit? Inferior shoes? Bad material?
Beats me im looking for ideas here although i think its gonna be fine now.
The next thing is new pads on the front prolly ceramic to get rid of the dam brake dust. Ive got all week off so im heading out to the garage again im polishing wheels and chrome this week... Man it looks good....
Dave

PS: anyone got a 3.5 gallon Moon tank cheap ?

Dirk35 · December 28, 2004, 10:00:15 AM

My 1st thought would be.....do you have the 10lb residual valve for the rear drums? If so, it could have not been functioning properly the 1st time. Perhaps the driving it around jarred it enough to make it function properly.

Dave · December 28, 2004, 10:10:59 AM

Quote from: "Dirk35"My 1st thought would be.....do you have the 10lb residual valve for the rear drums? If so, it could have not been functioning properly the 1st time. Perhaps the driving it around jarred it enough to make it function properly.

Yup both valves were put in new when we built the car..
Dave

kb426 · December 28, 2004, 10:17:02 AM

Did you adjust the rear brakes and center the shoes before trying them? Only other thing I could think of is if you have a double master cyl. and one side had a little air in it. Course, now that they work, the mystery can continue forever without an answer.

Dave · December 28, 2004, 11:35:20 AM

Quote from: "kb426"Did you adjust the rear brakes and center the shoes before trying them? Only other thing I could think of is if you have a double master cyl. and one side had a little air in it. Course, now that they work, the mystery can continue forever without an answer.

The interesting part is that the pedal is rock hard and has always been rock hard. Yes i centered the shoes and if there was air in the system or the residual valve was bad I would have a low pedal till i pumped it up. Thats not the case here. just wondering if anyone else has ever run into this?
Dave

enjenjo · December 28, 2004, 11:49:49 AM

I had a similar problem on my Caravan. Hard pedal, but one rear brake wouldn't work right. Ended up being a bad brake hose.

SKR8PN · December 28, 2004, 03:33:55 PM

Dave...........I am going to take a S.W.A.G. here...............
When you first put the brakes together,where the drums new, as well as the shoes? By "new" I mean at least resurfaced?
THEN you drove it a bit till the leak occured,correct?
NOW,you have the same drums,but only put new shoes on,am I correct?
If I am understanding this,you did NOT resurface the drums the second time around,did you??? I am going to ASSUME you had the shoes on properly the first time around(short shoes to the front,long shoes to the rear?) Don't laugh..........you would be amazed at how many I find installed *-backwards!

Probably a combination of things that make the brakes grab a bit quicker now than when you first tried them.
#1 the drums have had a little bit of time to get burnished in. THAT by itself will make a world of difference how the brakes will work,WITHOUT A LOAD ON THEM.
#2 You prolly THOUGHT you had the shoes properly adjusted and centered,but might have been off just a tad. It doesn't take much when everything is brand new.

Dave · December 28, 2004, 04:47:58 PM

Quote from: "SKR8PN"Dave...........I am going to take a S.W.A.G. here...............
When you first put the brakes together,where the drums new, as well as the shoes? By "new" I mean at least resurfaced?
THEN you drove it a bit till the leak occured,correct?
NOW,you have the same drums,but only put new shoes on,am I correct?
If I am understanding this,you did NOT resurface the drums the second time around,did you??? I am going to ASSUME you had the shoes on properly the first time around(short shoes to the front,long shoes to the rear?) Don't laugh..........you would be amazed at how many I find installed *-backwards!

Probably a combination of things that make the brakes grab a bit quicker now than when you first tried them.
#1 the drums have had a little bit of time to get burnished in. THAT by itself will make a world of difference how the brakes will work,WITHOUT A LOAD ON THEM.
#2 You prolly THOUGHT you had the shoes properly adjusted and centered,but might have been off just a tad. It doesn't take much when everything is brand new.

Ok ill buy that .. The leak didnt effect the brakes when I first put it together cause they didnt work right anyway and the leak came later. I did scuff the drums with 80 grit before i put it back together this time and they were new drums that came on the rearend. I just think its wierd that no way could I lock em up before but now they seem to be 100% better and im hoping they work properly this time around. by the way all of the brake stuff was new and installed on the rearend we did pull em off but left the stuff on the backing plates when we painted the car. They are ford ranger brakes 10x2 1/2
Thanks
dave
ps: Ive never centered brakes in my life as far as i know so splain that one to me I guess ive just been lucky

Dave · December 29, 2004, 06:15:37 PM

Quote from: "N8DC"
Quote from: "SKR8PN"Dave...........I am going to take a S.W.A.G. here...............
When you first put the brakes together,where the drums new, as well as the shoes? By "new" I mean at least resurfaced?
THEN you drove it a bit till the leak occured,correct?
NOW,you have the same drums,but only put new shoes on,am I correct?
If I am understanding this,you did NOT resurface the drums the second time around,did you??? I am going to ASSUME you had the shoes on properly the first time around(short shoes to the front,long shoes to the rear?) Don't laugh..........you would be amazed at how many I find installed *-backwards!

Probably a combination of things that make the brakes grab a bit quicker now than when you first tried them.
#1 the drums have had a little bit of time to get burnished in. THAT by itself will make a world of difference how the brakes will work,WITHOUT A LOAD ON THEM.
#2 You prolly THOUGHT you had the shoes properly adjusted and centered,but might have been off just a tad. It doesn't take much when everything is brand new.

Ok ill buy that .. The leak didnt effect the brakes when I first put it together cause they didnt work right anyway and the leak came later. I did scuff the drums with 80 grit before i put it back together this time and they were new drums that came on the rearend. I just think its wierd that no way could I lock em up before but now they seem to be 100% better and im hoping they work properly this time around. by the way all of the brake stuff was new and installed on the rearend we did pull em off but left the stuff on the backing plates when we painted the car. They are ford ranger brakes 10x2 1/2
Thanks
dave
ps: Ive never centered brakes in my life as far as i know so splain that one to me I guess ive just been lucky

Ok Frank Sr asked me to post my findings here since we have been pming each other tonite.
Far as I can see most drum brakes from 65 or so (dont quote me on the year) all have a fixed anchor point on the top and self adjusters and are self centering. Now this doesent clear up the mystery of the no rear brake issue when I put the 32 together (read upper posts) but I looked in my manuals today on the brake centering and couldnt come up with much unless I go the the 1961 manual. To test the effectiveness of the rear brakes under a load I fired the bugger up and opened the garage door and eased outside on hi idle into the snow and gravel. Before it just wanted to keep on going cause the rear brakes didnt want to work. Today it stopped like it should have all along. ? I then ran it back and forth (trying not to get the tires too dirty)

in the garage testing the effectiveness of the brakes. Well they feel good and I like it.. Now back to the original post :?: Why.....................
Dave
Ya i got a lot of free time lately sue is still in ft wayne been there since xmas day and im heading down there tomorrow for the indoor midget races. They are running tonite also and its a bummer I should be there