You could try these people, they quoted me a price of approx $100 to re-line some shoes and true them up and match them to the drums. The killer is shipping drums to them and back. Scott & Margaret Bethke Brake Materials & Parts Inc 800 Sherman Blvd Fort Wayne IN 46808 Phone: 260-426-3331 Fax: 260-424-1331 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.BrakeMaterialsAndParts.webs.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/BrakeMaterialsAndParts
I bid on one of the arcing machines years ago and gave up at $300ish, a friend that used one said 'can you say mesothielioma?' when I asked him about one.
OJ, I have seen those machines for sale on CL for a couple-three hundred bucks. I have been tempted but who wants one of them in their home shop, and who wants to do this for other people? Not me.
What's in modern brake shoes that if you at least wear a dust mask working the machine, is going to get in you and cause problems? That isn't going to be laying in the bottom of the drums from the old set when you pull it off?
My shop is dirty enough, I'd like to find somebody with one a couple blocks away and let his shop get dirty. I don't think thats going t happen.
If you buy new shoes and new drums, they will most likely fit real good without re- arching. Back in the day, when you had your brake drums “ turned” it made the drums larger. You could buy oversized shoes and have them fitted to the larger drums. Depending on how much was cut from the drums. Sometimes you could re arch the standard shoes. I never remember re arching new shoes, not saying they fit perfectly, but usually pretty good, and would work without much “wearing in”. Bones
Yup, I'm due for a chest cat scan, wonder how much asbestos I sucked up while arcing shoes. We used to dampen a clean shop rag and hold it with one hand over our nose and mouth while we arced shoes...
I break the leading and trailing edges of the shoes with a wood rasp so they break in faster. Works pretty well.
Bob, I used to do that also. If the drums were not to be turned, I would also break the “ corners” ( edges) of the brake shoe linings with a bench grinder to fit the rounded pattern of the old shoes. Can you spell mesosemaloia? ( obviously I can’t) lol. Also when I purchased the rebuilt shoes, I would alway check the alignment of the lining in regards to the shoe. Saw a lot the shoes/linings that were real crooked. Parts guys didn’t like me, as sometimes it would take several boxes of shoes to get a set I was comfortable with. Bones
Glue a piece of course emery cloth to the inside of the drum , run the shoe around the drum . Peel the emery cloth off and clean glue with brake cleaner . Ready to go !!!
We stopped arcing shoes long ago when the government got in on the act. The maximum oversize the drum could be turned was . 060. The shoes were prearced at .020. Shoe flex was gauges to be max of .020, and a .020 mismatch between drum was allowed. Did thousands of them with those parameters over the years and if the brakes were not just plain abused, there was good contact on every inspection.
I look at that too, got lucky with my '59 Ford rear shoes from Rock Auto. I've seen the center web bent on a few too. The cores get thrown in a 55 gallon drum and the rebuilder would stop by and pick them up. They used to do a fair trade in "rebuilt" drums and rotors, which was a real bust, most were crap but looked nice. I'll try breaking the long edges too, good tip... not with a grinder. We all have our tricks for making drum brakes work better. The wood rasp thing was shown to me by an old timer, the first "pre-arced" shoes were not so great, good thing front discs were just becoming popular by 1977.
I'm getting it apart and something that looks odd is that it is plumbed in 3/16ths line. Can anybody confirm if this is correct? I know Ford is weird about this, I've seen them run 3/16ths to the rear and then 1/4 across the rear end itself. Being big drum brakes and all I would expect to see 1/4" lines all thru the car.
3/16, That's correct or at least all I have seen on the Fords from that era I have owned. The 65 F100 is all 3/16 as was my 62 Galaxie, as is my 64 Fairlane, 50 F1 and my 50 Coupe I used to own.
oj..... If you go with discs Drop-n-stop in Ca. specializes in 49-64 Fords and will gladly talk to any potential customers. He's been in the business just shy of 20 yrs... Good luck.
Not sure if it is correct for that car or not but highly doubt it is causing a problem, the size of the braking surface has no bearing on how much fluid movement there is, that is determined by master and wheel cylinder size. there is usually less than a teaspoon or 5ml of fluid that actually moves when the brakes are depressed. Remember because fluid is non compressible it acts like a solid and doesn't need much movement to apply force.
Agree, I was questioning everything at that point. The 3/16ths is proper for the Galaxie btw. Turns out there were a number of problems from wrong size wheel cylinders, leakage to a mysterious 'goo' that almost looks like mud all thru the system and inside the wheel cylinders. Very odd really, the entire system isn't all that old. Now I've got to find some new wheel cylinders, 15/16ths rear & 1 3/32 front, left & right on each. The MC is trashed so I'll go back with a dual bowl.
At that point I would say your on the right track, make sure everything is clean, hard lines etc. and reassemble with the proper parts and it should be good. Drum brakes stop well when they work however they require more work than discs, adjusting and such. As Bob said earlier however, they are prone to brake fade. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Power brakes do nothing for stopping distance, you just don't have to push as hard not to stop. Surprised no one has mentioned sintered metallic brake linings, little hard push required when first used but really do resist fade.
I would replace all the lines and hoses also. Since your going to replace the master cylinder with a dual cylinder you will be doing some repulumbing. I would replace it all, as it may be 50 plus years old. May look good, but could be rusting from the inside with all that goo you are talking about. Be safe, just my .02. Bones
Its all back together and stops really well, it'll lock up all 4 wheels. I'm test driving it now and I can see power assist because the car drives so well that you can loose the fact its drum brakes, the owner has yet to drive it. Here's a few pics of the goo inside the wheel cylinders, master cylinder has the same stuff. We did the backing plates in a satin silver, the original satin black hid all the crud and you really couldn't see the brakes. The new dual bowl master cylinder is a Ford unit from when they were required to split the circuit.
Like an idiot I swapped my 8 lugs on my 64 Pontiac for a disc set up because I couldn't get it to stop straight and thought it was the drum brakes. Turned out to be the alignment and sway bar end links tighten too tight. After working on my brothers 66 Bonneville with 8 lugs and then driving it, I became sick to my stomach! The car stopped on the dime, straight as an arrow, much faster and smoother then my 64 with the disc/drum set up. Pontiac used 11x2.5 shoes in the front with 11x2 in the back. I always wanted to try an adjustable proportion valve and a hydroboost on a drum brake set up.. No way would I give up on a whopping 11"x3" set up! -Change the linings to metallic then drive it. It takes a couple thousand miles before they wear in.. -Make sure the pedal is in the manual brake hole and/or try making the pedal longer, closer to the floor for a 7:1 ratio.. -Adjust the anchor pins. -I prefer no self adjusters and making adjustments manually. That always worked out better for me, especially if the car had a standard rear end, jack the car up run the rear wheels and see which side is spinning after stopping and starting a few times. Tighten the side that's spinning until both are spinning equally. I recently changed my off topic 69 el Camino to manual adjusters in the rear. The car always had this weird drift to the right. I used 1960 Impala star wheels. 6 clicks down from stop and it stops perfectly straight.
O.J., What is the original application for that dual master cylinder? It seems to be doing a super job in your use.
A CarLife road test of a 1965 427 Galaxie thought the HD manual brakes were pretty good, claiming to have made three max effort stops from 80 mph before fade set in. But. also wishing for the T-birds disks http://wildaboutcarsonline.com/memb...65-02_CL_Ford_Galaxie_500_XL_427_Test_1-5.pdf
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