I have assembled and mounted the 39 Lincoln set from Riley's Automotive the other day on my front end and I just can't get the drums over the shoes...I have followed all of the instructions and downloaded some pics from the site for some info...is there something I'm doing wrong...or something I should be aware of when mounting this set..???....the only parts I have left are the longer shoe anchoring pins that came with the set..the shoes are 2" wide.....
Turn the adjuster all the way in at the bottom, push the top of both shoes in to make sure they're both contacting the anchor pin at the top and the wheel cyls are completely collapsed. Sometimes the springs don't retract the shoes all the way in on their own.
I've done all of this above......I might see if I can get hold of Eric at Riley's...I hope he is still in the market....I've read somewhere he has been having issues with orders..??...can't imagine..he took my order and was a top notched vendor in my book...
Take the adjuster apart and look inside. Several times, I have seen it where there is a bit of grease down in the hole that keeps the adjuster from being fully screwed together. Cleaning it out did the trick.
I've seen SOME repro Lincoln backing plates out there with a NON-ADJUSTABLE, top anchor pin that is not located in the correct position. This can index the shoes either TOO HIGH...or...TOO LOW on the backing plate. To put this simply, the shoes are not centered with the drum opening. DD
Ditto DD Coopman. I have a set of repop lincolns and the upper pin was in the wrong place. Had to move the pin down to even begin to get the drum over the shoes. Tried machining some off of the lower adjuster so it would let the shoes go together closer on the botton and that did not work. Took a while to figure out what was wrong.
Remove the nut on the locating pin and verify that the hole that the pin mounts in is a vertical slot. If it is then reinstall the nut and don't tighten, move the locating pin up or down to center the shoes inside the drum. Once centered tighten the nut. If the hole is not slotted you can fix it with a die grinder and a carbide bit.
Well worked an hour or so...adjusting the upper mounting bolt in the slotted hole...(not much if any movement...??)..no luck..so I decided to focus on the bottom adjusting device at the base of the shoes...I ended up removing at least a 1/4" off each end of the adjuster..had to re-chase the threads also..anyway everything finally went together..I think I will buy some shorter adjusters for the shoes and remove the ones I hacked at....thanks everyone for the advice..now it's time for the rearend build..
They look good....I did adjust the bottom out some to tighten them up some...any advise on the right way to check them would be helpful Charlie..
You really need to have the drum laying flat, open side up, on a table. Each of the two shoes (from each side) needs to be hand-fitted to the inside radius of the brake drum surface to see if the radius of the shoe surface matches the radius of the drum surface. If they have a space between the ENDS of the lining and the drum surface...OR...if they have a space between the CENTER of the lining and the drum surface, they need to be arced. To be well-fitted, the linings NEED to be of the same arc dimension as the drum, no spaces between lining and drum when you hand-fit them inside the drum. Of course, to do this test, the shoes need to be off the backing plate, in your hand. Worst part of all this is that it's kind of hard to find many people that will arc brake shoes any more. Worth doing, though! DD
I figuring that I bought this whole set up from Eric at Riley's Automotive and was told that it would all go together right..???..everything in this is new...I did checked the shoes against the drums and they did match the contour of the drums...This is the 39 Lincoln set-up...One thing I did notice that the outer ring of the shoe contour was parallel with the outer contour of the backing plate...so that should match the drum contour..??
"and was told that it would all go together right..???.." Considering what you've said, and considering all the pieces you had to grind-on and re-work, I'd have to ask "what's wrong with this picture?" DD
DD your right kind of pisses you off..spend all of that money and time and the dame thing needs to be modified...I will just mock the front end up and get the rear on and drivetrain set in then go back and fix the brakes later...thanks for your advice...
First of all is the picture the left front or right?,and also in the picture the wheel cylinder push rod is not in all the way and the cup isn"t either.?the reason I ask what side of the car is in the picture is because of primary shoe install.
The side that is in the picture is the right side or passenger side..I did fix that rubber cup and also tried to push the wheel cylinder pins in..I used a wooden dowel..and one did go in a bit...as mentioned above I ended up grinding the bottom adjusters..the main thing is I wanted to get the wheels on the get the car off the bench..I'm working on the rearend right now...
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