Had to slam on the brakes today in the '56 Vette, right rear tire skidded long before the others were seriously slowing me down. Tried it again and confirmed. 4 wheel drums, single reservoir master. My neighbor who dragged this thing out of the barn replaced everything, master, lines, wheel cylinders, linings.. Drums turned. Pedal is high and firm. Doesn't pull to one side or the other. I have had the drums off, no wetness on the linings. I haven't pulled the wheels to check adjustments yet, to my way of thinking once the pressure is equalized it shouldn't matter that much. But I certainly will, just wondering what else to check while the drums are off.
Check the travel of the wheel cylinders,,,,,some might not be moving well . Also,,,,,it might just require a good brake bleeding,,,,,could be as simple as that . Make sure all the parts were replaced also,,,,,,double check everything . Drums when they are right work very well . However,,,the pressure doesn’t equalize everything out,,,they must be adjusted. Tommy
look over the brakes carefully to make sure it was all assembled correctly....long linings to the back, park brake stuff all where it belongs, springs all where they belong, etc.
When I've had the one wheel skid, it's often brake shoes contamination, from leaking axle seal, leaking wheel cylinder. Quick fix is to use some 100 grit sandpaper on the shoes and use brake cleaner and clean towels on the drum. Surprisingly, a small amount of grease on a brake shoe will cause it to lock up when pedal is applied.
When I've had the one wheel skid, it's often brake shoes contamination, from leaking axle seal, leaking wheel cylinder. Quick fix is to use some 100 grit sandpaper on the shoes and use brake cleaner and clean towels on the drum. Surprisingly, a small amount of grease on a brake shoe will cause it to lock up when pedal is applied. THIS!
Ahhhhhh, the joys of drum brakes. Sorry @blowby, didn't mean to digress your thread, it's just that I think about this kind of thing every time I see someone post about how great drum breaks are. I think it's more of an adjustment issue, you'll need to spend some time getting them all adjusted correctly. Make sure the self adjusters are working. I've never seen grease on a drum brake cause it to lock up, my experience would be the opposite, but different people have different experiences. I once had a brake shoe fail due to age and deterioration from sitting. The lining slipped off and wedged itself in between the show and drum and that wheel locked up hard. It freed up when I backed up a little and I was able to limp slowly home and mostly stay off the brakes till I got there. But I think you said the linings are all new, so that's probably not it.
I always fine adjust drum brakes on a sandy road. And always try to get the fronts to slide first and even. Kinda strange but thats the way I taught myself.
One problem I’ve ran into after installing new brake shoes is having a slightly different diameter / wear pattern between the left and right side. Variations in either the drums or the shoes can cause this type of brake pull. Look at the wear pattern on the shoes to see if it looks about the same between the left and the right sides.
Something that is often overlooked when doing brake work, check the flexible rubber brake line hoses/ with age they tend to start breaking down and get soft inside causing them to collapse, I spun a 36 Ford sedan on the highway when traffic came to a screeching halt. With the deterioration from the brake fluid the hose takes a lot less fluid to lock the brakes. I have found several bad hoses since that time, fortunately at the time no Joey Chittwood stunts were involved. HRP
What I can see looks like it should. Are the wheel bearings in good condition? looseness will do weird things
All solid and rubber lines are new. Brakes release right away, work as normal under ight braking, no pull. Wheel bearings.. When I got this on the road there was a whine/growl that I was sure was rear wheel bearings. Pulled the axles, bearings felt great, no slop, no rough spots. So I starting digging deeper and next thing I knew I was staring at the pilot bushing. Found the bad carrier bearings, swapped in another rear while rebuilding the old one. Rebuilt the 3 speed with new bearings. Got it all together, still has noise but to a lesser extent with the different rear. So I bought new wheel bearings and plan to change them when I put the original rear back in. But again they feel fine. One thing that comes to mind; I don't think the shoes were arced. I'm going to measure the drums and maybe swap them side for side.
Double-check your shoe adjustment. It may be as simple as having one drum that is adjusted tighter than the others, causing it to lock up before the rest.
It's normal for newly relined shoes to have a smaller arc than drums that have been machined. They will contact in the near the center of the shoe. And work just fine, they won't lock up. But if the shoes have too large of an arc they might contact the ends first. I can't see from the pictures what's going on...but I do know that I've never had shoes arced, and never had the grab because they were just contacting near the center of the shoe.
With new brakes, you may have to 'bed' them in before they grab equally. You'll need a stretch of quiet country road so you can make repeated stops without freaking out any other traffic. Start with a half dozen firm stops from 30-35ish. Then do the same with 10-15 mph higher speed stops until you get to 80-90ish. You want firm but not locked stops. Don't overheat the brakes; allow cooldown as needed. Of course if the "one wheel slide" doesn't correct fairly soon in the process, the issue is not going to be solved with more of the same. Inspect, adjust, fix as per the suggestions.
If one side is dragging enough to heat things up a bit ,the hot side may grab better. Make sure the backing plates(s) shoe bearing pads aren't grooved & hanging up on a shoe .easiest ? Readjust the shoes ..
Not one screwball or wild as guess answer in the bunch and every one of them relates to a similar issue that I have run into working on drum brakes. The one thing I would be concerned about is looking at the pads that the shoes slide on on the backing plates a 2old2fast suggested. Especially on the side that isn't locking up. The shoes wear grooves into the pads and new shoes can hang up on those grooves. New shoes not having matching contact surfaces out of the box has been an ongoing issue ever since we got told to quit using the shoe arcing machines in the shop. The one in the Firestone store I worked in didn't even have a bag or can to catch the dust in. Our regional rep borrowed my side cutters and cut the cord off it and that was that. With new shoes I did exactly as shift Wizard said, Drive the bugger and ride the brakes and bed them in. I have to agree that a lot of the time the side you think you are having an issue with on brakes isn't the problem side. The brakes may lock up on one side because the other side isn't doing it's job.
Well got under there today and sure enough the lock up side was about 10 clicks tighter than the other. I initially thought that would equalize out as the wheel cylinders filled but maybe not. Or maybe that's why it only locked on rapid application. It's off the road for about a week waiting on a starter rebuild but will report back.
When I was starting out I was taught to adjust til it just locks and then back off. Did that until I got the "feel". Always used that method on trucks with an adjuster for each shoe.
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