So not sure if I want to keep my original Mechanical brakes or turn to juice. Still stock flat 8. What are good tune ups on Mech? what's the easiest way to go to juice on a stock 35. going to stay with stock wheels or steel 15-16"
The Model A through 1935 hubs and drums interface with the wheels at two levels. If you go to juice you need an adapter for the wire wheels. If you stay with mechanical you need an adapter for the solid wheels. See http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/40-ford-wheels-on-a-model-a.750368/#post-8330045 Running a solid wheel with mechanical brakes and no adapter may result in having a wheel fall off. Some people solve this problem by grinding off the raised areas on the drums. Cheapest easiest way to go to hydraulic brakes is to use 1940-48 drums and backing plates. Best is to use Bendix brakes from Lincolns of the forties. A reproduction is sold by mtcarproducts.com There is a ton of data in the archives on this conversion. Be sure to check with Richard Lacy at [email protected], (626) 338-2282 for his master cylinder mount that uses the original pedals. Charlie Stephens
I have run mechanicals on two hot rods. I have real life first hand experience. My cars were a 30 and 31 model a Ford. The 31 i fitted 32 brakes. Both were rod actuated unlike later cars but heres what i know none the less. The shoes must be arched to fit the drum to make full contact. Adjust the wheels as you would any non energized brake system but then adjust the pedal assembly/ rod or cable system. Not all the play is at the shoes. It all needs to be adjusted every time. Worn out of round drums make adjustment difficult. Even id they look ok have them turned Mechanichal brakes work very well if serviced properly. I used them for nostalgia and had the option to easily run juice having owned the parts for both but like early parts. Try it out. If its not for tou th r n convert to juice brakea. Good luck
Do they arch properly when being adjusted? How does this happen? Sorry for non-knowledge for this subject
No they dont. Theres a tool to do this but before i knew this existed i sliced the inner web of my shoes, clamped them into the drum off the car obviously and re welded them. There are many threads on how to so it correctly on fordbarn
Arched means that once you get the drums resurfaced on a drum lathe, then you must have each pair of shoes "contour ground" to match that drum as far as diameter of that drum, versus the radius of the 2 shoes. Each shoe, on every one of your drums, will give 100% contact, if each pair of shoes are ground to it's particular drum. (when you get drums cut, they won't be the exact same diameter, so you fit each pair of shoes to a specific drum) Later, during a routine adjustment, the shoes do not need any further grinding. Also, the lower adjustable shoe anchors should not be adjusted during your periodic brake adjustments. That anchor only gets adjusted during shoe replacements. If you made the mistake of adjusting those after the shoes have been worn in, then the shoe contact will be wrong. Bad news is that Ford rear drum center axle hole is way too small to fit onto a typical drum lathe. So ask around your area to find a place that can do the rear drums
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