I'll explain, My ole heap an early A rpu with mechanical brakes has been on the road for a little while and getting plenty of miles under it's belt. I hadn't driven it much, but all reports were no probs, so the night before I take it on a long trip, I pulls up to a set o traffic lights, and I starts getting chronic Cowl shake, like nothing else, it persisted and the next day it wasn't gettin no better, so doin laps up the street while pulling up, (gently and normal braking was ok) I'd stand up and look at the front wheels, (it's a hiboy) they'd start swingin back and fwd, they weren't clapping as such. so we wheel it into a mates place, and start lookin, we check all the tie/steering rod ends, the wishbone ball rubber, king pins, no worries, the steering box was a little loose we tightened it up, not 100%. the pedal wasn't pulsing just the steering wheel throwing back and fwd, and cowl shake like you've never seen. Couldn't find anything conclusive, so went anyway, prob still there under moderate to heavy brakeing, good thing the handbrake works well it pulls you up straight. Last I drove the sucker, even running over a railway line caused the shake, but what do you guys think, what else could it be, has anyone else had this prob?? Outback
How'd you check the King Pins???? My buddy had a similar problem - turns out teh front end geometry was so bad it caused a similar problem. Tightening up worn components only made his problem worse! The geometry HAD to get fixed to make it stop.
Did you ever think of going hydraulic? My dad is restoring his 32 B model roadster and we used the drums and backerplates off of a 39 Merc. One of his oldtimer buddies coached us on the swap. Apparently this was done a lot "back in the day" especially around here (New England) where the cold and ice pay hell with mechanical brakes. Anyone familiar with this swap? All we did was slot in the 4 mounting holes to fit the smaller pattern and used a Model A piston ring as a spacer around the hub. A couple of lines and a see-saw toggle bracket to backwards mount the master cylinder from a 55 chevy PU and she stops real nice now. If I'm not mistaken the early Merc plates have two sets of adjusting cams as oppposed to one on the Fords. In any case they're supposedly trickier to adjust, but that's what we'd found at the swap meet, so on they went. I can take some photos of the install if you'd like.
I had a similar shake on my '32 ford and it turned out to be badly worn king pins. I replaced them and it went away. I didn't have mechanical brakes though.
After checking out the pins, check basic settings...caster, camber, toe. Don't think this has anything to do with the brakes themselves.
After checking out the pins, check basic settings...caster, camber, toe. Don't think this has anything to do with the brakes themselves. I'm packing away my office for construction happening after Christmas...yesterday I packed up the 1936 vintage Ford Mechanics School manual on supension settings and diagnosis...it won't see daylight til February, alas...
Well my friend, this has nothing to do with the brakes. It's a Lack of Caster and/or Toe in. Take it somewhere and get the front aligned! The car will drive (sorta) with zero or some positive caster and not show bad shake. When you get on the brakes you cause the front to dip and that increases the positive caster causing the wheel wobble side to side. The Wizzard
i dont know if you can tell on a mecanical fronend but my buddys car had the axel put in backwards and it gave it the shakes
I assume you've checked the wheel bearings. Stick your hand on those caps next time it does this and see if it's hot.
agree ,it is not your brakes,however you do want to make sure they are applying at the same time,making your car favor one direction or another with worn components only causes more shimmy and shake ,check front end components and check measurements to the front and back axle make sure your not dog tracking and check the play in all suspension ,bushing, and bolts ,they will twist under braking load and throw off the geometry of the vehicle,
Yeh, as said above this is not a problem because they are mechanical. Kingpins, aligment and bearings have all ready been mentioned. What about warped drums. The stock 'A' had stamped steel drums instead of the conventional cast iron. Under heavy breaking they can warp into an oval shape. This will be even worse if the drums have been skimmed a couple of times. One of the most popular accessories for the 'A' was the steel brake bands that were pushed on over the outside of the drum to help, not solve the problem.
This is my take on this. Since you have been driving this car and it has not experienced any problems until you stopped using it, the problem is not in the suspension geometry or the bearings or king pins. This sounds more like an imbalance in the braking form side to side. Like the shoes are hanging up slightly, there is uneven pressure applied to the brake surfaces due to wear or there is some wheel bearing grease that has dripped on the drum and you do not have a clean dry braking surface. Since these are not self a adjusting, you should first adjust the air pressure in the tires to be equal and take the car for a spin. If it still exhibits a chatter, first check for grease dripping on the brake surface, check the botton of the backing plate to see if there is a tell tale oil stain, similar to a leaky wheel cylinder. If this looks ok jack the front axle up and recheck the brake drag from side to side, it should be equal. You can check easily by having someone push on the pedal as you slowly rotate the wheel. If this equal the next procedure is to check to see if the brakes are reacting equally. Again rotate the wheels as the pedal is being depressed. The pedal should lock up the wheels firmly in about the same spot. If you can have another buddy help so both wheels are rotated at the same time it will really be of benefit. If you have the shoes readjusted correctly take your car to a spot where you can drive it on a dirt surface.Do a brake check to ensure both wheels are locking up at the same time by observing the skid marks in a panic stop. If they are not, one wheel brake is not functioning as properly as the other and it is now necessary to pull the drums to see what is wrong. More than likely the scenario is grease on the shoe but there can be other issues, one step at a time. Also besure that the air pressure is equal, these brakes are real sensitive to that. .
Hi Dick, Larry the pinball guy from Hershey, next to Paxton, here.... Glad to see you are still checking in here.