I got my buddy's Model A-V8 in the shop, rear brake locked up, decided it was a stuck wheel cylinder. Pulled it apart and after a bit felt real stupid. Dawned on me the wheel cylinder was at the bottom of the plate. Now these brakes have been on the car like this since my buddy built it in 1958 and worked fine all these years. I didn't want to turn this into a project, just a quick repair but.... goes against my grain to leave it like this, I feel I really should pull both sides and flop them. Of course that would probably mean replumbing, reworking e brake cables, ect. Thoughts? Any real reason they shouldn't work upside down?
They will work find but may be a pain to bleed. On my AV8, I redrilled and rotated the backing plate until the wheel cylinder cleared the spring hanger. Honestly, if they have worked since 58, they should work fine now once you get them freshened up
OK, went and looked at what it will take to flop the plates, now I see why they were mounted upside down. Looks like they welded a shackle perch right there on the axle flange, probably wouldn't clear the cylinder. 50's teenage problem solving! So flopping them will turn into a bigger project then I wanted this week. Was this a common procedure back in the day?
The cylinder is still sitting the same way, should bleed the same. Guess they did think that out and turned the cylinder over.
I've seen it quite a bit but never had a car with flipped plates. Like I said if they bleed OK, they should work fine.
I installed mine flipped back in the sixties. It was the normal way for a large percentage of us. It gave better clearance for running the brake lines. It was a published method for doing the brake conversion. It worked fine, but did require extra effort to bleed. Just had to pump a little faster to get the bubbles out the bottom. While the backing plates were swapped left to right, iirc, the wheel cylinders were not.
Common deal in the day. The Model A spring perch will not clear the backing plate. You move the wheel cylinder to the other side and also the backing plates plus rotate 180*. Works just fine and if you see a big hole in 40 backing plates you now know why. PS they bleed fine as the bleeder is still on top.
You can install them on the right side with the wheel cylinder at the top if you cut a notch in the backing plate. The wheel cylinder clears but makes for a tight routing of the brake line . Never liked the idea of the wheel cylinder on the bottom.
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