Re: Brake Shoe Centering Measurements

Posted by Marco on Sep. 25, 1998 at 10:37:06

In Reply to: Brake Shoe Centering Measurements
posted by Kevin Daly on Sep. 24, 1998 at 14:46:20

Kevin,
I think everyone is right!!!How could that be you ask?I used all unused parts on the roadster including standard steel drums.I ended up with .002 clearance 100% of every shoe.The shoes were against their stops and could not be retracted further.On final adjustment I took up each adjusting wedge a notch to barely skim the drum.The free-pedal came from the brake rod adjustment set to not engage the actuators imediately and the brake rod retracting springs snap the pedal back to the top.
Now, if you use oversized drums you would need to shorten the brake rods to bring the shoes off their stops for the purpose of centering.Then when adjusting for proper free-pedal you would back off the rods and the actuating end of shoes will retract towards the stops and away from the drum.What this actual clearance would be with proper free-pedal I could only guess.
Keep in mind that proper centering is done to the diameter of the drum.If you centering tool is nonadjustable and setup for .080" oversized drums and your drum is .060" over, you would use the tool and .010" feeler to confirm the shoes are properly centered.
Another point of interest.As you begin attempting to center your shoes you'll find nothing is symetrical as you would expect.You will find considerable improvement by mixing and matching shoes.If you are fortunate you will end up with three well matched pairs and the last one can be corrected by adjusting the length of the adjusting shaft on the pivot end of the shoe.Expect it to take several hours! Have fun!!!
Regards,
Marco