Re: Do it just once!

Posted by Marco on Oct. 18, 1998 at 12:12:29

In Reply to: Brake or Broke? You Tell Me!
posted by Kevin Daly on Oct. 16, 1998 at 08:15:01

Kevin,
You commented that you were going to upgrade to cast iron drums at a later date. DON'T PLAN ON IT. If your drums clean up at .060" over or less you'll be fine. If you live in a region with plenty of hills you may consider adding bands on the drums to reduce brake fade on the hills with oversized drums.
Having the shoes matched to the drums can be done two ways. One is simply to have the shoes ground to match which takes 1/32" of the centermost portion of the shoes with .060" over drums. The other method requires carefull peening of the web of the shoe to enlarge the diameter, or gathering of the same area to reverse the procedure. I've never tried this but have some shoes I couldn't use because they had been enlarged.
The most difficult and time consuming part of a proper brake job is matching and centering the shoes. If you go through all the trouble to get it right and then change to standard 11" drums you will need to repeat the process. You may also need to replace some of the shoes or linings to get it right again.
Just something else to think about!!!

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