I have been pretty aggressive with the parking brake on my '60, as it is a stickshift, and once it popped off and rolled into my wife's Honda. So I snick it down pretty hard. Lat night, after gassing up, I rolled out of the Hess station and my next stop felt TERRIBLE. Lumpy pedal and shuddering brake action. It was bad enough that I thought maybe I had neglected to tighten a wheel and it was finally flopping in the bolts. But no, the wheels are tight. I fear that my aggressive e-brake use may have warped a rear drum. Does that make sense? The Hess is less than 1/4 mile from my house, so these drums were not hot. Also, I have not had the car over 40MPH and have never made a panic stop since the new brakes.
I have been wracking my brain. But in my heart I agree. I am going to take a short ride today. I'll test stopping the car with the ebrake only to see if I feel it in the pedal. If not, I will try some stops and see if I feel it in the steering wheel (last night I was more concerned with getting the car back home than detailed diagnosis). That way I will know if it's back or front. I'll let you know what I find. If these drums were on a 1997 Cavalier I would not wonder as much, but that drum looks like a locomotive wheel. Ebrake application on a cold drum should not distort it.
Took the Skylark out last weekend and it felt like some lugs were loose, or something. Pulled over, looked OK. I got back home and raised it up. One tire is so badly separated I'm surprised it didn't blow out. Seems like overnight. It goes in for P245R60X15s T/As on my new (used) chrome sport wheels on all fours, in the morning. :Brow:
Well, it's the front left brake drum. Going down a hill, wheels turned left, I step on the brake and the wheel is shimmying like a belly dancer. Step harder and lock up the left front. Turned to the right, not much shimmy. I think some of you remember that I ran the front shoes that came with the car because they looked good and all the hardware looked really fresh. I just repacked, new seals, and back on. Well, dumb idea. I intend to pull that wheel off for a look. I guess there's also some chance it's the wheel bearing but I really doubt it. Tomorrow night or Sunday night I'll get her up on jackstands and get the front drums back off. I have a NOS set of shoes sitting on the shelf so I'm OK there. Thanks all.
you might have had a shoe come apart also, I've had that happen before, it's more common with bonded shoes than with riveted shoes
Sounds like one of the wheel cylinders is starting to gum up. It'll lock a wheel up and pull in that direction; - what happens is one side of the cylinder seizes up and the full force of the hydraulics goes to the other shoe; bang; - lock up, and if that other side is sticky, a long time releasing. Common complaint on 40 year old systems; - modern brake fluids do wonderful things to old rubber, and if there was any chance of moisture getting in, those cylinders will rust out and fail. A dragging shoe would be audible, and if it's really coming apart, every change of direction would be accompanied with a grinding noise.
I'll know more in a few hours. The front's going up and the wheel's coming off. As long as there is no damage to the wheel bearing, the plan is to replace the shoes, have the drums checked and turned, and reinstall with new springs. I should have mentioned that while I did run the same hard parts such as shoes and springs, the hydraulic parts were all replaced. Hoses, lines, cylinders, all new. I did the full treatment on the rear and should not have gone halfway on the front no matter how good the existing parts looked. Another lesson learned.
Well, good news. No surprises. Wheel bearings look great, nothing disintegrated. Looks like a shoe may not have been as good as I thought - one of the shoes seems to be breaking down and depositing itself on the drum. Perhaps the shoe spent some time stuck to the drum at some point or...well, I don't know. But the drum should be fine after it's cleaned up on a lathe. Brakes are all back together with new shoes just awaiting the soon-to-be-machined drums. Plastic bags on the spindles and over the brakes themselves. I tapped the seals out of the drums gently. They should be fine to reuse. They have about 30 miles on them...
I just remembered that on my '60 Invicta the steel liners had started to separate from the aluminum. This gave the drum a wicked shimmy when the brakes were applied. The fastest way to notice that was look at the pattern "burned" into the drum. Also; - older unturned drums have this nasty habit of glazing, and when this occurs the shoes take a beating. The shoe then tries to conform to the drum, and if the taper or run-out of the drum is wrong, the shoe will chatter and leave bits of itself all over the place. Getting the drums turned was probably the best idea, and should eliminate the problem.
Well, drums are turned. They look great. Everything is ready to go back together. And..... I cannot get the drums on over the new shoes. Star wheels are fully adjusted to minimum. Top of the brake shoes are fully against the pin. They will slide on down below near the adjust but are binding up by the pin. I just cannot get them on, either side. Shoes are 5454193 NOS GM shoes. I know they are correct. And the short shoe is up front where it belongs. Any ideas? I am not sure ANYONE re-arcs shoes anymore so if the linings are too thick, I have no clue what to do. They are marked as 1/4 inch linings.
A closer look reveals that the shoes I was putting on are Delco 5454193, while the ones previously on the car are 5454083. I bought the 5454193s on word that they were correct for the application. Shucks.
I will close this thread soon, but I wanted to show you guys some pics and get your thoughts. When my shoes would not fit last night, I went to the workshop and grabbed the old ones to match them up. This is when I discovered that they were not, in fact, a perfect match. Anyway, I spent a lot of time looking at the old shoes. And I just can't find anything wrong with them. Here's some pics. Your thoughts please. They all look just like this.
They look fine to me Bob, mine are in similar shape and they are working fine, but I have only driven the car about 25 miles so far. HTH
Yeah, now I am tempted to use them again. After donning a respirator and cleaning them with a wirebrush and a little CRC on a rag they look almost new. ou:
Cleaned up, reinstalled, adjusted. I'll let you know how things are when I get a chance to go for a drive. Pedal seemed a little tight when I adjusted per shop manual (tighten until wheels can be just turned by hand, back off 15 clicks). Wondered if that was a little close, still. I did hear a very slight scrape. So I backed off five more clicks on each side. Pedal feels more like what I would expect. No noise when spinning the drums. I'll drive and readjust as needed. Something else occurred to me. Maybe others have thought of this and it's obvious. Seems to me that before adjustment, one good press of the brake pedal is in order to center up the shoes inside the drum. Installing them, it's pretty easy to push the entire mechanism a bit off center in one direction or the other.
old school,,, adjust them up to where with a good healthy tug you can move the wheel 1/2 turn,,,,, and then ck out the pedal with a good hard stomp,,, this centers the shoes,,, then do the turn the wheels thing again... again the wheels should turn 1/2 turn.... then when the liners seat into the drums,, adjust again... we would never ''back off''' an adjustment unless they were too tight....
