So tonight I finally jacked the front of the truck up to see what was going on. I have a slight amount of slop in the kingpins that were "just done". As everything else they were just done wrong. I'm assuming a little bit of slop in them isn't worth tearing them apart for?
"It depends"... 
. Is the "slop" at the top and bottom of the knuckle, where the knuckle / wheel is rocking in & out at the top/bottom, or is the slop up & down vertical motion ( sliding up & down on the pin) ?
If it's rocking, that would be play in either between the bushings & pin, or the pin rocking in the axle itself (or both).
If it's vertical play, then you could take that out by adding hardened steel shim washers ( McMaster-Carr sells them).
In a perfect world, there should be "no play", but no binding either.
I don't know how much is "acceptable", but there's a "fair amount" of slop in the knuckles / pins on my '28 Coupe, and it's not scary-undriveable (that would have been my '41 De Soto before I rebuilt the front-end), nor are the tires wearing oddly.
If there's too much lost-motion, road shocks will cause the loose parts to "pound" against each other and things will wear quicker...
With the brakes, I've read tons of things on how to adjust them and even watched a decent video on it.
Heres what I don't get.
Why would I want the back brakes to engage before the fronts? This does not seem logical, in fact it seems like it would give me a longer stopping distance in a panic stop because my rear wheels will be locked and dragging while I try to control / throttle the fronts.
This is the way things were engineered from day one. Four-wheel brakes were still a relatively new feature in 1930, and most cars had the brake bias set-up to favor the rear wheels. The Ford was designed with 40% front / 60% rear brake bias. Part of the reasoning was that if the rear wheels locked but the fronts kept turning the driver would still having steering control of the vehicle; if the front wheels locked-up, they would no longer steer. Also, there was some concern that if the fronts locked-up, the vehicle might cartwheel.
All that said, most seasoned A-guys seem to favor keeping things the way Henry built it. Replace the worn parts, adjust everything correctly, and the brakes will work well.
The other thing I don't understand is why is there a complicated process in adjusting them. Is there any reason I can't adjust the brakes with the wheels in the air so they just start to rub on the drums without any pressure on the pedal and then back off one click? This should theoretically give me equal braking power to all 4 brakes.
Well, if they were hydraulic brakes, yes, you'd just go around to each wheel. This is because hydraulic brakes are "self-equalizing" : pressure applied to the pedal is evenly and instantly distributed to all four wheels.
Not necessarily the case with 80 year-old mechanical brakes. Pedal pressure operates the main brake rod, which in turn rotates the cross-shaft, which has levers at each end (two per side) which connect the pull-rods going to each wheel. At each wheel, there is a pin and clevis, brake shaft and bushings, then a cam or rod and operating wedge which actually spreads the brake shoes. That translates to a lot of opportunity for wear / slop, and lost -motion... and not the same amount to each wheel.
Yes, it's a fiddly process. About three months ago, the brakes were becoming really ineffective on my coupe. I finally resolved to dig into them and see what was really going-on. I found that the LF front brake was doing most of the work in stopping the car, followed by the LR, then the RR, and the RF was doing almost nothing at all.
I disconnected the rods at the wheels, and checked the position of the levers at the end of the cross-shaft, and adjusted the main rod until they were vertical. Then I went on to the front brakes.
On the fronts, the lever at the wheel is supposed to point "ahead" , to about 1 o' clock when things just contact the operating pin / wedge. My RF was all the way back at "11 o'clock before it operated the wedge / shoes.
I ordered two new operating pins and two sets of brake pin "pills" or shims.
I replaced an original pin on the RF, and had to add 1 pill to get things set-up properly. I suspect the brake shaft & bushings are worn too.
The brake tracks are quite worn as well.
Having the levers postioned correctly, I then went-on to adjust the showe clearance on the fronts, using the adjusting wedge at the top. I cranked them in until the wheel was locked hard, then backed-off 1 notch at a time until the wheel turned, and kept loosening until the wheel "spun freely" or with a hint of drag. When I was getting close, I made sure the adjuster was seated with the pins, rocking the wrench back & forth slightly: if the pins aren't seated in the grooves of the adjusting wedge, it can give you a false adjustment.
After all that, I checked each front wheel: spun it, then operated the lever, seeing that the wheel stopped when the lever hit vertical or so. At least things were improved to the point where both wheels seemed to have about the same braking effect.
I moved to the rear wheels. I don't have a hub puller, so I didn't yank the rear wheels. With the rods disconnected, the rear levers should be vertical, and there should be little or no lost-motion between the lever beginning to move, and the brake applying. Again, worn shaft /bushings and /or a worn cam will add-up to reduced braking efficiency.
I adjusted the rear shoes in the same manner as the fronts, checking the operation at each wheel by spinning the wheel / applying the lever, and confirming some braking activity at each rear wheel.
When connecting the rods to the levers at each wheel, the rods should be adjusted so that the clevis pin just slips-in. Don't put the cotters in just yet.
Now you go back to the brake pedal and try it out.. the pedal should move no more than about 1/2 way to the floor. According to the operator's manual, it should come no closer to the floor than 1 inch.
Now you get-out your pedal-jack, and set-it up so that the pedal is depressed one inch, and go check each wheel: the rears should be beggining to take-hold, the fronts should still spin fairly free. Adjust that the wedges as needed.
Now set the pedal jack to 2 inches down: the rears should be nearly locked, and the fronts should show significant drag.
This sets-up the basic front / rear brake bias.
Now you go drive the vehicle, applying the brakes and looking to see if it pulls to one side when you brake. A dirt / gravel road makes this a bit easier... you can easily see which wheels are locking-up or not... keep fiddling with the adjusting wedge on each wheel until you get a decnt balance between each side.
Once you've successfully gotten to this point, your brakes are properly "set-up", and the only attention needed will be at the adjusting wedges every couple hundred miles or so, depending on type of driving.
One more wrinkle: Ford brakes through 1948 were "fixed-anchor", as opposed to the (now) more common "floating", self-centering shoe found in Bendix and Delco-Moraine brakes. This means that the curvature or "arc" of the brake lining should match the curvature of the inside of the drum as closely as possible, for complete lining / drum contact.
This is done with a "brake shoe grinder". You could concieveably do it using sandpaper and the inside of each drum, using chalk on the lining to ID high-spots ( where the chalk rubs-off ), or find an old timer / model A guy that has a grinder and who will grind your shoes to match the drums.
I still need to go through my coupe's brakes and rebuild everything, but it's stopping a lot better after I went through things...
Look forward to all responses.
