1941 Pickup - Problem installing new stock Brakes

F

FatFender

Junior Member
In the quest to get my 1941 Ford 1/2 ton pickup (essentially the same as a 1940 pickup) on the road this Summer. I sought the help of a highly regarded mechanic in my area of North Carolina Terry is his name and he owns and works on a variety of early 60s ford vehicles.

Terry has done a very thorough checkout of my truck and noted that the brake shoes would need to be replaced soon. So I suggested the be replaced now. I ordered the parts from JobLot Automotive in New York. Terry matched things up when they arrived and determined the brake shoes were an exact replacement for the shoes that had been on the truck, with the exception of the thickness of the lining. This area of course was thicker on the new shoes and quite warn on the old shoes.

Now here is the problem, with the new shoes installed and the adjusting eccentric adjusted to a position which compresses the shoes as much as possible, the brake drums will not fit over the new shoes. We're stumped and wondered if any of you have experienced this phenomenon and might to be offer a solution. I hate to put the old brakes on again.

Please share any wisdom you might have.

Thanks the FatFender guy in NC
 
I had the same symptoms with a '37 converted to hydraulics. It turned out that the manufactures arced all shoes for a .030 over drum and mine were standard. Arcing the shoes solved the problem. Good luck finding someone with a machine to arc the shoes (courtesy OSHA and the AQMD), I ended up sending mine back to the supplier who returned them to the manufacturer to be arced.

Charlie Stephens
 
Compare the tab that goes into the wheel cylinder between the old and new. You can grind a 1/32- 1/16 or so off the tab so the overall diameter is less. John
 
If you have backed off the adjustment.
This is what they call chamfering.
At the end of each lining grind down the lining 1/8 depth and back about 1/2 on angle. This should help getting the drums on and make adjusting better.
 
My first approach to brake jobs using new shoes and used drums is to address the rust edge built up at the outer edge of the used brake drum. Since the brake shoe does not contact this area corrosion rust builds up on the drum surface, this decreases the diameter to less than 12" making it hard to push the drum over the new shoes. Resurfacing removes this edge so if you have not had your drums resurfaced this lip should be addressed before attempting to reinstall the drums. You can easily remove the lip with a disk grinder and slightly taper the outer edge of the drum braking surface 1/4" to make installation and removal easier.
 
Thank you for all the very useful information. The cause of the problrem was incorrect length parking brake cables which even when released did not allow enough compression of all of the componants to allow the drum to fit. After identifying the problem we removed the cables to test the theory and everything fit as it should. I do appreciate the wisdom of your experience and recommendations.

F.F
 
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