39 brakes

fleetpaint

fleetpaint

Junior Member
This forum is awesome!....Just purchased a 1939 2 door sedan, & the members here have been able to help me through every issue!..thank you!

Now I have a question about the brakes! all shoes are in good shape, adjusted, and bleed. The best way to discribe them is they simply slow the car down :eek:.... They are very scary! Is this the way they were?, or am I missing something? thanks agian, Dave.
 
They sure do have a different feel, don't they... Try more pedal pressure... I have the same brakes in my A-v8... A cement truck pulled out in front of me a couple of weeks ago, I locked up all four, stopped on an angle... Guess they were working for me!!

It maybe that you will benifit by installing relined shoes, make sure that they fit the conture of the drum with a bit of heal and toe clearance, they should rock on the center of the shoe, so by applying them, the center hits first and as pressure is aplied the shoe has an increased contact pattern... Hope this is clear... Karl
 
I think you are missing something unless you are trying to compare them with the brakes on a 2011 Mercedes 500SL. Try driving another '39 and see what you should expect. Another option is to have the owner of another '39 try your brakes. Most common problems are not arcing the shoes to the drums and reversing the long and short shoes.

Charlie Stephens

fleetpaint said:
This forum is awesome!....Just purchased a 1939 2 door sedan, & the members here have been able to help me through every issue!..thank you!

Now I have a question about the brakes! all shoes are in good shape, adjusted, and bleed. The best way to discribe them is they simply slow the car down :eek:.... They are very scary! Is this the way they were?, or am I missing something? thanks agian, Dave.
Click to expand...
 
Another typical cause for lousy brakes on 39-42's is that the lower anchor adjustment was not made properly and therefore the shoe linings are not centered in the drums, so do not have complete contact...
 
As richard says they adjust differently, they are not self actuating. The adjustment is not very easy. The instructions are in the repair manual. They will stop ok, but not like the more modern style with floating shoes.
 
Another possibility is a slow bypass of fluid in the master cylinder. It doesn't take much force to bleed the brakes but if you notice a soft pedal or a slow drift of the pedal to the floor with no visible leaks outside, you probably aren't getting full pressure to the wheels and the master cylinder is bypassing...just a thought.
 
fleetpaint said:
This forum is awesome!....Just purchased a 1939 2 door sedan, & the members here have been able to help me through every issue!..thank you!

Now I have a question about the brakes! all shoes are in good shape, adjusted, and bleed. The best way to discribe them is they simply slow the car down :eek:.... They are very scary! Is this the way they were?, or am I missing something? thanks agian, Dave.
Click to expand...
You are missing something "big time". The 39 brakes with the proper lining and arc ground and adjusted correctly will slide all four wheels. What else do you want?
 
jerry grayson said:
You are missing something "big time". The 39 brakes with the proper lining and arc ground and adjusted correctly will slide all four wheels. What else do you want?
Click to expand...


I agree.

Something isn't right.

Also bad brakes can also be attributed to poor friction material.

Today's stuff isn't too good.

Anyone here tried any Potterfield relined shoes? I think they're Carbon Kevlar.

Fortunately I can turn my own front drums and contour grind all my own shoes. I might start doing it for other Barners.
 
I have a '39 that has kinda mushy brakes but if I pump them once they harden up and stop pretty well. Is this what COE Dan calls buypass? I was thinking it is just an adjustment problem. Any thoughts?
 
v8nut said:
I have a '39 that has kinda mushy brakes but if I pump them once they harden up and stop pretty well. Is this what COE Dan calls buypass? I was thinking it is just an adjustment problem. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Sounds to me like you need to bleed them. The mushy is while you are compressing air. This is especially true if you have Silicon fluid.

Charlie Stephens
 
They will act that way if not adjusted properly also the first pump moves the piston out and the pumping moves it out further. I could not find anyone to contour grind my brakes and turn the drums in my area. I live in upstate NY. The Tax me state!! My drums are slightly off and my pedal pulsates .
If you keep adjusting the breaks they will seat to the drun in about 1000 miles.
 
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