A Brake Doktor on Ebay

Having done many "A" brake jobs ( I will be starting my 2nd this month today) I can attest that having the right tools is indespensible. Brent, I have not used one of these, and like you, use a shoe arc machine made by barrett.
They do the job nicely... Mine has a vac bag on it that catches the dust or you can put a vaccuum on it.

I think these were the economy quickie tool of the day... to keep from disassembling the brakes and get them reasonably true quickly in my opinion.
The larger better equipment costs more in the day. I can see where these may have their place, downsides it will get dust everywhere on your backing plates and brakes. Yes, you can blow it off...I'm not sure these will do any better job than a well fit/arced shoe and properly aligned on the backing plate.

I use KRW centering gauges and have the current reproduced units available at my disposal in our club tool stash. Honestly I use the KRW all the time and use feeler gauges to make sure my contact is uniform. They all take some seating break in anyway.. and a couple of rounds of dialing in before they are where they need to be for stopping on a dime.

I can't see where this tool at a $$400 + value is worth it to me... as I would still do my comprehensive restoration process and arcing to get them where they need to be. It wouldn't necessarily shortcut anything in my book.

I can also see where there could be adjustment/setup issues, hub/drum issues that could affect the overall result. You might be sanding off a shoe cockeyed when in the end the shoe may need replacing/correcting.
If this sold for a reasonable amount it might be worth it for a resource for that once in a while thing, Otherwise I can't see where proper restoration and fitting of the shoes to the drum that needs to be done anyway won't do the job.

Just my 2-cents worth.

Larry Shepard
 
Hi Kurt in NJ,

In your response #5 above ....... something just appears very interesting ...... in the lower left of the attached photo ...... what's a guess as to the year that the weathered wood box was made?
 
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It will be $895.00 and include a second one FREE!!!! Just pay for shipping and handling and you'll have to hurry, supplies are limited to the first 1000 customers.
 
H. L. Chauvin said:
Hi Kurt in NJ,

In your response #5 above ....... something just appears very interesting ...... in the lower left of the attached photo ...... what's a guess as to the year that the weathered wood box was made?
Click to expand...

I don't know when they were made, they are homemade ramps, looked old when they showed up at work, the guy that brought them hasn't worked there for 8 years
 
If nobody participating here gets into the game then it should only be about $390 even though it's been awhile since the last one.
 
I know that one sold in the past ---$250 buy it now, very complete even with original sandpaper(sold within 3 hours of listing), and that another one that only had the taper adapter sold at Hershey for 10$ needing a cord and bearings
 
Awhhhh, you spoilsport.:cool: I'll settle for a small consolation prize. Me thinks you are getting even with me for vandalising your cars.:mad:
 
larrys40 said:
I think these were the economy quickie tool of the day... to keep from disassembling the brakes and get them reasonably true quickly in my opinion.
The larger better equipment costs more in the day. I can see where these may have their place, downsides it will get dust everywhere on your backing plates and brakes. Yes, you can blow it off...I'm not sure these will do any better job than a well fit/arced shoe and properly aligned on the backing plate.
Click to expand...

Just the opposite is true. The Barret line of tools were always the top of the line tools for getting the job done. In the case of the Doktor, its use was outmoded by technology. Consider the evolution of the brake systems by the mid 30's. With the advent of the floating shoes the Brake Doktor became less useful rapidly. The floating shoes do not work with the tool so they needed to go to the bench tool.

The brake doktor is the best tool for doing any anchored brake shoe system. There were a lot of braking systems early on that were based on fixed shoes and the Brake Doktor was built to properly set up the shoes. While most of us on this board are mostly familiar with the Model A's and later cars it is the earlier odd brand cars that had the need. By the mid 30's even the Ford brakes needed the bench grinder over the Brake Doktor. For the A the Brake Doktor is the premium tool for the job.

When I first learned of the Brake Doktor years ago I had a problem. There were no pictures of it on the internet. I asked a lot of people for help and finally I was sent some pictures. The person did high end antique cars. The pictures were of his doing a Stuz Bearcat 3 shoe single piston brake system. He was very clear the only tool for properly rebuilding many early brake systems was the Brake Doktor.

The Brake Doktor very accurately makes the shoes the correct size and diameter. It is done on the car and centred to the axle. This means you are not spending a bunch of time trying to get close to centring the shoes done on the bench machine. So it is a real labor saving device that gives a better final result.

Of course, the issue of the rears will be that the shoes are centered to the true center of the axle. Some people have fairly worn races causing the drum to move up and rotate a little. This is another issue of not properly restoring your system so you will have to be smart enough to correct the issue as you do your build.
 
The Brake Dokter doesn't seem to give a false center on the rear axle with a worn race.The wear is always on the bottom,(except for some worn beyond belief).When you clamp that adapter on there look into the end of it with a light.That round adapter is hitting tightly against 3/4 of that race,and you will see a gap at the bottom that is the wear.At that point you will have the shoes true to the axle center,BUT,the hub will be riding up in the worn part.I've mostly used them on other old cars with adjustable anchor pivots.I get them close as I can by using an old Barrett centering tool,then run the Brake Dokter around them.For some reason I've always found that 30's-40's Chrysler products seem to have odd humps in the shoes.Sometimes it looks as if I've taken a lot off,but when I measure the shoe material I find I've only taken off 5 or 10 thousandths.
 
$576.50

I have used the bench model grinder to arc the brakes to the drum and feel they do a very good job. For the difference that this grinder makes it would not justify the cost if I already had the bench model. With that being said if I collected antique tools then it would be a different story.
 
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