bendix brake adjustment

John Voelkel

John Voelkel

Member
several years ago I changed the brakes on my 1941 Ford to the Bendix style. I understood that for the conversion to work best I had to center the brake assembly in the drum. The procedure to do this was to loosen the large bolt on the rear of the backing plate and then adjust the brakes until the wheel would not turn. Then tapping on the backing plate until the wheel would turn, adjust the brakes until the wheel would not turn.
Keep repeating this until no more adjustment was needed. This worked great on the right side but I was not sure about the left side. If the brakes are adjusted up rather tight there is no problem but after there is some wear on the shoes, the car will pull to the right when the brakes are applied hard. Am I doing this ok? With the large nut at the rear of the backing plate loose why doesn't just stepping on the brake pedal cause the hydraulic pressure center the shoe assembly?

John in Baltimore
 
the large nut only holds the wheel cylinder, there should be a slot cut in the bottom of the backing plate--inside is a star wheel-turn this star wheel until you hear the shoes drag, making sure there is the same amount of drag on both front wheels
 
Early Bendix of the type used by V12 Lincolns, F1's, etc. do have a centering adjustment based on the large nut...service bulletins cover this, rapping the assembly upward to a specified clearance. Actual Lincoln drums have a slot for a feeler, other drums may require laying a piece of feeler stock in there. I do not know if the recent reproductions of lincoln type brakes allow the centering adjustment.
Centering was required for "Major Adjustment", usually when new shoes were installed.
Once the assembly was centered, only the "Minor Adjustment" at the star wheel was needed to take up wear.
 
The reproduction Bendix brakes do have centering adjustment. The large nut is screwed on to the pin that the shoes rest against when retracted. Loosen the large nut a little and adjust the brakes tight with the star wheel,This will force the shoes to contact drum and be centered.Then tighten nut.

The top pin is then centered by the shoes . When the brakes are applied both the top and bottom of shoes float. This is why you can not center the shoes by applying brakes. This is also why they self energize.

It is a lot simpler than I can explain it.As Bruce said, it is usually necessary to center only once,then adjust with star wheel.

If they pull to one side,the opposite wheel cylinder could be sticking or shoes could be contaminated

John.
 
Last edited:
Thanks to all for the replies. Maybe there is a problem with the wheel cylinder, I will check that out. As I said, the right wheel adjusted just as the direction said but I was unsure about the left side. Right now it is near 100 degrees and humid here in Baltimore. I will wait for more saner weather. My drums do not have the slot for a feeler gauge. I think maybe there is a problem with one of the wheel cylinders on the left side.
Again, thanks to all
John
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top