Brake "pills"

spinelll

Senior Member
The clevis arm on my front brakes are almost vertical and I want to install pills (shims). I checked Andrews book (page 1-36) and it seems easy. I haven't looked at the drum yet but I was curios about one thing. When you remove the operating wedge and lift the actuator how do the pills stay in place? Is there a "cup" in the wedge? Will it be apparent when I remove it?

Thanks
Leo
 
Glenn,

I always though the pills were kind-a-crude but never used them, what type of
material are you using, heat treating or case hardening them ?

Dudley
 
You might think about getting some repro brake pins.

The heads are a bit larger and you need to grind the outer diameter to fit, but they are longer than NOS by a little. See my website for the actual numbers. The shaft diameter is also a bit larger and may touch the side of the king pin and so you might have to grind a bit to reduce the diameter of the shaft for smooth operation.

While you are this far apart, did you put in NOS or new wedges?

I think many underestimate the wear in used wedges and this may contribute to unequal brake operation. Nothing more annoying than having the brakes applying at different rates on the same axle. The new wedges are supposed to be pretty good.

I suggest that you take time to play with the parts some before deciding they work right together. I found the interference on the pin to kingpin when I took the pin out after playing some. I could see some marks at the top and bottom where the repro pin was touching the kingpin in the hole. I know the pins shaft diameter was slightly larger than the NOS pins I used.



The last consideration is the lever arm shafts. I used NOS wedges and pins, but repro lever arm shafts. I found I had a slight variation in lever angle until the play was taken out. I would not doubt that the repro shafts have some variations given the slight taper in the shafts I measured. It all gets adjusted out in the end, but I these are just my observations for your consideration.
 
For a video on how to make your own pills, jump to 4:00 in the video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EjRe411l3M


I second the length of wedge activating rod you need. I actually just this past weekend removed the pills and changed my rods (between lever and wedge) to some longer 1932 rods. This forced the lever all the way forward, and now the arrow wedge has full movement, and the braking force was HUGELY increased.





(I had in the past welded up my wedges and filed them back into spec.)

2009-0318-02w.jpg
 
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