Brakes, leave them alone or Disc

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Oilslickwillie

Senior Member
I have new tie rods, upper control arms ,etc on my 55 Ford. I also have a 302 with C4 ******. New tires and alignment. I have checked the brakes and they look good. Also have a brake booster. Problem is sometimes they don't work all that good. Some times when applying brakes they don't want to work if not pressing the pedal hard. I noticed yesterday that I'm getting wobble when applying brakes at 60 mph, sometimes pretty bad. Also pulls a little to the left.

Is this due to brakes out of adjustment all around or a drum out of round that needs turned. I know I have experienced this with disc brakes before with a warped rotor.

Someone said to convert to disc on front??? If so, where is best place to buy a kit? Would rather get the drum brakes fixed though so any input would be appreciated.
 
Will be checking this with someone after Sept. 1st. Problem somewhere. Mechanic thinks the drums are out of round. I'm thinking all 4 brakes are out of adjustments and not receiving equal pressure??
 
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If the hoses are new and there are no kinks in the lines, all four wheels will get the same pressure. With the lining we get today, the brakes just dont seem to slow the car as we remembered. I put Granada spindles and discs on the front of my 55, and a Ranger rear axle with ten inch brakes. It stopped much better after that, no fade at highway speeds.
 
55's don't come with self adjusting brake shoes. You didn't mention if they'd been adjusted lately, it needs to be done regularly, based on how much you're driving the car.
If they're out of adjustment they won't do well at all.
Wobbling or vibration when applying the brakes is 99% out-of-round brake drums.

Drum brakes being used at 60mph will make them fade out sooner from overheating and can cause warping the drums. I like driving fast and hard as much as the next guy but understanding the limits of 60 yr old hardware is important too.

I had a '71 Merc w/ front drum brakes that were worthless over 45mph, so I changed to 10:1 pistons to slow the car down with the engine. :rolleyes:

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Forgot to mention, I believe the car has a 8" ford rearend. Car has 14" wheels, not the original 15" on a 55. The way the car shakes the steering wheel when braking at higher speeds makes me think it's the drums out of round or all 4 brakes out of adjustment. May need to have drums turned and maybe new shoes. The existing shoes look good though.
 
Get the drums turned, replace the shoes and adjust the brakes.
Until you get that done do an all 4 wheel brake shoe adjustment to see if things get a little better.

Adjusting drum brakes (and following best safety practices for working under something that can kill you) if you don't have a good lift.
Raise either end of the car with the tires off the ground and the parking brake off. Rotate the adjuster star wheel with a screwdriver or brake tool inserted thru the slot at the bottom of the backing plate. Tighten the shoes to the drum while rotating the tire/wheel back and forth by hand at least a full turn. (this helps keep the shoes centered in the drum) Keep adjusting the star wheel until the brakes are almost too tight to turn the tire back & forth at all. Back off the adjustment until the shoes rub just the least bit in the drum when spinning the tire.
Then do the other end of the car.

Spinning the wheels/tires while doing the adjustment gives you some idea as to how bad the drums are warped.
If the shoes rub evenly in the drum while the tire is spinning, the drums are usually good. When the brake shoe rubbing comes and goes while the tire/wheel is being spun, the drum is at least slightly warped. If the tire/wheel moves easily in one spot but then tightens up when trying to spin it the drums are definitely warped.

If looking thru the adjustment slot doesn't show you enough of what you're about to do, take off a rear wheel & brake drum to check out the hardware with a better view. If the shoes are too tight in the drum or the drum is too deeply worn to allow it to come off you might have to try loosening the adjustment anyway.

Also, checking the brake fluid and bleeding the brakes isn't a bad idea.

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Had a '68 Fairlane many years ago and had this happen to me. Just left tire shop and hit the brakes and about jerked the wheel out of my hand. Got home and checked everything out and could find nothing wrong. This was a car about three years old and less than 50,000 miles on it. Fix; loosened all lug nuts and re tightened to 90 ft/lbs. Problem solved!
 
That's what I thought about doing. Think I will take it to a guy I know who has a lift, then will try adjusting all 4 wheels first. I did drive it today at about 20-30 mph and lightly touched the brakes and I could feel a pulsating in the steering wheel and brake pedal. It is a lot worse at 50-60 mph. Could be out of round drum I guess.
 
Not sure what rearend is in my car. I think it is an 8" ford. Brake shoes will not be the same as a 55 I don't think. Could be PO put the wrong size shoes on the rear drums. Is there a way to measure to make sure what shoes it will take?
 
Not sure what rear axle is under the car?
Some good clear photos of it should help, and descriptions or photos of any numbers or ID tags that might still be on it.
 
This is the rearend in my 55 Ford. image.jpg
 
Oilslickwillie said:
That's what I thought about doing. Think I will take it to a guy I know who has a lift, then will try adjusting all 4 wheels first. I did drive it today at about 20-30 mph and lightly touched the brakes and I could feel a pulsating in the steering wheel and brake pedal. It is a lot worse at 50-60 mph. Could be out of round drum I guess.
Click to expand...

Quite possibly the drum may be cut oversize and there is too little mass to control the braking heat. Look for contaminants on the linings too, grease or brake fluid. The linings could be glazed too from excessive heat.

I like checking the torque too, possible one or both drums are pulled out of shape with too much torque. Some shops use those torque sticks on the pneumatic guns and I still think mine are too tight (on OT cars). On my old Ford, I like to torque them myself.
 
Non-self adjusting brakes have to be adjusted regularly, or when the pedal goes lower that it was when braking. It is important that they all be adjusted the same, with the same drag when turning the wheel by hand. Most shops, and most people do not know how to properly adjust brakes like this. It is a skill not used much anymore. You can convert these things to self adjusting however if you wish. As for stopping, they worked all these years, then why not now?
 
Packrat has an excellent point, if they worked then, why are they less than wonderful now? Well, for one thing, today the traffic is faster, and when driving in traffic if you leave space in front of you to stop, some ash will dive in there to take up your safety space. Better brakes are required if you live in a city and drive the car. The rear axle pictured is an eight inch Ford. If it has nine inch drums, look for a conversion kit to ten inch brakes. The stock 55 was eleven. Just remove a drum and measure the hole.
 
I can't preach this enough because it is so often overlooked but the shoes need to fit the drums too. In the old days they did what they called arcing the shoes in which was basically grinding them to fit the drum so they make contact all the way around the curve of the shoe. If you turn drums and don't do this you only have a small patch of the shoe arc, maybe 2 inches, that is contacting the drum. If one drum was turned more than the other, you get brake pull for the same reason. The best answer (short of a disc conversion) is new drums.

Some of those old cars are just scarey in today's traffic when at their best. I had an old, non power drum brake, Ford pickup with the brakes as right as you could make them, just like it left the factory and it would scare the hell out of me to drive it into the city. A power booster really helps a lot.
 
Did not get the time today to check the rearend. I did look but will have to clean the tag on it, can't read it. Can't jack it up because I have the front end up on stands working on the brakes. Had the front drums turned, the drivers side needed to be turned twice, passenger side only once. Was told the drivers drum was out of round but not the pass side. Car was pulling to the left a little. I did notice that the driver shoes had a very faint ripple dust on them which tells me that is the side that was pulsating on the brake pedal. Once I get the front back together I will jack up the rear and check the tag and any codes on the rear.
 
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