Need help 55 Ford brakes

[Daves55Sedan]

I just wish I was more computer savvy to do all of them fancy city things on my computer...

Yes I may have emerged from the stone-age somewhat, and they do call this place a city, but I am still just an old hillbilly AND I am goin back to the country. Just teasin you KULTULZ
I probably have more trouble with this computer contraption than you do.

 

[KULTULZ]

I finally broke down and read through your thread here describing the '55 resto - VERY IMPRESSIVE!

ORIGINAL THREAD- https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=1090842

(TEXT snipped for brevity)

Maybe this would be a good time to talk brakes on a 55/56 Ford. Most guys my age and younger have no idea how to "adjust" their brakes. They are so used to either calipers/pads and self-adjusting drum brakes that all of the other stuff here seems foreign. Most people that wrench on cars can
"do a set of brakes" but there are some things peculiar to 55/56 Fords that I did take a few photos of...



The first thing some folks need to know is that the anchor pin shown above and then her,



is an adjustment feature. If you noticed how the hardware looks when you reinstalled it, it is made in such a way as to slide up and down in the backing plate boss. The reason it has that oblong washer is so that it can slide. You will need a 15/16" wrench to loosen/tighten the nut behind it. Although the shop manual is not very clear the idea is that when installing new brakes you lower the pin as much as possible in its bore. I use a small amount of white lithium grease to help this out. Once you need to adjust your brakes later on and move the pin up you will be glad that it can slide.

There is also an eccentric on the primary shoe. Speaking of the primary shoe, it ALWAYS goes towards the front of the vehicle.



The eccentric is turned by the head of the bolt ON THE BACK SIDE of the backing plate. If you spin it one time you can see where this would tighten the other side of the shoe as the brake linings wear. Of course you have your star adjuster at the bottom also.

Is there anyway that you can post the photos on this site directly as photobucket does not show (to me anyway).

One thing I dislike... the bleed screws are 10 mm and not 3/8" on the last several wheel cylinders I have purchased. What gives? The threads for the mounting and for the brake line are all SAE??? any ideas?

They are made/sourced of CHINESEUM.

Metric bleed screws are the first indication.

 

[Hot Rod Reverend]

Is there anyway that you can post the photos on this site directly as photobucket does not show (to me anyway).

It is highly unfortunate that Photobucket changed their entire format last year and went from being a free site to host photos third party to a site that charged roughly $400 a year to have a user's photos hosted so that the photos would show up on sites like the FordBarn. If you have Google Chrome, there is a back door fix - many have used this and it works fine and all of the links here remain unbroken.

This thread is a monster - lots of pages, media, and replies. Of course it also has the highest views on this part of the forum by a large margin. At one time I was maintaining THREE separate forum sites like the Ford Barn here so that folks could see the progress on the 55. Since Photobucket wanted triple the amount it would cost me to build my own site on wix.com, and since I would have the chance to post anything and everything I wanted with my own rules, I built hotrodreverend.com. Thousands of hits so far - people must like it I guess.

The way the threads are designed on the Ford Barn would meant that to go back and
"fix" each post I have made the photos would not be placed in order of reading and would all be at the very bottom of each post. Not to mention the time it would take to get all of that done. Ryan owns the Ford Barn and allows us to contribute such as we do. I did go back on a thread on the HAMB in a social forum and "fix" everything - that took weeks to accomplish. When I was done I noticed that of the entire HAMB website - much larger than here, I was 5th in the number of the pieces of Media I had "saved" to the server. Ouch.

thank you for your kind comments by the way, I am always learning myself as you can see.

 

[KULTULZ]

As usual I have again slurred my URL's...

I did not mean all photos as that would be a major undertaking. All I want to see (if possible) is your final front brake install. The SHOP MANUAL ILL is not that detailed.

 

[Hot Rod Reverend]

As usual I have again slurred my URL's...

I did not mean all photos as that would be a major undertaking. All I want to see (if possible) is your final front brake install. The SHOP MANUAL ILL is not that detailed.

no problem here you go...

 

[Daves55Sedan]

HRR! What's this I think I see here where you ground a little bit off the web of that primary brake shoe instead of turning the eccentric to adjust the shoes to fit properly with the brake drum. That's cheating!
Oh and I see you removed the top anchor pin and re-installed it. The shop manual says don't touch it, so I feared pandora's box would be open if I tried to do that so I left it alone.
You've got it so pretty in there, it's a shame you need to put the brake drum back on. But maybe you ought to slap a coat of shellac or something on those bare cast iron wheel cylinders to help prevent them from rusting. Just kidding about all this !

 

[KULTULZ]

Originally Posted by KULTULZ

As usual I have again slurred my URL's...

I did not mean all photos as that would be a major undertaking. All I want to see (if possible) is your final front brake install. The SHOP MANUAL ILL is not that detailed.

no problem here you go...

THANX! for taking the time and effort.

Really appreciated...

 

[KULTULZ]

RELATED AND INFORMATIVE URL- https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=219281

 

[Hot Rod Reverend]

HRR! What's this I think I see here where you ground a little bit off the web of that primary brake shoe instead of turning the eccentric to adjust the shoes to fit properly with the brake drum. That's cheating!
Oh and I see you removed the top anchor pin and re-installed it. The shop manual says don't touch it, so I feared pandora's box would be open if I tried to do that so I left it alone.
You've got it so pretty in there, it's a shame you need to put the brake drum back on. But maybe you ought to slap a coat of shellac or something on those bare cast iron wheel cylinders to help prevent them from rusting. Just kidding about all this !

Oh my!

As you can tell on some of this work I am a detail guy. And we all know what it will look like once this thing is back on the road - cars that are driven and used have parts and pieces that look they are worked. But I figure for the brakes there is nothing more important than to be as clean as you can given the sensitivity to safety we should have.

On with the resto...

 

[KULTULZ]

... sigh ...

Now I am wondering if the front brake drum(s) have the adjustment check slot and if aftermarket replacements come with the slot?

 

[Daves55Sedan]

... sigh ...

Now I am wondering if the front brake drum(s) have the adjustment check slot and if aftermarket replacements come with the slot?

My original drums have the slot, but I just looked at the photo of the new drums in the Concours catalog $109.95, whew. They do not appear to have the slot. Macs wants $141.79 for a front drum. That's a heart attack.

 

[KULTULZ]

My original drums have the slot, but I just looked at the photo of the new drums in the Concours catalog $109.95, whew. They do not appear to have the slot.

Macs wants $141.79 for a front drum. That's a heart attack.

Now is that hub and drum or just drum?

The really bad part (other than being an exact replacement) is that it will be CHINESEIUM...

 

[Daves55Sedan]

Now is that hub and drum or just drum? The really bad part (other than being an exact replacement) is that it will be CHINESEIUM...

The front drums do not include the hub, but Concours offers a new hub complete with bearings, grease seal and dust cap for the additional price of $$$$199.95. BTW, for the 55/56 drums it says they are made in the USA

 

[KULTULZ]

-ADDENDUM-

Fr. For Additional Info

-BRAKE CAM SPRING

B4A 2049-A - 1954 FORD Pass Car
B4A 2049-B - 1954 SW - SD
B5A 2049-B - 1955 Pass Car and BIRD


EDIT -


Also ILL of 1955 eccentric assy -

 

[KULTULZ]

Another Interesting TECH Thread-


- http://forums.y-blocksforever.com/Topic140989-1.aspx

 

[justold]

I have a 55 Ford and brake pedal pushes so extremely hard, I have to reef on the pedal just to get medeocor brakes. Has new lines, checked the brake shoes, there all good, the drums are good but pedal is rock hard. I also have a 49 Ford and the pedal is not that way at all. I have never had a pedal push this hard on a Ford that I have owned. I really need your help before Spring gets here. Thanks for all your help.


P.S. Master cylinder is stock and I believe everything else is also. This is not a power brake system.

No one has mentioned this , are the brake shoes installed correctly ? The brakes on fords from 1949 on [correct me if I'm wrong ]are self energizing ,short shoe front .