Rear drum options

E

elliotweiland

Junior Member
I am rebuilding the rear drums on my 1963 galaxie. My question is about the return spring setup. Most of the pictures I see online shoe a return spring hooked to a bracket and from there a cable goes to the post at the top. Now, when i took mine apart, this was not the setup. Both side were the same and had only a symmetrical spring going from bottom hole to bottom hole of the shoes. I am wondering if this was stock and the cable was maybe an option, or if shops in the 60's thought that setup was too much work and just threw in a spring. Is the cable setup just a safety precaution? Is the way I have it setup safe? Attached is a picture of the rebuilt drum minus the bar in between the shoes for the e brake
 

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The cable is a self adjuster to keep the brakes adjusted so you don't have to do it by hand. Some people say they had problems on the early ones of not working right, getting them to tight or not adjusting at all . So they would change the springs ect. to the kind that don't have it. That may be why your car is that way . No danger other than you will need to adjust your brakes a few times by hand. The self adjuster was supposed to adjust your brakes if they needed it when you would back up ,then step on the brake pedal. If you do most of your driving with out backing up very often then they may not adjust for you. I hope i made this clear so you can understand .__JIM
 
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What year did Ford start installing self adjusting brakes? The poster said his car is a 63. Did Fords have self adjusting brakes in 63?
 
tdlmomowers said:
What year did Ford start installing self adjusting brakes? The poster said his car is a 63. Did Fords have self adjusting brakes in 63?
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Sometime in the 60s , my first one was a new 64 falcon. A lot of the old timers never liked them , they said they had problems with them , i never did. I liked the system well enough that i converted my 56 fairlane over to self adjusters by using the parts from 70s era ford 1/2 ton pickup , same diameter brake drums ,just a little wider.
 
Look at your backing plate, how many brake adjustment slots does it have? For the self-adjusters to be adjusted, the rear slot has to be opened. My '59 only came with the slot in the front and I wasn't up to adding one for the sake of having self-adjusters.
 
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