p24-1953

update. Today i managed to pull both rear drums and found that the rear driver drum was again .45 over and i had 1/8" on the shoes. then i pulled the rear passangers ide and might have found my problem. the drum only measures .3 over but there are basicly no shoes left. I think the brake shop forgot to pull one drum. They must have started to work on it and then got side tracked or something because both major and minor adjustments were all the way in. so the shoe (or what was left of it )was about 1/4" from the drum. below is the better of the two shoes. so now to find a local shop that will bond new pads to the old shoes...

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Since I drove the car for a week or so after getting the drums turned wouldn't the shoes be arced to the drums?

I have recived the amaco tool from desoto1939 and couldnt wait to get started... so after everyone else went to sleep I pulled the front hubs and this is what I found. The front pads on both sides are about 1/8" thick, and both drums measure out to .45 over. Do either of those numbers seem out of line, so much that they would cause the pedal to go to within a 1" of the floor? Another question about use of the guage. I took the measurement of .45 and split it in half. I then set the dial to .22 (the best i could) and placed it on the wheel setting the shoes so they just barely missed the guide. When i place the drums back on they were so tight i could barely get them on. I had to back both shoes off a little to get them back on. Did i do something wrong? So after doing the front the pedal is now still low, but it is higher than it was before, If the increase in pedal height is the same after i get the rears done then it will stop about 2.5" from the floor. (is this about right?) I will also rebleed everything to makesure that there was no air in the lines. I did find out that the front shoe on drivers side was off about 1/8" on both major adjustments.

im thinking i need to get a brake guage and see if i can get them set up right. so the half pedal line is a fib?

So a few years ago (5) I replaced all the pad/shoes, cylinders, hoses and master cylinder. I installed them and adjusted them by feel. They stopped good and would lock up the front if you put them to the floor but the pedal always went to within a inch of the floor. Since I moved to the mountains I have had issues. They work well in flat terrain but in the hills they fade fast. So much so that the pedal will go to the floor after a big hill and the car will still roll. I have tried to adjust them but never solved it so I took it to a reccomended shop. He told me that he could adjust them properly but that my drums need to be turned. Which I knew because of slight pulse due to a warped drum. When I picked it up he told me that " that was the last time the rears could be turned but they were still okay. However I would have a low pedal because they were fully adjusted out." The pedal will go down about 3" before you start slowing. Its a firm pedal but it still doesn't stop on a dime or even a quarter. Its more of a dollar stop. If I were have someone pull out front of me I don't think I could stop. Is what he said true? can the low pedal because by the condition of the drums or are they just not adjusted properly?

Sorry about that.. your right. It is before top dead center. When facing the engine. Btdc is to the right of the 0 line on the crank?correct?

With the vacuum advance connected when revved it shows 32 deg before top dead center. Is that not correct for our cars?. I know on sbc that's good.

last night I night i set the inital timming at 4btdc and needless to say she starts easier now. when reved her the timming now goes to 32 BTDC so i think i might be good to go. i will take her for a cruse around here as soon as it stops raining.

i didnt know that the fronts could be converted. How do you go about doing that?

will the rear drums off of a 55 plymouth work on a stock 53?

i talked to the mechanic that did the work and he said that he did set it to 4btdc. so im assuming that since the distributor was not tightened down well and over the past couple of trips it has self adjusted some. i will correct this issue tonight and see how it runs. The self adjusting might explain how it droves so good when i first picked it up and it has slowly degraded.

it is a steel pulley, no balancer. what would be the effects of having the timing that far advanced?

thats part of the problem the dist wont turn any more counter clock wise. I have now read that there is a second adjustment screw but it appears to be on the underside of the dist. and i didnt want to start changing things if the timing tab could be off. I want to at least give the mechanic the benefit of doubt that he knew what he was doing.

I have developed an issue with the car and lack of power. in previous posts i had disussed the engine rebuild and distributor issues i had. i picked the car up from the rebuilders with a NOS Distributor and Carb and a week later loaded it onto a trailer to ship to out new house in the mountains of virginia. I now have an issue with lack of power. on flat land (georgia and in town) the car does well it is a little more slugish than it used to be on the take off but on the hills it has absolutly no power. I have been saying i will get to checking the timing and tonight i finally did. when the light is attached to the # 1 spark plug at idle the timing is not at 0. (in fact this is where i have got my self confused.) on the crank the markings are 10 -0 -10 and when my light is set to 0 the pointer lines up with the top 10 so that means i have a timming of 10 atdc idle correct? ( i can not turn my light below 0 so i assume this is right.) if i rev it... it appeares that i top out at about 22 deg with the vaccume advance connected. so can the tab or crank be installed off? or are they keyed in ? would a 10tbdc inital timming cause sluggish hill climbing? which way to i turn the distributor to correct this? thanks for the help

how difficult is it to get replacement drums for ourcars? the brake shop told me my rears were getting pretty thin after this last turning and would reccomend that i start finding a new set. is there a interchange that i can pick up at the local auto parts place?

I will try to answer all the questions posted so far. I mispoke earlier. I used the stock crank pully, so i am runing crank, fan, a/c. I dont think it is a oil issue, because it did it from the very start, on a brand new prefilled compressor, but really it is not an issue because most of the time I have the overdrive engaged. I started by purchasing a complete underdash kit from Hot Rod Air. The Interior Unit is mounted under the dash on the passanger side. The lines are ran to the dryer which is located under the passanger hood hinge. the supply and return line are ran tight along the top of the fire wall and driverside fender well to the compressor and condensor. The lines were bought un-crimped so i could run them a little long. Now, heres where it gets a little weird. I am running this A/C on a six volt positive ground system. I had the Blower fan replaced with a six volt unit, and i run the compressor off of a buck boost convertor. this unit will take a 6 volt charge and up it to a 12 volt charge. Since the conversion causes you to lose half your amps i upgraded to a 105 amp 6vlt alternator. the convertor is wired directly so that i did not have the large current running through the dash harness. The fan and saftey switches are wire with everything else so that when the keys off it shuts off. The originaly buck boost convertor that i used was a home built unit that originally supplied power for a cb radio in a old bug, but it hummed loudly. there is a austrialian company that makes these new that are solid state and so far extremely reliable. it is mounted under the dash. They are extremly easy to wire. All in all did i do it the best way? or would i do it again? It was simple to wire and charging system was in good shape , since i had rewired the car and i didnt want to have to change out all the wiper, heater, blower, overdrive relays ect.... and i didnt want to lose the tube radio. Yes it was the long way around to get something done but honestly isnt that half the fun, But if i had a car with a stock wiring harness and various other bits that need to be replaced i would thing that a 12 volt system would be better. One last note. On the quality of the Hot Rod Air system vs, Vintage Air. Vintage is 1000 time better quality. Several Hot rod air Parts have failed or broken. I had 2 hose end split when i recived the kit. There were no instructions, the dryer bracket was oversized so i had to wrap the dryer with a rubber sheet to get it to hold. The fit and finish of the Vintage air kit is higher. But the money i saved covered the cost of the additional relays, electric fans and 12v convertors.

I guess the others were cleared out for baby pics. let me know if you want something specific. sorry for the quality of the one image it was after the fire.

I m still running the stock engine, and fabricated the brackets to hold the a/c compressor from some flat plate. I am currently running a 2 groove crank pully and a single groove fan pully. my belts run crank to fan and crank to ac I run the 6 volt positive ground a/c off of the compressors second pulley. Prior to purchasing and installing the system i did not even think about the pully ratio to speed. ( i know... once again i am a idiot.) belt wrap or belt whip, dont know about that, but what i do know is that when crusing at 60ish with out overdrive when the a/c is on i get at sound that only appears when the a/c is on, I can engaged the overdrive and the sound goes away, so i know it is caused by the rpms and the compressor, but honestly how many times will you be crusing at 60 without the overdrive engaged?

falconvan, do a search for my posts. I have a/c on the 53' and it work well. Its will get a little high on the temp guage sitting in traffic, but it will cool the car well while moving. one problem i didnt expect is that it sounds like my the compressor is turning at its maximum when i am doing 55-60 with out the overdrive engaged. let me know if you have any questions.

I agree it is odd to me that a fire could cause internal issues. It may just be a odd rare coincidence. But I can't figure out what would cause the exhaust valves to stick. I am not trying penny pinch just trying to help when and where i can. I did not start another thread about this problem, I started another thread about where to get parts. Don, you are a wealth of knowledge, which is welcomed, but a little cranky.....

Prior to the fire I never had a leak from the covers. Now when i removed the covers a lay them on my flat work bench one of them has a slight bow to it. I assumed that this was warped. I installed new gaskets on them prior to taking it to the shop. I don't know if it flat before the fire or if it will leak now. Is it not possible for the covers to warp. I didn't have to pry them off or anything.

I started it and pulled into the garage after it was droped off by the tow truck. It was not for very long but it did fire up and run easily. It sat for a few weeks oil less, and with no intake or exhaust for 5 or 6 weeks. 5 days of soaking and prying and the valves are still stuck. What I don't understand is why the piston rings won't hold oil. I could see the valves getting hot enough to be damaged since the valve covers are warped, but how did the piston rings fail

do you have a contact fot terrel?

talked to the machine shop today and they are needing a few parts. I thought i could get them cheaper and save some money. The told me i will need new bearings, a complete gasket set,, ring sets. Where would be good place to start looking? know anything im missing? Does anyone know what a machine shop should charge for a complete rebuild supplying part? i would like to check them to see if they are being honest.