brake adjustments

[clifford]

my book says i need a special tool to adj. the front brakes on my 1951 dodge pickup with the drums removed to expose the adjusters. is there another way? thanks, clifford.

[Jim Gaspard]

Here is a thread from the car side. I adjusted mine last year and I don't recall a special tool other than a crescent wrench, unless they're talking about a hub puller. I did need one to get the hubs off, but they can be rented at most auto parts stores.

http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=6184&highlight=drum+brakes

Good luck.

[desoto1939]

Clifford:

Does your truck have the lockheed brakes in which there is a pin that holds the shoe and the shoe pivots on this pin. This is called an eccentric pin. The pin is not equal in diameter. It is an oofset pin. When turnign this pin it moves the shoes in and out and also up and down to be concentric to the drum.

The tool that was used is the mIller MTC brake tool or the Ammco bake gage.

If you put on new shoes then you should perform a major adjustement witht he tool to get the shoes in the perfect arch to the drum to get a good contact with the drum. If you have not removed the shoes but they need an adjustment because of a low pedal then the upper cams which have a cresent style arch on them are used to move the shoe closer to the drum. This is the big bolt onthe back of the backing plate I think it is a 7/8 inch bolt.

Jack up the front on the car or truck spin the wheel move the bolt sho the wheel locks or stops turning. Then back off the same nut a little so the wheel spins with a little drag. Then do the same for the other shoe. This is called a minor adjustment.

I have the two brake adjustment tools if needed. I will lend out but need a deposit on the toolto insure that I get the tool returned to me. Do a search on Ebay for Ammco brake gage and you will see the tool a model 1750. They go for $400 and up.

Rich Hartung

Desoto1939@aol.com

484-431-8157 cellphone

[grey beard]

Clifford,

If you look closely at your front brake arrangement, you will see that the two lower shoe anchor bolts are the same bolts that hold your spindle steering arms in place - the arms to which your tie rods are connected for steering on each side. The problem is that these two long bolts are the MAJOR shoe adjustments - the minor adjustments being the two cam adjusters behind the two shoe webs at ten and two o'clock, visible as 1 1/8-inch bolt heads from the back side of each backing plate.

The correct method of making the major braake adjustment at the heel of each shoe is to use the Aamco tool, of which Mr. Harting speak in this thread, ahead of me. A second way - which I will do if I ever get one - is to take a spare front drum and cut window holes into the sides, so that it may be placed over the spindle and shoes, and held in place with wheel bearings. Then this bottom bolt adjustment may be made thru the window holes you cut in the drum, and using a feeler gauge to check drum-to-shoe clearance, after which the real drum may be reinstalled.

Maybe this is not making any sense. It's difficult to explain.

Each bolt is a cam adjustment, itself. The area where the shoe rides has an offset sholder and the end of the bolt that you can see next to the nut that holds the steering linkage together has two flats for turning this bolt when the nut is loose. These anchor bolts are adjusted with the nuts loose, by turning the bolt using these two flats on the inside ends. Problem is, you don't know how far to adjust them outward with the drum removed, and you can only make the adjustment with the drum off, because you must get to the bolt heads to loosen the bolt and tighten it.

Without a spare drum to use to make this tool, the only way whereby I was able to make this bottom anchor bolt adjustment was to move the adjustments inboard first.

What to do? Start with the cam adjustments on each bolt in the inward most position. Try the drum on. If it still fits on the spindle the whole way and turns on the bearing, remove it and adjust the bolt outboard a little bit.

Since each bolt can turn 360 degrees, you must begin with each shoe the whole way inboard, towards the center of the drum. Adjust the front bolt by turning it clockwise as viewed from the bolt head. This will move the front shoe outward and downward. The rear bolt on the back shoe must be turned counter clockwise as viewed from the head with the drum removed.

Try the drum again. Do this over and over, until you feel a slight drag between the drum and the shoes. Then adjust the top adjuster till you feel a slight bit more drag.

Do one anchor bolt adjustment at a time, with the hopeful result that you are moving the lower anchor bolt adjuster bolts outward and downward, so that each shoe almost drags on the drum. Once you have the bottom anchor bolts adjusted where you think they should be, adjust the top cam minor adjusters, and then go back and check the bottom minor adjustments again.

I must have had each of my drums on and off fifty tines, until I was satisfied that they were as good as I could get them. This is a sorry way to adjust brakes, but short of having the correct Aamco tool or a spare drum, it is the only way available to most of us.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad nuze . . . . . .

[greg g]

Make one of these set it to the interior diameter of your drum less the clearence, then use it to adjust the shoes to touch all the way around, then put your drum back on. I have also seen a drum with a slit cut in it so a feeler gauge could be inserted through it to set an circumforencially ( go a head look it up in your funk and wagnells)equal gap around the shoes.

http://members.shaw.ca/rjsill/tech.htm

[55 Fargo]

Make one of these set it to the interior diameter of your drum less the clearence, then use it to adjust the shoes to touch all the way around, then put your drum back on. I have also seen a drum with a slit cut in it so a feeler gauge could be inserted through it to set an circumforencially ( go a head look it up in your funk and wagnells)equal gap around the shoes.

http://members.shaw.ca/rjsill/tech.htm

With this homemade tool, designed to mimic the aamco and miller lockheed adjustment tools, how is the adjustment performed?

Do you take a measurement with this, of the drums inside, then install on the spindle and adjust major and minor brake adjusters to create a good fit.

I want to make one of these tools, but am not sure if they can used as the Miller or aamco tools, or does it kinda work like those tools.

Can someone please explain the procedure, my brakes need to be adjusted properly as they never were, since I rebuilt the whole system.......Thanx Fred

[Barry Maxwell]

I brought this 2010 thread forward simply to report that I shamelessly copied the brake adjustment tool in the preceding post and it works great! Easy to make and easy to use. It would appear that the device was originally made by greg g. If that is, indeed, the case, thank you greg g.