A little bit closer...

[blueskies]

Spent a couple of hours on my '50 last night after the kids finally went to sleep.... went out to the garage at 10:30 and didn't come in till 12:30.

I managed to get the tie rod ends off the pitman arm, but not until I had removed the pitman arm from the steering box so that I could get at them with a bfh. Replaced the ends with the new ones from the front end kit, and put it all back together.

Once the rod ends were done, I got out the ammco tool and re-adjusted the front brakes. The major adjustment bolts are also the bolts that hold the shoes and backing plate to the spindle, which I had removed to replace the king pins, so the adjustment was off. Took about 10 minutes or less for each side, and then the drums went back on. The shoes, with nearly 7000 miles on them, have even wear all the way around, due to the exact adjustment provided by the ammco tool.

Mounted the front tires and dropped the car back down to the ground to get at the top of the block. I spent about 45 mintutes getting the block cleaned up for the head re-install. The carbon ridge that was around the valves was a worthy opponent, but finally gave way to a stiff scraper and brake parts solvent. By the time I had the block tidy, my back was killing my from hanging over the fender, so I decided to call it a night and get some sleep before a heavy workday. I'll install the head in the next night or two.

My new oil pan gasket should be here today, so I will be able to get the oil pan back on too. I think I'll get the oil pump changed out first though, so I will be able to see the inside while I'm at it.

More to come...

Pete

[Reg Evans]

Glad you're making good progress Pete. Looks like you'll make it to Tulsa!

I have a question for you regarding the Ammco 1750 and my 40 Plym. My instructions said to measure the brake drum and then say the gauge read .30. The instructions said to set the gauge half way between .30 and 0. I set my gauge at .15 and adjusted the shoes accordingly. I did this with each shoe but now I have a very mushy pedal. Is that how you did yours?

Thanks,

Reg

[blueskies]

The instructions said to set the gauge half way between .30 and 0. I set my gauge at .15 and adjusted the shoes accordingly. I did this with each shoe but now I have a very mushy pedal. Is that how you did yours?

Thanks,

Reg

Reg-

The reason for the setting the guage at half of the measured number, is that the drum mearsurement is a diameter, and the meaurement transfered to the shoes needs to be a radius. The hole in the tool for the spindle is not centered on the drum for the diameter measurement process, it simply tells you the oversize diameter of the drum. Once you know this number, you have to convert it to a radius meaurement from the center of the spindle to the shoe, which is half the oversize number.

My drums measured 25 on the guage, so I set the tool to 12.5 for adjusting the shoes. I think the numbers on the tool correspond to thousands. So, my drums were 25 thous oversize in diameter. This means 12.5 thous at each shoe, to keep the shoes centered in the total oversize of the drum.

I had to back off the minor adjustment a hair or two to get the drum back on, and then reset the minor adjustment so that the drum barely does not drag on the shoes. I've done this three times now with the front shoes, and have not had a mushy pedal.

Wondering if perhaps you may have some are in one of the cylinders?

Pete

[Reg Evans]

Thanks Pete. Did you have your shoes arced to conform to your drums. I sent my old shoes out for relining. While installing my relined shoes i noticed my gauge would not touch the shoe all the way around the shoe. Only in the center of the shoe. Like the diameter was wrong. This is what must be going wrong with my adjustment. Also on this 40 Plym the rear shoes on each axle had lining material on only about 2/3's of the way for each rear shoe. When they came back they had relined the whole shoe.

Sorry to have hijacked your thread.

[blueskies]

Thanks Pete. Did you have your shoes arced to conform to your drums. I sent my old shoes out for relining. While installing my relined shoes i noticed my gauge would not touch the shoe all the way around the shoe. Only in the center of the shoe. Like the diameter was wrong. This is what must be going wrong with my adjustment. Also on this 40 Plym the rear shoes on each axle had lining material on only about 2/3's of the way for each rear shoe. When they came back they had relined the whole shoe.

Sorry to have hijacked your thread.

Reg-

no worries about hijacking...

I did not have my shoes arched to match the drum, just got lucky I suppose.

Someone mentioned here some time ago the possibility of using a self adhesive piece of sand paper inside the drum to "turn" the shoes down a bit to make them conform to the shape of the drum. Seems like it would work well to me, aside from losing a few thousand miles of shoe wear.

I used this method on my e-brake band shoe, it was too thick to fit around the drum. I stuck a piece of sand paper on the drum, put the band on, and ran the car on blocks for a few minutes. Viola! the band fit perfectly, and I had a small pile of dust to vacuum up.

Pete

[Don Coatney]

Reg;

James Douglas has a shoe archer and I am sure he would donate the labor to help you out. He is in SanFrancisco and you really need to connect with him as he is a terrific resource. If I return to SF this summer and my schedule allowes me to pay you a visit I will drag him along.

[Reg Evans]

That'll be great Don. I've been trying to save this in case you're able to make it up this way.

I did have to sample it though a few times to make sure it's OK.

Those are strawberries.

NICK NICK

!!!!! CAUTION.....KEEP AWAY FROM OPEN FLAME !!!!!

[Reg Evans]

Thanks Pete !

I'll try the old sandpaper trick I guess.

[Don Coatney]

That'll be great Don. I've been trying to save this in case you're able to make it up this way.

I did have to sample it though a few times to make sure it's OK.

Those are strawberries.

NICK NICK

!!!!! CAUTION.....KEEP AWAY FROM OPEN FLAME !!!!!

Reg;

Yummy:rolleyes: Got me (and my race car) droolin:D