Rear brakes broke? Fittment issues on '48 Dodge

[ebruns1]

Hello again Fellas!

Ran into yet another problem on my '48.  Got in all new brake parts from VAP co. on Long Island.  Originals not worth saving, were pretty trashed from 20 yrs. sitting in a bay front garage and the salt air had it's way with the car.  So anyway, installed all new everything.  Had drums turned (didn't need much) and arced the shoes to fit by lining the drums with sandpaper and smoothing down.  They did not need much sanding as right out of the box seemed to fit almost exactly!  Installed new cylinders too.  Here is the problem.  One drum barely fit over the new shoes, and we can't even get the other one to go on at all.  I have the bottom adjuster arrows pointing at each other, and the top adjusters both set so the flat spot contacts the shoe (seems the least amount, although I could rotate to the start of the curve and it looks the same).  The drum we did get installed drags but is turnable.  The other drum will not fit no matter how we fiddle with it.  It looks like I need to remove about 1/16" from both brake linings to clear the drum.  Should I go back to the sandpaper and keep working?  Am I doing something wrong?  Does the wheel that drags need to spin freely, or will it wear in as is?  Thanks in advance for any thoughts or tips!

[plymouthcranbrook]

Make sure that the wheel cylinder pins are correct and all the same. Lenghts vary from car to car.

[desoto1939]

if you have the original pins try using them. We have found that on some of the new reproduction wheel cylinders the pins are not the correct length and are too long.

 

rich hartung

[ebruns1]

We are re-using the original pins.  The new cylinders did not come with pins.  One thing crossed my mind...would the front cylinder pins be any different length than the rear pins?  I can't be sure we didn't just grab the first 4 pins we had and installed them.  Since there are 2 cylinders ea. for the front hubs vs. one for the rear there is a 66% chance that we used front pins by accident.  I did hold the one pin next to another (that we didn't use) and they were the same length, so who knows???

 

I guess I could file down the ends of the pins as opposed to sanding down the brake linings.  I mean, I'm only talking about sanding 1/16" from each shoe.  I think there would still be plenty left for years of use correct?

[Niel Hoback]

If it's only 1/16" or so, you could just file the notch in the shoe web a bit deeper.

[ebruns1]

Niel - That's genius!  It's so obvious I can't believe I didn't see it from the beginning.  That's why I love this forum!  You guys usually have a better way to do almost anything.  Thanks again!

[Plymouthy Adams]

filing could well do it if the lower points that complete the 'centric' positioning allow the shoes to fit within the drum

[plymjim]

   Before doing any filing or permanent alterations to

your parts why not leave the pins out temporarily

so the shoes will compress completely against the

wheel cyls. then try fitting the drums PART WAY over the shoes.

Like Plymouthy says, your issue

may be with the adjustable fitting at the bottom of

the shoes. I think there is a MOPAR specific tool for

making adjustments there. Am I right, folks?