Removing Front Wheel Cylinder

[leadheavy52]

I am about to lose my mind trying to get this lower wheel cylinder off the front of my ‘52 Suburban. I have loosened every nut I can think of to get this damn thing to even budge. What am I missing? I have looked the FSM over and it does not indicate much of anything. Thank you in advance. 

 

- Austin

Edited June 26, 2019 by leadheavy52

[Dodgeb4ya]

Probably the lower long anchor bolt is rusted/frozen in the steering arm. This holds the W/cyl to the backing plate.

Those are tough to remove if rusted in place. If this is the case put a hard grade 8 nut on the anchor bolt threads and use a good size brass hammer and whack away after soaking it with your favorite lube.

On a couple I've had to use the hot wrench which can weaken the steering arm which I replaced.

All this if this is your problem.

[leadheavy52]

10 hours ago, Dodgeb4ya said:

Probably the lower long anchor bolt is rusted/frozen in the steering arm. This holds the W/cyl to the backing plate.

Those are tough to remove if rusted in place. If this is the case put a hard grade 8 nut on the anchor bolt threads and use a good size brass hammer and whack away after soaking it with your favorite lube.

On a couple I've had to use the hot wrench which can weaken the steering arm which I replaced.

All this if this is your problem.

Thank you! I assumed it might be stuck from time and sitting. I didn’t want to go wailing on it with a hammer, but that might be the trick. I’ll see if I can turn the adjusting bolt from the front while smacking it from the back, with the castellated but reversed to not damage any threads. 

[plymouthcranbrook]

I had to heat my left front lower with the torch while turning it to get it loose.  Took a while but finally did come out

[leadheavy52]

Got her all done! Took some turning of the bolt whale whacking a not spun onto a few threads on the back. Got it out and all the new hardware back on. A little steel wool on the shaft of the bolt and some used motor oil made it a breeze to get back in the hole. Now the dreaded task of adjustment after replacing all the other three wheels and a good brake bleed. 

 

Thanks for the help! 

 

 

[dpollo]

have a look at Kieth B7's home made adjusting tool.  simple but effective.    Find him on this forum  " we and the windsor"

[leadheavy52]

Thanks, dpollo. Found this photo. I can easily recreate this, but how does this set the gap between the drum wall and shoe? I’ll respond to his thread for more info. 

[Sam Buchanan]

9 hours ago, leadheavy52 said:

Thanks, dpollo. Found this photo. I can easily recreate this, but how does this set the gap between the drum wall and shoe? I’ll respond to his thread for more info. 

 

 

Here is the thread where I described how to make a brake adjustment tool and how to use it:

 

http://p15-d24.com/topic/50182-brake-adjustment-tool-updated/

 

[leadheavy52]

11 hours ago, Sam Buchanan said:

 

Here is the thread where I described how to make a brake adjustment tool and how to use it:

 

http://p15-d24.com/topic/50182-brake-adjustment-tool-updated/

 

Sam, you’re the man! I will give this a go this weekend. 

[Dodgeb4ya]

How do you properly adjust the shoes to the drum if the arc of the lining has a smaller radius than the brake drum..???

meaning the center portion of the shoe lining rubs on the drum...the toe and heel don't touch the drum.?

[TodFitch]

21 hours ago, Dodgeb4ya said:

How do you properly adjust the shoes to the drum if the arc of the lining has a smaller radius than the brake drum..???

meaning the center portion of the shoe lining rubs on the drum...the toe and heel don't touch the drum.?

 

You can't. And any way you adjust them you'll have poor braking performance. You need to have the shoes arced to match the drums.

 

In the old days all brake shops and many general auto mechanics had brake shoe arcing machines but that day has long since passed. You might find a brake shop that can still to it or you might find a hobbyist that has an old machine they picked up with the said shops were getting rid of the equipment. But likely not.

 

I got some sticky back sand paper that came in a long roll at my local hardware store. I put a strip inside my brake drums and then rubbed the shoes against it by hand until there was a good match between the radius/diameter of the shoes and the drum. It actually went pretty quickly as the sand paper cut pretty fast. Each drum on my car has been turned a different amount so this means that the shoes are no longer interchangeable, they must be used with the drum they were fitted to. Once I did that I was able to properly adjust the shoes and the braking was far better than before they were "arced".

[JerseyHarold]

Something else to think about if you're arcing old shoes....the linings may contain asbestos.

[keithb7]

My brakes were so very poor before I made this tool. Right or wrong, using it to centre the shoes made a huge improvement in my braking. 

 

I chose 1 point and adjusted 1 cam to touch the drum. I backed it off again a tiny bit so I could get my drum off. Then I set my tool to measure and reference this point of the shoe. I spun the tool around and set the distance equally around the shoes. Making sure the arrows on major cams were pointing away from each other. Put it all back together. I Set up my minor adjustments and wow. Huge improvement. 

 

Sure worked well. I had little luck getting much improvement without this tool. 

Edited June 30, 2019 by keithb7

[Dodgeb4ya]

None  of the modern light service passenger car replacement shoes contain asbestos.

I won't use the hard modern linings on my old MoPar cars...they don't stop the car safely no matter what you do to adjust them.

  I hunt for and purchase asbestos old stock linings off the internet and hav a lifetime supply for my cars.

They actually make these old MoPars stop like they should.... if the shoes are arc'ed as they should be which I always do even way better..

Stopping safely is way more important than the asbestos dust to me. 

JMO and I'm sticken to it?