Rear brake work time

[White Spyder]

Will have to check. Means pulling the drums again.  Howeve, I can confirm no fluid is leaking from the cylinder.  Not able to build any pressure at the peddle. 

[keithb7]

To confirm: You installed new cylinders and brake shoes. Correct? Now you cannot build brake pressure to bleed. 

 

Did you do anything to the master cylinder? You mentioned that you were away working for a while. By chance were the lines at the cylinders left disconnected while you were away? Possibly draining the MC, allowing plenty of air in the brake system? If so, and you are starting bleeding from scratch, using the brake pedal, it can take considerable time and pumps to get air out. 

 

Also, if there is excessive shoe to drum clearance, the shoes may not be able to contact the drums. You press the brake pedal, push the wheel cylinder pistons out, but it’s still not enough to travel the shoes out far enough. Then you don’t feel pressure at the MC pedal. 

[chrysleritis]

Second the comment about the link pins from the cylinders to the shoes. There is a lot of variation in what you get with the new cylinders and kits. Save your old pins. Also, go through the major adjustment and alignment procedure for the shoes mounted with the eccentric bolts. It may be that you don't have the shoes' "heels" or "toes" close enough to the drums. Also, you can set stuff up with the drums mounted not gorilla tight on the axles to make sure that you have the brake shoes set up right, removing the drums as you need to, and putting them back on, and then finalizing the castle nuts down when you've got it close to right. The first time doing this is always confusing, for sure. 

[Loren]

In regard to fitting the hubs to a keyed axle.

I have found that Low Strength Loc-Tite is the way to go. It seals the moisture and dust out and provides good metal to metal contact AND it makes it easier to get apart next time.

I speak from experience gained in off-road racing. We had problems with wheel bearings on a front wheel drive car. We used new axle nuts every time we replaced a bearing and after only two races, they had to be cut off as the alkali dust welded them to the axle. Low Strength Loc-Tite sealed the threads and made the nuts come off much easier. Used on splines and the O.D. & I.D. of the bearings made them fly apart by comparison. Usually you think of Loc-Tite as a means to keep things together and it does that very well, but I used it to be able to get things apart again!

In regard to brake bleeding.

It is far better to PUSH the fluid through the system than any method involving SUCKING.

I would pressure bleed Master Cylinders on the bench, then install them on the car, without bleeding the whole system. Done right and all you need is a couple of pedal pumps and you're done.

If you need to bleed the whole system then start at the furthest point from the Master Cylinder.

Open that wheel cylinder's bleeder (if you have a hose and a catch container, use it) then fill the reservoir (use a pressure bleeder) or just put the cap back on and apply a small amount of air pressure to the vent hole. Fill the reservoir again, then close the bleeder and repeat with the next farthest bleeder.

Note that it only takes one person to bleed brakes fast the first time.

[White Spyder]

10 hours ago, keithb7 said:

To confirm: You installed new cylinders and brake shoes. Correct? Now you cannot build brake pressure to bleed. 

 

Did you do anything to the master cylinder? You mentioned that you were away working for a while. By chance were the lines at the cylinders left disconnected while you were away? Possibly draining the MC, allowing plenty of air in the brake system? If so, and you are starting bleeding from scratch, using the brake pedal, it can take considerable time and pumps to get air out. 

 

Also, if there is excessive shoe to drum clearance, the shoes may not be able to contact the drums. You press the brake pedal, push the wheel cylinder pistons out, but it’s still not enough to travel the shoes out far enough. Then you don’t feel pressure at the MC pedal. 

 

Only work was cylinders and shoes. The lines were disconnected for just two days as I waited for the parts to arrive but I did tape them off. Unless the fluid evaporates quickly, there was no fluid spilling out of the two lines while they were disconnected and the master was pretty much full when I opened it to start bleeding. As to the shoes and adjustments, I used the procedure for adjustment without the special tool outlined in the tech section of this forum.  Adjusting the minor out until it slightly drags, then adjusting the major (bottom ) to eliminate the drag and then repeat.   

 

On on one side I was able to save the cylinder pins, on the other they were so corroded that I replaced them.  

 

With the comments above, I plan to remove the drums again and start over from the point of the shoes being installed. Check to see that when the peddle is presses that there is good movement from the cylinders and repeat the adjustments. Lastly, I will try to run down a pressure bleeder to bleed the system.  We will see then!

 

Oher ideas are welcome. 

Edited August 26, 2019 by White Spyder

[MarcDeSoto]

Another resource you can look at are these MTSC filmstrips from 1948 on youtube.  Watch Vol. 1-8 and 1-9.  You might want to skip 1-8 and go to 1-9 if you already know the basics.