48 commander starlight coup

[wil7391]

the left rear brake drum is locking up when i apply the brakes! the left one seems tighter than the right one when i turn them by hand. i removed both drums and the shoes looked about the same thickness 3/16. is there there an adjuster to loosen the shoes? theres a round metal plunger in the center of the forward shoe what it? also what torque on the large castlated nut? the left drum isn't polished like the right one is. any ideas ? thanks for any help! Wil

[Tom Bredehoft]

The metal button is part of the self adjusting system. You ought to get a shop manual, it'll tell you all about them.

Torque on the axle nut. Torque it to 170 lbs then turn it to the next cotter pin slot. Be sure the axle and hub are dry, no lube of any sort.

[StudeRich]

The Brake adjusters are the TWO small threaded studs (with a flat on two sides) with a Large locknut on them. There is a forward shoe and reverse shoe adjuster.
You loosen the lock nut, and turn DOWN, top to bottom with the wrench outboard at 3:00 forward and 9:00 rear shoe on the stud until there is VERY slight drag or as close to no drag as possible, when turning the Drum, be sure to hold it from moving while tightening the lock nut.

Since you went to all that trouble to use your Hub/Drum Puller to get in there, I would disassemble the wheel cylinder and check it's condition before putting it back together since it was dragging badly and not working according to the unpolished look of the Drum, unless you are very sure that it is FRESHLY rebuilt or New without rust or pits inside.

[wil7391]

thank you for info! I pulled the wheel cylinders and they were toast! I have new shoes and cylinders ordered. does it take special equipment to grind the drums or can auto parts shops do it? also i assume there is an grease seal inside the axle housing i was wondering if it would be good to replace it now? thanks again !

[nvonada]

Good news on the wheel cylinders! You might also want to replace your rubber brake hoses. They are cheap an old one can die any time. If your wheel cylinders are badly pitted you might want to tear down the master cylinder and check that too. The rebuild kit is cheap and with only one brake circuit you need all the insurance (and assurance) you can get.

Check your drum condition before turning them. Drums for our cars are getting harder to find and you can only remove so much metal before you have a problem. If the drum is not scored you probably can just remove rust with emery cloth or sandpaper and run with it. Many auto parts stores can turn a drum but you are taking a chance on how much metal they remove. Good luck!

[ralt12]

The rubber hoses are especially important, as externally they might look in perfect shape, but internally they shrink to the point of allowing very little fluid to pass.

[wil7391]

48 commander c-clips for brakes

any one know where i can get the c-clips that hold the brake shoes on their attachment posts. i also need help on speedometer cable! the case is hooked up but there is no cable inside . are cables available or do i need to replace the whole thing? if i can get the inner cable can i install it while the outer case is still in the car?

[nvonada]

I think the C-clips are a fairly standard part. Your FLAPS will probably have something that will work if you take an old one in. I bet most of the vendors have them too.
On the speedometer--You can buy a generic cable core that you cut to length then crimp a new end on. NAPA has them for sure. A bigger problem is that I doubt the pinion gear is still there on the transmission. Take the cable loose from the transmission and see what you have. The Stude vendors have most of the pinion gear types but you need to know what your transmission and rear end are to pick the right one. The parts books have a table for that. Once you have all the bits you can replace the core with the cable still in the car but it is not that hard to remove and once out you can clean it (inside and out!). This will also make cutting the new core to length much easier. There is a special lube for these cables. It looks like oil and graphite mixed similar to the spray lock lubricant. Again I know NAPA has it.
The link below shows my speedo cable replacement. It turns out my cable was replaced at some point with one from an overdrive-equipped car. That means I have a LOT of extra slack in the cable but it works fine.

http://stude.vonadatech.com/SpeedoCable.htm

Nathan

[wil7391]

thanks Nathan!! the pinion gear is still in the tranny end. when i talked to NAPA they said there differant types of ends and i don't have the old core so how do i tell what kind i need?

[nvonada]

I usually write down the part numbers for stuff but I forgot when I did this. I would take the pinion gear in. As I recall it is the same size on both ends. If they need to look it up I suspect any car with a Borg-Warner transmission uses the same cable type (old jeeps!). The pinion gears are listed with Steward-Warner part numbers in the parts book so that might help too. One of the nice things about Studebaker is they used so many "off the shelf" components in their cars.