51 Champion Rear Brakes

[cbonner757]

Good afternoon. I've examined my 9 inch rear brakes before I take off the shoes, and noticed that the parking brake only moves the rear shoe of each side, and when the pedal is depressed, only the rear shoe moves.
I have all new parts to install, including wheel cylinders, but wanted to ask if this is normal on this style of brake before I disassemble, so I can look for proper operation when I reassemble everything.
These observations were made with the drums removed, all other parts still in place.

Regards,
Clarence

[Tom Bredehoft]

If memory serves, the '51s had self adjusting brakes. If that mechanism is/was removed, would the front shoe still be activated?

Another possibility, the front shoe activity requires the drum for the rear shoe to push against?

[img=left]http://www.alink.com/personal/tbredehoft/Avatar1.jpg[/img=left]
Tom Bredehoft
'53 Commander Coupe (since 1959)
'55 President (6H Y6) State Sedan
....On the road, again....
'05 Legacy Ltd Wagon
All Indiana built cars

[dictator27]

Another possibility, the front shoe activity requires the drum for the rear shoe to push against?[/quote]

Tom is close, Clarence. Put a screwdriver blade against the lip of the backing plate and hold the shank of the screwdriver against the brake lining to prevent it from moving while someone depresses the brake. Doing that should make the front shoe move.

Terry

[Mike Sal]

Correct. Hydraulics is like electricity & water....always taking path of least resistance. If the wheel cylinder is in working condition, you should be able to see the front shoe move when restraining the back shoe. If it still doesn't move, then the forward piston in the cylinder may be stuck. Have your partner to be careful on how far down they push the pedal, as you can pop the guts out of the cylinder if you get carried away.
Mike Sa

[cbonner757]

Thanks, guys. Had my neighbor (gently) step on the pedal, and only saw the rear shoe move, which was what confused me.
I'll try the idea of holding the rear shoe with a screwdriver. Maybe the rear shoe moves a bit before the front shoe does?
I guess I'll have to (carefully) press further on the pedal and see if the front moves after the rear engages.
What I'm trying to do is view their operation so I know
that they are operating correctly when I'm done, but before I put that drum back on. Yep, they are intact with their self-adjusters,
which, after a lot of study, I'm finally comfortable tackling. I got the adjusting mechanism freed up already.
I will also replace the wheel cylinders regardless, along with springs and contact plugs.
I have new shoes already that were in the trunk when I bought the car, but one got oil soaked in storage, so I may rough up one of
the remaining ones and re-use it. they are nearly identical thickness to the new ones. Not sure the vendors would
want to re-line a single shoe.


Not sure what it means that the parking brake only moved the
rear shoes, though.

[cbonner757]

Finally got those brakes back together, and many thanks to all. As a side note, someone way back when mounted the rear shoes with the moving parts of the
self-adjuster to the outside of the car instead of the inside. I caught it from looking at the shop manual and the StudebakerParts.com site info. No way
would they work like that, but maybe they wanted to only manually adjust them and not fiddle with the self-adjusters. I also learned the hard way to
loosen the parking brake at the adjustment point under the car in addition to letting down the brake handle-- sure helped get the drums back on easier.

[rockne10]

Hope you made certain all the mating surfaces between the drums and tapered axles were clean and dry; no lubricants or anti-seize.

[cbonner757]

Rockne, sure did. I went slow and careful, thoroughly going through the shop manual, which cautioned against putting anything on the mating surfaces.

Thanks,
Clarence

[N8N]

leave the parking brake slack until you have everything else back together and well adjusted, THEN adjust it. the parking brake should always be the last thing adjusted, and should be slackened before adjusting the brakes unless you were the last guy to work on the car and you know you did it properly. Otherwise, it's possible that you might end up with tension on the e-brake cable when you apply the brakes, with resultant possible snappage under hard braking, which is exactly when you don't want to be surprised by the pedal dropping an inch or so and possibly needing to be pumped up.

nate

[cbonner757]

Thanks, Nate. I learned the hard way about the parking brake cable. I'd released it at the handle before doing the brake job, and the drums came off fairly easily. But getting the drums back on over new shoes was difficult, until I realized to slack the parking brake at its adjustment point (thanks to some advice from my Paw). It's all adjusted, and I can test drive it soon as I button up from cleaning the engine block water passages-- finished that yesterday.