alexandervdr

I installed all new drum brake sets (shoes, drums, cylinders, springs etc).
Do I need to adjust those for balance lef/right (turning the screw/wheel assembly)? Or does this happen by itself through the self adjusting capability in the design?

Bowtyeguy

With the wheel off the ground, spin the wheel while moving adjuster through the backing plate until you get one full spin of the tire. You can do this from the front on some drums also.

Frankie the Fink

This is the 'old school' tool to do the adjustment but not necessary...its nice to have in those cases where the backing plate doesn't have the adjustment oval holes "knocked out" already.

Not sure about the prior poster's adjustment method.
Traditionally you adjust the drums though the hole with the wheels off the ground until just at the point you can no longer turn them by hand (parking brake OFF, front wheels choked when doing the rear) then back off a certain number of clicks (using a brake 'spoon') and the wheel should spin. IIRC the manual says 12 clicks, I've always done just 8 for 40 years.
This is especially important on 63/64 cars IMO as there is already enough brake pedal travel to be scary; best to adjust it out when you can.

Drive the car, backing up a few times gently pumping the brakes to get the automatic adjusters going and then brake gently for the first several hundred miles so the shoes and drums can get acquainted with each other a bit...

One final note - you need to make ABSOLUTELY sure you have each star wheel adjuster on the correct side...the end of the threaded section will have an "L" or "R" on it to indicate location. I've seen far too many novices mix them up with very bad results... A quick test with the drum off is to move the star wheel by hand down turning towards the outside of the car - the brake shoes should expand...

You may want to post pics here of all four brake assy's (drums off) before buttoning things up as there have been several mistakes made before that we've seen...

ejboyd5

Never heard of the "one full tire spin" test before, I've always adjusted by clicks on the star wheel.

Frankie the Fink

Me neither .... it might work; but I KNOW the traditional way does...

alexandervdr

Thanks all, I'll go for the traditional way and then do the spin the wheel test to check

May post some pictures of the drum set-up as Frankie suggested as mounting errors may have slipped in. Never seen or touched or done drum brakes before...

DansYellow66

It's easy to get confused under the car as to which direction to turn the star wheel when adjusting the brakes - as I know from my 67 Plymouth (or maybe age is just catching up with me). It's not a bad idea to make yourself a crib sheet for both sides and note on it which direction the star wheel is turned to tighten the brakes and which direction to turn it to loosen the brakes.

FWIW I usually tighten them until I can't turn the tire with force from one hand any more and then count the number of clicks in backing them off to a point I just get the lightest scraping contact between the shoes and drums. I back the other 3 off by the same number of clicks. Also, before adjusting them for a final time it's a good idea to drive the car back and forward a bit and apply the brakes to center all the components. Of course you have self-adjusters that should more or less take care of that for you. My Plymouth has police brakes with no self adjusters so I have to get them set fairly precisely.

alexandervdr

here are the pictures of the 4 brakes. If you see problems, let me know! Be merciful, this is my first exposure to this 60-s technology

MikeM

Just make sure the adjuster arm rotates the ratchet wheel in the direction that the adjuster will lengthen and expand the shoes when the adjustment arm pushes DOWN. The adjusters have right and left handed threads.

I've never owned one of those fancy pre-adjuster tools. Never needed one. When installing new brakes, I always expand the shoes to the point I have to force the drums over the shoes with a little force. Then I stroke the brake pedal a few times to center things up. That always gives cause for further manual adjustment. Some times I do this 2-3 times until I can slide the drum over the shoes with just a slight drag.

Never did fool with that clicky clicky stuff as I found it to be inconsistent on the final adjustment.

alexandervdr

the other issue I had with the adjuster arm is that if it's not aligned to hit the ratchet wheel it won't self adjust at all. I needed to bend one of the adjuster arms slightly to get it right.

Frankie the Fink

RE: pics.

Nicely done; leading and trailing shoes are oriented properly, the long spring over the threaded adjuster is oriented properly....looks OK to me...

Can I assume you put a bit of lube on the 'rub spots' on the backing plate and self-adjuster threads before assembly ?

alexandervdr

yes I did, I am of the kind that reads (a lot) before doing anything. Scared to dead screwing up something. I think that over the 4 1/2 years I spent more time preparing/reading/trying-to-understand than in actually assembling.

alexandervdr

By the way, how do I click them back , cause these adjusting wheels are very much one way only (increasing shoe pressure). I have no access hole in the back, just the slot in the front of the drum. To that purpose , I can pull the adjustment arm slightly out with some L shaped piano wire, right?

Frankie the Fink

You could try some wire I guess...

I've always had the rear slot (or at least a knockout plug I could remove)...

GTOguy

I've done many hundreds if not thousands of brake jobs the way Mike M described....has always worked perfectly. If you want to back off through the hole in the drum, you can indeed use a buttonhook or pick to pull the arm free of the starwheel. This is not rocket science....you want the same VERY SLIGHT amount of drag on each wheel...more audible than tactile. If you are restricting the rotation of the wheels, you are too tight.

MikeM

If you do it the way I do it, you don't need to fool around with slots, wire or inaccurate backing up of the ratchet wheel.

It's been many years since I adjusted brakes through a slot in the backing plate but if I remember right, if you took your adjusting tool and pushed out against the ratchet wheel, you could disengage the adjustment arm from the ratchet wheel just enough to back it up. I don't know how you could do this with a slot in the drum. Never tried it. See paragraph one of this post.

Or, what does the service manual say?

alexandervdr

working on the feel only is easier on the front than on the back due to the resistance of the differential gears. So the 'hearing' of the friction may indeed help

Frankie the Fink

You can do the initial adjustment either way....just be damn careful on those first few braking sessions...unless you have the "feel" for the initial adjustment gained by experience you can get a nasty surprise. It'll right itself eventually with the self-adjustment procedure...

63 340HP

I just went through this teaching my son how to service the drum brakes on my 63 (completed Saturday).

After assembly testing is critical before heading too far down the road. A dozen or more back up exercises with brake application to stop from reverse speed is needed. The standard drum adjusters ratchet when stopping in reverse (the unique ZO6 brake system is different). A few more slow speed forward stops will help, followed by a few more reverse stops.

The pedal travel effort start position should come up and settle in the adjusted position. You should be able to feel the start position where the wheel cylinders lift the shoes off the stop pegs and stretch the springs before they move out to initiate shoe to drum contact. When the position is consistent the next test is straight stops.

Start with slow forward stops and feel for directional changes as the brakes are applied. Increase speed and aggressive pedal pressure for a dozen or more stops. The multiple stops with an increase in speed and effort should bed the shoe linings to the drums (as good as possible without arcing the shoes on a brake lathe). If all feels right you should be good.

I always try a few hands off the steering wheel stops, to assure the response is a straight declining acceleration with no drama. This will also expose any bushing or suspension misalignment under braking force. The car should stop straight with hands off the steering wheel in a slow pedal pressure stop and a panic stab-the-pedal stop.

My 63, when dead cold, will lock the front wheels first when stabbed below about 20 mph, and transitions to lock the rears above 25 mph. When the brakes are warmed up the imbalance in a panic stop disappears, as all four wheels will lock at the same time and skid evenly (it takes a lot of pedal effort, but will skid).

I know many people do not condone exercising a fifty year old car like this testing, but my take is it is always better to avoid surprises (and GM built them to be abused).

My son now knows his normal laid back seat position is inferior, to a position where grabbing the bitc# bar above the glove compartment is easy, when spirited braking is expected. I don't always brake hard enough to fold the passenger into a pretzel around the seat belt, but when I do I want to know how the car handles.

Last note. When you check the brakes next year, and if you pull the shoes, it is always a good time to clean and lubricate the parking brake cables. Remove the end in the brake backing plate and clean the cable in the jacket with a pressurized spray solvent. The gunk that comes out the other end of the cable jacket can be significant. I was taught top only use dry lubricant on the cables. The resulting improved feel and effort when using the parking brake is worth the effort every few years.

MikeM

If you do it the way it is outlined in post #16, you don't have to wear out yer clutch doing all that white knuckle jerking back and forth trying to get your brakes equalized and wondering if yer brakes are gonna' hold. And you don't have to skin yer knuckles trying to adjust the ratchet wheel adjuster with that wrench when it slips off.

This isn't a big deal.