64 Silver Blue

I am fitting new brake drums on the front. The shop manual says to reinstall drums in the same position on the wheel hub as they were originally, but since the drums are new there is no original position. Does it matter which way a new drum is installed?

Thanks everyone that has helped me get to this point in the refurbishment of the brakes. Last thing is to bleed the lines and do the final adjustment. Must be some kind of record. I started this project Jan 2.

Powershift

It should not matter regarding the position of the new drums.

I think years ago the factory may have tried to fine tune the balance by matching drums to the spindles...........similar to what they did for rear end assemblies and driveshafts.

Probably the biggest thing is to buy/have a good quality drum from a reputable source that is straight/true and balanced.......

Larry

bluestreak63

Which year? I think I started overhauling my brakes in 2013 I think. I finally finished last week.

64 Silver Blue

You definitely got me beat!

gsholz

On my drums there is an indicator that allows you to install the drums in the same location. The indicator is only on my front drums. Looks like this


Do your new drums have that indicator?

Front brake drum indicator on '64

MikeM

The only reason I can think of for re-installing the drums back on the front hubs in the factory location is that the drum was installed to the hub and then trued to the hub.

If you replace the drum, you don't have any options and probably won't have any problems unless you get a bad drum. Personally, I've never had any problem installing the factory drum at random locations.

Maybe I've been lucky? Maybe it really doesn't matter?

64 Silver Blue

Hopefully this I the last question I'll have about my brakes. While laying out the parts for reassembly I discovered there are two different springs for each set of brake shoe hold down pins. One is tapered (behive) on one end and the other is cylinderical. When I disabled the shoes I didn't notice the difference. Does the cylinderical spring install over the pin on the automatic adjustment mechanism? I'll take pictures if my question isn't clear. TIA, Gene

Frankie the Fink

The shorter spring goes on the shoe that has the brake self-adjuster actuating arm to accommodate the extra thickness of that piece...

Best to take a cell phone picture of things before tearing the down or else only do one side at a time...

While you are at it the self-adjuster torpedoes are labeled "L" and "R" -- don't mix them up...and the spring that straddles the self-adjuster torpedo should have the long shank over the pawl wheel..don't mix that up either...

64 Silver Blue

I took lots of photos, but none of that. Things kinda exploded when I disassembled the brake shoes, and I didn't realize there was a difference until I started the reassemble process.

I got all the right vs left things under control, but I couldn't find any exploded diagrams or any reference to their being differed.

Thanks for bailing me out again.

Gene

Frankie the Fink

No problem...there are six "slide points" on each backing plate that allows the shoes to move normally - don't neglect to put a slight dab of grease on those before assembly...they are slightly raised and usually shiny pads on the plate...

64 Silver Blue

Thanks, that's what started the whole thing. The car was pulling hard to the left. I pulled the brakes down and found the pads were so damaged it caused the shoe to **** sideways. I was going to try to put some weld on the pads and grind them down, but I lucked into a pair of NOS backing plates. Everything is new, including drums, so I'm hoping that fixes the problem. Oh, by the way, I cleaned up the edges of the brake shoe to kill any sharp edges. Maybe that will slow the erosion. I'm sure this fix will out live me.

Thanks to you, and all the forum guys that guided me through this rebuild.