Subject: Re:front brake adjustments
Author: Bruce Giller
Date: Aug 30, 2001, 5:09 AM
Post ID: 1708056868
One thing to adjust on the front brakes is to make sure that both shoes
are contacting the drum at the same time. My Eldo had just the front
shoe doing all the work for the longest time.
This is done by adjusting the length of the connecting rod between the
two shoe pivots which is located on the outside of the drum. Remove the
brake cable and disconnect one end of the connecting rod (remove cotter
pin and pivot pin). This part takes three hands (and short arms don't
count): you want to have both shoes contacting the drum at the same time
and then see if the connecting rod hole lines up with the hole on the
pivot. Two hands hold the shoes in place (acting against the springs)
and the other fiddles with the connecting rod.
If the hole lines up, then put everything back together. If not, then
loosen the lock nut that is against the 'free' end of the connecting
rod. You can adjust the length of the rod by turning the connecting rod
holding bracket. You won't be able to get the rod length to be perfect
since you are forced to using a 1/2 turn of the holding bracket. I
adjusted mine so that the rod was abit longer than the hole distance.
The rod holding brackets (one on either end) are both right hand
threads which means that if you just turn rod without the brackets
turning, the distance will remain the same (one will screw in and the
other will screw out). Sure wish that it was a turnbuckle style (a left
hand and right hand thread) so that a more accurate adjustment could be made.
Bruce
'72 Eldo
Tom Bowes wrote:
| Ian, Is there someone out there who has a magic brake formula, other than Mark or Vintage Brake? Any idea what your friend is doing that might be different than what Elisabeth has already tried? As I have mentioned before, Vintage Brake relined my brakes with riveted Ferodo 2520 (front) and VB3000 (rear). I turned the shoes down to match the drum diameters (as instructed), and since they've bedded in (after about 100 miles)I've had brakes that come pretty close to disc brake performance. The only weak link seems to be the replacement brake cable that I picked up tends to stretch a bit so I am looking for one of the heavier original ones. Tom |