Question [ANSWERED] about '60s Ford Drum Brakes

"TylerLinner" (tylerlinner1)
05/05/2016 at 21:41 • Filed to: HELP, F100, BRAKES, DRUM

1965 Potato P-100

*I’m trying my darnedest but process isn’t really my thing! Problem solved by slowing down and reading carefully* 1965 Ford F100 with 11" manual front drums. I’m replacing the drums and shoes because they are ancient and noticed three brackets and a cable going around the rear half of the braking assembly. The new-looking brackets hook onto the rear shoe and you can see the cable going at a 45 degree angle down from the pivot, turning 90 degrees on the shoe and anchoring at the adjuster. What is it?

It’s not on the factory manual illustration. Could it be a later TSB that’s only listed in a supplemental manual, or perhaps a common modification? What the hell does it do? My best guess is that it is part of the self-adjuster. As of now, I’m planning on putting it back on, but it’s rather perplexing.

Thanks for the input!

EDIT: Here is the correct illustration

DISCUSSION (21)

Urambo Tauro > TylerLinner
05/05/2016 at 21:46

Self-adjusting mechanism?

jkm7680 > TylerLinner
05/05/2016 at 21:47

I think self adjuster of some sort also.

I avoid working on drum brakes like they’re the plague, haha.

TylerLinner > jkm7680
05/05/2016 at 21:49

Any idea how it would change the operation of the mechanism? “It’s not supposed to be there” is something I’m not familiar with. It’s usually more like, “Something should be there”.

TylerLinner > Urambo Tauro
05/05/2016 at 21:49

Likely... but why? How? The world is filled with magical mysteries.

Birddog > TylerLinner
05/05/2016 at 21:50

That’s a self adjuster setup. The pics in your book are for a manual adjuster, note that there is no dog to kick the star wheel in the pics. It was probably upgraded by Ford or a PO at some point.

jkm7680 > TylerLinner
05/05/2016 at 21:50

Sorry, I have no clue :P

merged-5876237249235911857-hrw8uc > TylerLinner
05/05/2016 at 21:52

Looks similar to the dodge self adjusters, you will want to reconnect it

TylerLinner > Birddog
05/05/2016 at 21:54

Oh, that’s it. I’m a dumbass and there is an illustration of the little self adjuster parts up further on the page.

D’OH!

Thank you.

TylerLinner > merged-5876237249235911857-hrw8uc
05/05/2016 at 21:55

Thanks; Birddog just alerted me to it as well. Looks like somebody replaced and/or added the mechanism after a few decades.

Urambo Tauro > TylerLinner
05/05/2016 at 21:56

Drum’s really aren’t my specialty, but here’s how I’m visualizing it:

As the shoes and drum wear, the shoe has to travel further outward to contact the drum. If enough wear has occurred, it will pull the cable (and the adjuster plate) high enough to engage the next tooth on the adjuster gear, and when you release the pedal, the heavy spring pulls the adjuster plate back down, turning the adjuster gear to bring the shoes out closer to the drum for better braking engagement.

Now that the shoes are closer to the drum, they can’t bring the adjuster plate high enough to catch the next tooth on the gear. It will not adjust itself tighter until the shoes and drum wear down enough for that cable to bring the adjuster plate up high enough to turn the gear again.

TylerLinner > Urambo Tauro
05/05/2016 at 21:57

Yeah, Birddog got me looking at the page again and I’m so thick that I missed the illustration of this very mechanism higher up on the page. It’s a stock self-adjuster. Thanks for the help. :)

Urambo Tauro > TylerLinner
05/05/2016 at 22:02

I always find drums bewildering, until I spend a minute or two staring at it. I like to stick a screwdriver in there and move the parts to help me figure it out. Only then can I understand what each component really does.

Birddog > TylerLinner
05/05/2016 at 22:07

Ha! No problem. It’s easy to overlook stuff like that.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > TylerLinner
05/06/2016 at 08:50

This is relevant to my interests, as they say. I have a set of drums on the front of a ‘59 Lincoln, and it looks like they’re identical to these except for having a deeper drum and wider pads. So - a self-adjuster kit for widely produced Ford trucks should fit if I get one to put on a very uncommon Lincoln.

TylerLinner > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
05/06/2016 at 08:59

It would be worth a try. I buy most of my parts from either LMC Truck or NAPA, so I’m sure between the two you could find something compatible. I don’t know what kind of brakes they used in ‘59, or if anything changed with the switch to Twin I-Beam in ‘65.

PS- Props on sticking (ba dum) with the drums. We are the keepers of the flame. Lolol

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > TylerLinner
05/06/2016 at 09:05

The Lincoln, because it was a 5200lb+ behemoth, was using pretty much the biggest brakes Ford had to offer inside a 14" wheel. So they’re 11" drums with cooling ribs and 4" wide linings. The hub appears to use a 5x5.5" lug pattern, which at that time was a legacy pattern pretty much only in use on some Ford trucks. If as I believe they’re pretty much straight from a high capacity F-series, that would go to explain some things. Like how a car with power steering, power antenna, power brakes, power seat, power windows etc. somehow still has manual adjusting brakes. DURRR

TylerLinner > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
05/06/2016 at 09:15

Oh jeebuz. Not even 15" wheels? Odd.

Yeah, you might be able to pick up a self-adjuster. The brackets themselves don’t even bolt in- they fell out once the cable tension was released. So it’s not very involved to remove them (no word yet on installation) if you have the right shoes.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > TylerLinner
05/06/2016 at 09:25

They’re not 15" wheels because you *could* get a super-tall high load rating bias ply 14" that would take that kind of abuse... so they did. They have full-wheel hubcaps, so I don’t want to upgrade - I’ll just get original style tires out of Coker and whine about it, while making sure to get them in 2"+ whitewall because of reasons. I do appear to have the right shoes, because I noticed they looked like they had self-adjuster holes in them like that shoe on the right (a big pivot hole positioned near the bottom). I probably have to replace the shoes, though - one of them was stuck long enough that the metal is flaked off from rust. One of the adjusters just fell out, and the other is a rust nightmare. So, I’ll be replacing the adjusters anyway and buying some other parts, might as well go self-adjust.

As a fun side note, the diagram in your main post, showing a single-side wheel cylinder: that particular single-side wheel cylinder was also used on some Internationals and on some trailer brakes. I recognize it.

TylerLinner > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
05/06/2016 at 11:08

Interesting. I wouldn’t upgrade either; I was just surprised because it seems as if everything came with 15's back then. Whitewalls probalby help.

The rust sounds super fun. I wish you luck. Hopefully you can find the parts to make it all nice, and self adjusting!

Funny. It would be great to get a trailer with the same brakes for part swappability. I feel like it’s weird that that excites me.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > TylerLinner
05/06/2016 at 11:15

I only know that because my dad has a heavy trailer that probably dates from the early 70s, and it has hydraulic surge brakes like those. I rebuilt the brakes in an effort to get them working... oddly enough, so I could trailer the Lincoln back from Ohio. Check this shit ou t. O. G. tires as from the factory, pretty much exactly. NINE FIFTY fourteens. The giga-tire. The specification is a riot - 2000lb per wheel.

TylerLinner > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
05/06/2016 at 21:44

Craziness. The section is so tall. Yeah, you could easily use those as trailer tires. For a, uh, really classy trailer.

How far did you trailer the thing?

Also, I blew a couple hours tonight working on this damn brake. Yes, just one. Do it wrong, start over. x3. Getting the spring to orient itself correctly while not flying off into my face was the hard part. I found if I stuck a screwdriver down through the middle of the spring, then pried the hook up with a different flathead, it actually worked, and the spring lied down flat. The More You Know.