packick

Old-Tank: Thanks again for your advice. Yes, the shoes were arced to the drums and the drums were tested for size. I have already sanded the drums and linings but I will do as you suggest and get the shinyness out of them.

Old-Tank: I thought about the alignment being off (e.g., toe-in) but the fact that the car pulled to the opposite side when I switched left-to right, right-to-left made me rule that out. Or is there something I am missing? I will try the front-to-back trick you suggested. When I first test-drove the car after installing the new lining, I did ride the brakes a bit (10 seconds or so for about 4 times) but I don't think I got the brakes "real hot." And I only did this because it was pulling to the left. Thanks.

Old-Tank, the shoes are the original '55 Buick shoes; I have no idea what brand the lining is. It is what the Brake shop put on. Bernie: I failed to mention in my narrative that I also installed new wheel cylinders on all four wheels as part of the brake relining job. I had problems with a couple of the old ones leaking (oozing) so I just replaced all of them. I am tending to agree with you and others that I should purchase a new set of brake springs.

In answer to the several questions asked by respondents: - Yes, I did adjust the anchor pins on both sides. - No, I did not install new springs; i used the old springs. The reason that I used the old pins is because the brakes never pulled to one side or the other until I put the new lining on. - I would assume that even if the ID of the drums were different, when I adjusted the brakes with the adjustment wheel that would compensate for the ID difference. To get the same drag on each wheel, if the ID was different then one side or the other would take more "clicks" on the wheel to get the same drag. I will do as Iancemb suggests and place the shoes on the bench and give them a thorough inspection. I did this before and that is why I took them back to the brake shop. One of the shoes had a bit extra lining on them but it was at the very tip where it tapers off and would not contact the drum when braking. But I didn't look at the arc difference (if any) of the lining or shoes. I can also try what Bhigdog suggests and switch the primary shoes to see what that does. Thanks for the responses. You have given me some other things to think about.

I have been battling this issue all year. I am now at wits end trying to solve this problem. I also posted this problem about 8 months ago when the relining job was new. After relining all the brakes on the car, the brakes pulled to the left. I removed the left drum and inspection showed nothing wrong. So, I decided to switch the front drums, shoes and springs from left-to-right and right-to-left. This would determine if I had a bad brake hose. After doing this, the car then pulled to the right. The brake hose is not the problem nor would a bad shock be the problem. Then I switched back the drums only. It still pulled to the right, but not as bad. I then took the shoes back to the brake shop for inspection just to make sure. They were OK. Per a Forum suggestion, I "scored" the drums and shoes with 80-grit sandpaper; I then reassembled everything as it was in the beginning, with everything in their original locations. It still pulled to the left but not as bad. So possibly could the left drum be the culprit? I decided to loosen the left brake shoe 2 clicks with the theory being the right front would engage before the left front. That worked somewhat for a while but now it is back to pulling to the left. Note that I have had the car realigned. Also note that the pulling is at its worst when I aggressively put on the brakes; normal easing to a stop braking isn't as noticeable. Since the brake relining job, I have (cautiously) put about 400 miles on the car so the brakes should have seated by now. Could I have a weak brake spring on the right side that is preventing that side from engaging the brakes as quickly as the left side? If that could be the cause, how do I test the springs? If that is the case, how do you test a spring for weakness. Could the left or right drum be a problem? If so, what do I look for? There you have it. Any ideas???

John, we all know that over the years you have spent many hours getting her ready for show. Congrats.

I too have that hesitation problem with my '55 Century. When I rebuilt the engine, I installed a new vacuum advance, rebuilt the carburetor, I am running ethanol-free gas (90 octane), and have adjusted the carburetor as Old-Tank suggests. I have just learned to live with it. I think it is "the nature of the beast" with modern gas formulation.

And speaking of "modern," what is that red thingy attached to the firewall?

My guess is that a gentleman named Cundiff (or Gundiff) was the original owner and sold the car in 1939 to someone else and, as a "joke," had his name (the seller) embossed on the data plate, and the year of the sale, "39", embossed over the "37"on the data plate. There were many dealers that did NOT stamp their name and/or date on the data plate when it was sold new.

John et. al.: Mystery solved. I know a lot of you were losing sleep wondering what the mystery tool I posted pictures of earlier was. One of my friends in Canada has identified it as a chisel sharpener that is used in conjunction with a bench grinder. So sleep well tonight.

John: I know a lot of very smart readers follow your blog (maybe even rivaling Robert Oppenheimer’s team) so I thought I would see if they can help me identify a mystery part. I don’t think it is car-related but who knows. This part was in a box of parts my father left after he had passed away. I believe it was used for carpentry work since there is a lot of saw dust remnants on it. Hopefully one of your readers will know right off what this part is called and what it is used for. I have asked several people I know and so far no one has any idea. Thanks readers.

John: Yes I did own a 1970 Porsche 914 . . . most unreliable car I have ever owned. The happiest day of my life is when I traded it in for another car. With its fuel injection system, it always flooded and I had to have it pushed to get it restarted; it seems that every time you turned on the key to start, it would shove more gas into the system which exacerbated the flooding. After 2 years the paint faded but the dealer repainted the car for me at no charge. Also after 2 years I had to replace all of the rubber fuel lines because they were deteriorating. Those were just the major problems I had with it. May it R.I.P.

John: As you know in 1988 I purchased a 1937 Packard 120 Club Sedan which also was an original Washington State car. I found two items still in the glove compartment: the same $5 Federal Tax Use sticker that you have for your 1928 Buick, and a sticker from Consolidated Garage in Seattle which offered a complete ring job for my 120 for just $20. Also, I have used a product from Mothers on my modern cars to remove spots. It works very well and is easy to apply.

I am not a carburetor expert by any means, but the first thing I would do in the future is stop using Ethonol (or as some refer to it, Deathonol). I have 4 vintage cars and I have had to replace the fuel pumps on all of them. The Ethonol destroyed the innards. I also had an in-line fuel filter on my '55 Buick whose baffle was destroyed by Ethonol. Even our farm equipment (weed whackers, lawn mowers, etc.) have had parts chewed up by Ethonol. Now I only use non-Ethonol in my vintage cars. Do an Internet search on Pure-Gas. It is a great site for locating non-Ethonol gas stations near you. They even have an app you can install on your cell phone.

Great looking car. Hopefully it has a hood ornament with it since they rarely come up for sale and, when they do, they go for a pricey sum.

John and I had never seen one of these rigs. It was parked at Canyon Village in Yellowstone. It was called a "ROTEL," short for "Rolling Hotel?" It had Alaska and foreign plates, and was made by Mercedes.

John: That car museum is in Deer Lodge, MT. I agree, some very nice cars.

John: Looks like you need to add one more car to your AACA Forum salutation. Congrats.

John, for what it's worth, I purchased a 6V Optima battery for my '36 Buick a year or so before we moved into our current house. We have been in our house now for 15 years and it is still cranking away. Of course, now that I have mentioned it, it will probably go dead tomorrow.

For what it's worth, in my 1930s 6V cars I now use 2530 lamps (50 candle power) vs. the original 2330 bulbs (30 candle power). The 2530 bulbs were standard on Canadian cars of that era and they give a little better illumination. Also, while I rarely drive my old cars at night, when I do I now drive them with the high beams always on. My 6V high-beam headlights can't even come close to the brightness of some of the modern cars' headlights, especially those who drive with their fog lights on too.

John: Do you use those numbered cards like the dealers do that go on the rear view mirrors to keep track of which of your cars is awaiting parts or is next in line to be serviced?

One other question. I know that on most cars there are different colored brake springs (red, yellow, etc.). Both of my springs look exactly the same as far as length, coil diameter, and the spring metal diameter. It looks, however, that someone has slathered white paint on two of them . . . it doesn't look like the spring manufacturer did this. Does the '55 Buick have different colored springs for the primary and secondary shoes and, if so, which color goes on the primary shoe and which color goes on the secondary shoe?

I agree that cutting the longer shoes down is probably one solution. But looking at the measurements of the shoes' linings, if you add up the measurements of both the primary and secondary linings for each side, you get 23.125" shoe lining length for the left side, and 23.250" shoe lining length for the right side. That means the right side has a 1/8" longer shoe lining surface than the left side. Is that really enough to start cutting them down? I had also thought about staggering the shoes on the front but if you look at the measurements, moving the shoes around I still would have one side's lining longer than the other. I could probably move some rear shoes up to the front to even out each side, but I am afraid that would open up a brand new can of worms. As far as alignment goes, prior to doing the brake job I had to replace the rear main seal. That job totally screwed up the alignment so I took the car to an alignment shop and had them set the alignment to specs. So I am sure the alignment is spot-on. And prior to the brake job, the car stopped dead straight.

Old-Tank et. al.: Good news. I did what Old-Tank suggested and "scuffed up" both the linings and drums with 80 grit sand paper. I always use sand paper on the shoes and drums when I do a brake job but I guess I was using too fine a grit (150) to really do any serious scuffing. I took the car for a test drive and now it sorta drifts to the right when the brakes are first applied, then straighten out for the rest of the stop. I think, with miles, this too will get better. At least it is not pulling to the right. Thanks to all respondents for the help and advice.

Another Update: I pulled the front drums off again for the purpose of measuring the brake linings on each wheel. As you will recall the car pulls to the right after switching the shoes from the left side to the right side. Here is what I measured: Primary Left Shoe - Length 10-3/4” ; Width 2-1/4” ; Thickness ¼” Primary Right Shoe - Length 10-5/8” ; Width 2-1/4” ; Thickness ¼” Secondary Left Shoe - Length 12-3/8” ; Width 2-1/4” ; Thickness ¼” Secondary Right Shoe - Length 12-5/8” ; Width 2-1/4” ; Thickness ¼” Here’s what the Shop Manual specifies: Length – Not specified Width – 2-1/4” Primary and Secondary shoes Thickness – 0.187” Primary and Secondary shoes I am not too concerned with the thickness difference between the shop manual specifications and my shoes, but look at the lengths. I don’t know if the extra ½” length on the Secondary Right Shoe, and/or the extra 1/4" length on the Primary Left Shoe would cause pulling to the right side or not. Would that small difference in length cause pulling?