keithb7

Armstrong BC? Nice. Welcome. I'm over in Kamloops. Your car is a beauty. Please consider coming over to Kamloops for our Hot Nite In The City event this summer. I hope to see your car at an interior event this coming season.

Note the bulge seen here along the side of this toggle. This bulge needs to be indexed toward the backing plate or toggles will not set in place correctly. You'll get shoe interference.

I thought I would share some of my recent learnings, dealing with these Steeldraulic brakes. These are mechanical brakes. I read a number of essays on function, installation and set up of these brakes. It seemed no two essays were the same. Reading them all helped put the all the clues together. I think part of my struggle was not fully grasping what I was reading initially. I thought I would record the info here so others seeking out info in the future might find and learn from this. Thanks @Tinindian for passing along the info you shared. It was helpful. First pic here is a rear set. The movable part of the shoe points toward the ground on the rear set. The adjuster mechanism seen at about 5 o'clock. The toggle placement is important. One toggle has a solid centre, or inner. That one points toward the adjuster mechanism on all 4 brakes. The toggle with the hollow centre, fitting over the solid centre toggle, at the centre pin, points toward the rigid part of the shoe. The centre mount pins for the outer ends of the toggles are off-set. See pic below here. See how the pin with a cotter pin through it, is closer to right end of the pin in the photo? This is a mounting pin for a toggle. It needs to be located closer to the backing plate side of the shoe. If this pin is closer to the outer end of pin, the brakes will not mount properly. Due to this off-set mounting pin, you cannot mix up left and right shoes. You can switch up front and back on the same side, but not left to right. Here you can see an approximate red colour centre line that I drew in. This pic shows the pin hole off-set clearly. This hole is to be closer to backing plate when shoe is mounted properly. Next pic is adjusting cam. The cam has tabs on it that fit around the sides of the hex head bolt. Ensure these tabs are squared up tight against the bolt head. Later when the drum is installed you will need to set these cams, by turning bolt to push the rigid side of the shoe, closer to the drum. 0.020" clearance is the spec. Here are a few more pics for reference. I learned these key bits of information the hard way. On and off a few times with the shoes. Scratching my head. Hours and hours later, it feels pretty good to get this figured out. My partner and I have taught ourselves to be mechanical brake experts. A fine skill that we may never, ever have use for again. LOL. Good luck with yours. - Keith

Flat head Chrysler. Last June 2017. New to me. Pulled plugs to inspect, clean and gap. Recent previous owner had lost a small bolt. It happened to land down in the dished out area of the cylinder head around 1 spark plug. Unable to find it, he gave up. Me 2 months later, pulled the plugs. The screw behind the plug was not seen. It fell into the cylinder unbeknownst to me. It sure did not want to run after I reinstalled all the cleaned gapped plugs. I was throwing all kinds of parts at it trying to figure out what the heck was going on. Finally a compression test led me to pull the cylinder head. I found a bent valve and both pieces of the broken bolt. Followed by a full valve grind. Car is much better off for it today. Running great!

Hi, I have a 1953 Chrysler L265. I am in need of a engine oil dipstick. If anyone has anything, let me know. Thanks, Keith

Wow @Tinindian. Thanks for the service info on those brakes!

Thanks folks. @Kenendcindyc, what manual are you quoting this info from? I am interested in obtaining a service manual for the 1928 Std. 6 I am unsure what to buy. Thanks.

Could anyone tell me the intake and exhaust valve clearance specs for this 1928 flat 6? .009 and .011? Is that close? Thx.

Well there it is. The can has been opened. See all the worms. Wow.

At the least, flip the engine on stand. Pull oil pan. Pretty sure cork areas at front and rear are hard and no longer sealing. Clean up all and consider fromt and rear seals as well. Rear most main bearing cap I believe houses the lower rear seal. With the engine this accessable I’d certainly be doing it.

Thank you. Yes I’m interested. A photo or two would be great. Thx. Keith

Hi I am in need of a pair of headlights for a Dodge Brothers 1928 Standard Six. Does not have to be exact match replacement. Will consider other period correct lights. A cab heater core would also be great. Thx. Shipped to 98295 USA. Thx. Keith

Thanks folks. I like the 140 ft lb number. Sounds about right based on the size of that nut. Any guesses on the brake drum nuts? I'm thinking 50 ft lbs maybe?

Hi folks. Could some please let me know proper torque values for 1928 DB Standard Six: - Main wheel retainer nut on axle shaft. - Carriage bolts with square shoulder that hold brake drums to wood spoke rims. Much appreciated. Thanks.

Great stuff. Thanks for sharing. I look forward to seeing this rebuild move along.

Thanks folks. Much appreciated.

Hi, I do not have a shop manual. Could anyone please tell me what new plug gap should be set at? Stock car and engine. Thanks, Keith

Thank for sharing. That's a real nice car John. I like it a lot. Great work you did there. I had a vintage Dodge Brothers specialist reply to me today. It seems there are zero options for new brake cables. We will have to get them made. We will wait until we get the rear wheels off and get all 4 cables ready to be built.

Panelbeater1234, Please do post photos of your 1928 Standard 6. I’d love to see them.

Hi folks, I posted this in the Bodge Brothers Forum but thought I would try here too. Incase someone has any ideas. I am in need of 4 quantity brake cables for mechanical brakes on a 1928 Dodge Brothers Standard Six. If anyone has any ideas on a source, please let me know. Pic of cables here. Thanks, Keith

Mechanical brakes here:

Hi folks, I recently came in contact with a 1928 Dodge Brothers Standard 6. I volunteered to spend some time assessing the car and putting together a budget number. At this point, the plan is to make it drivable and safe. The car appears to be mostly stock. The engine turns. Early indications are its mostly all there. I was able to obtain the car SN. It is J37014. It appears to be an early June 1928 build. I believe this is just before Chrysler bought the company. Is this correct? The 6 cylinder engine SN reads J49-049. I so far I have not been able to locate any info on the engine SN. So if anyone can verify this correct for 1928 , that would be great. We pulled the front wheels today and found mechanical brakes. There seemed to be no inner wheel bearing dust seal so there is wheel grease all over the front brake shoes. The 4 cables at each wheel are in rough shape. Does anyone know of a source for 4 new brake cables? They are short, about 18" long each. We are going to need new cables. I am going to try and hot wash the brake shoe assemblies and see what we can do to clean them up. Drums look good. We will make a puller for the rear and get the rear wheels off later this week. The engine spins free. We measured some decent compression numbers today, even turning with the hand crank. We removed the fuel tank today and cleaned out the fuel lines. The tank will be sent out for a good cleaning. We suspect it will run soon. Here are some pics. I have heard the head lights are not correct. Can anyone confirm? Below here are the brake cables we need. These are the front only shown: Any help is appreciated folks. More pics to come. Thanks, Keith