1932 SC Removal of front brake shoes

[Touringcuda]

I have located a brake shop to reline my shoes.

Do I just remove the spring and pivot the shoes free on the lower shoe anchor bolts or are the bolts removed first?

Pictures are on previous post.

 

Thanks 

Bob

[JACK M]

I don't think you take the lower bolts out.

I am pretty sure those bolts are concentric and are an important part of the adjustment.

 

Only speaking from long ago memory, so correct me if I am wrong.

[frankngin]

Do not take the lower bolts out. They are concentric and you will change the contact points of the shoes.  AMCO and other brake company's made special tools to realign the new shoes to the drum. The brakes work so well on these vehicles because they are rely on full contact of the shoe with the drum. If you put thick brake lining on you have changed the size of the circle they make. If you turn the break drum you have changed the size of the circle. That bottom bolt will change the size of the Circle the shoes make to composite for the new size. Because you do not have the tools your Brake relining place should be able to do the work for you. Have your shoes relined with thick lining. Have them turn the Drums. Then have them grind the shoes to fit the new Drum size. I have looked for many years for the fancy tool that will set the Concentric. No real luck yet.  attached is a pic of the tool I made to do the job. It bolts on your spindle or axle with the nut that came with the car. put your new shoes on and sweep the arm ,adjust the concentric bolt till they are round. At first this will take you about a hour to get your system down. Then maybe 10 min for the others.

 

Good Luck

Frank

[ply33]

I think the '32 DeSoto is very likely to have similar brakes to my '33 Plymouth.

 

Lower (pivots) are eccentric, not concentric and are used for the “major adjustment”. At least on my '33 Plymouth, the shoes are held on the lower pivots by a clip that goes over a cup washer and in the cup washer is a felt pad that apparently should have some oil on it to oil the pivot.

 

Remove the return spring (I find a brake spring tool for newer drum brake cars work well). Remove the clip on the lower eccentric (carefully as replacements take some time to find), remove the cup washer and felt, remove the shoe from the eccentric. On my car there is a spring metal hold down to keep the shoe against the upper (minor) adjustors. I just work the shoe off past that.

 

To work well, the lining face on the shoes and the drums must have the same radius. I used some sticky backed sand paper from my local hardware store. I drew some cross hatches on the brake linings and stuck the sand paper in the drum it was going to be used on, sticky side to the shoe contact surface. Then I rubbed the shoe back and forth on the sand paper until the marking pen cross hatches were gone and the shoe fit nicely in the drum.

In theory, you need to use the factory original Miller or aftermarket AMMCO tools to adjust the lower eccentrics (shoe pivots) when putting on new or relined shoes. I find the AAMCO much faster and more accurate than the iterative adjustment procedure I used to use. But if you don’t have access to the tooling (or can make one as shown by @frankngin) the you can use the iterative procedure I have on my website: https://www.ply33.com/Repair/brakes

Edited July 4, 2021 by ply33 (see edit history)