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Car Forum / Driving, Maintenance, Tuning / Maintenance and Repair / June 2005Power Drum Brakes
Good afternoon all, Does anyone know of a good online resource to explain and show how to bleed out and refill power drum brake lines, and how to adjust the drums? I have a 1963 Ford Galaxie with optional power drums, and I have to stand on the pedal to get it to stop! Any help would definitely be appreciated. Thanks! Jason > Good afternoon all, > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > Jason I prefer to use a pressure bleeder, I don't like the vacuum ones and pump-bleeding tends to wipe out your MC if the system hasn't been regularly flushed every couple years. That said, a car with power drums should have no problem locking them up when you stop. I wonder if you have an issue with the power booster. Do you have a "hot" cam in the car? Sure you're getting vacuum to the booster? When you stand on the brakes and then start the engine, can you feel the pedal fall a little bit? Other things to check - old hoses are no good, replace them all if you don't know when they were last done. They can swell up inside and choke off fluid flow which will also cause your brakes to drag. Finally for the adjustment, I assume you have the star wheel adjusters, if so adjust them until they can't be tightened any more and then back them off until you can feel a light drag while rotating the wheel by hand. Adjust them again after a couple drives if they're way out of adjustment. If you have self-adjusters you will need to release the self-adjusters when backing off the adjustment, someone who's familiar with your particular brake system will have to tell you how to do that (most of my drum brake experience is on Studebakers with no self adjusters) good luck, nate > old hoses are no good, replace them all if you > don't know when they were last done While agreeing with the people who suggest that this sounds like a problem with the booster or the vacuum supply thereof, let me wave the flag for a whole-system brake overhaul. At the very least, I would suggest replacing all undercar rubber in the brake system, all the way out to the wheel cylinders, unless you know it to be good. Inspect the metal tubes carefully their entire length while you're at it (or see if you can get replacements for them too). Worst case, that stuff has been down there undergoing oxidation and wear and tear since the Kennedy administration... whereas dual circuit brakes didn't come along until late LBJ or early Nixon. With these older ones, a single rupture anywhere in the system can drain the whole thing! (Not that suddenly having only half your brakes is any picnic, but it's better than none at all.) I also presume that an older brake system unknown to me has some potentially horrifying water content, amid the particles of disintegrated rubber and, of all things, rust. Meanwhile, something to keep in the back of your mind is that the parking aka emergency brake has a *mechanical* connection to the rear brake shoes and gives you some stopping power even if you lose the hydraulic stuff. As for manuals, I think you need the Ford shop manual for that car. If you're really lucky you'll chance upon _Fix Your Ford_ and/or _How To Fix Up Old Cars_ in a flea market or garage sale somewhere. See if the Galaxie club or some individual or affiliated vendor has the shop manual. Public libraries might still have the aftermarket manuals appropriate to the car. Two other big tips for repairing the wheel end of brakes, especially drum brakes, are 1. Only do one side at a time so you can use the other side (with appropriate mirror imaging) as a cheat sheet. 2. Take a good long look, drawing as many pictures as you care to, at how the parts go together in three dimensions before you dive in with your brake pliers. Cheers, --Joe Willis <callmewillis@yahoo.com> wrote in article <1117569506.330268.44780@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>... > Good afternoon all, > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > have to stand on the pedal to get it to stop! Any help would > definitely be appreciated. Sounds more like problem with the vacuum - or lack thereof - in the booster rather than air in the hydraulics....... Air makes the pedal mushy - not hard! Check out the booster and its vacuum source. > Does anyone know of a good online resource to explain and show how to > bleed out and refill power drum brake lines, and how to adjust the > drums? I have a 1963 Ford Galaxie with optional power drums, and I have > to stand on the pedal to get it to stop! Any help would definitely be > appreciated. Not enough info -- on our end or on yours. 1) You need a factory service manual. They are not difficult or expensive to buy. Check ebay or autolit.com . Do not attempt to use an aftermarket (Haynes, Chilton, Motor, etc.) manual; get the genuine Ford book. This is the FIRST tool to buy if you're going to work on your own car -- not the last. 2) You don't mention if your car is stock or modified. That has a large potential impact on the cause of your problem. 3) As others have mentioned, power drum brakes on a '63 Ford should be very easy to lock up with little more than a tiptoe touch. If that's not the case, the problem could lie in the booster itself, the booster's ancillary vacuum transport and storage systems, and/or in the brake hydraulic and/or frictional systems. > > Does anyone know of a good online resource to explain and show how to > > bleed out and refill power drum brake lines, and how to adjust the [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > 1) You need a factory service manual. They are not difficult or expensive > to buy. Check ebay or autolit.com . http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7977394284&ca tegory=6759 Ted Service manual is on the way!!! Thanks for the advice! Jason > Good afternoon all, > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > Jason Bleeding is exactly the same as with disk brakes- open the bleeder, depress pedal (helper does this) close bleeder, release. Repeat many times to fully flush the lines. Adjusting- turn the starwheel adjuster (using a screwdriver or a brake-adjusting tool) through the slot on the back cover plate until the shoes *just* barely begin to drag. After that, the auto-adjuster should take care of it. If you "have to stand on the pedal," odds are that somethings wrong. Power booster not working, drums out of round, brake linings hardened, etc. > Does anyone know of a good online resource to explain > and show how to bleed out and refill power drum brake > lines, and how to adjust the drums? I have a 1963 Ford > Galaxie with optional power drums, and I have to stand > on the pedal to get it to stop! If you absolutely can't get a factory manual, use a Mitchell from a library -- much better than Haynes or Chilton. www.fordforum.com should be useful, especially about any particularities. If you bleed the brakes by pumping the pedal, don't pump it down any farther than it normally travels or the seals will scrape against the rusty, debris-filled part of the cylinder and be ruined. Even pumping just 3/4" is enough to bleed the brakes. |
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