IML: '62 Rear Brakes Back Together!

[Joe Strickland <jwstrick426@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I just wanted to let the group know that I successfully got the rear brakes back together today.  Having the shoe lining thickness reduced to 0.170" as the service manual recommends made all the difference.  Just a few suggestions to others who may work on the rear brakes of their '62 and older Imperials with "Center Plane" or Total Contact" brakes:

1.  Use a mallet or a ball peen hammer to tap the shoes lightly inward after positioning the drum over the shoes.  This will help center shoes to the drum.  Make sure as you push the drum back on that the shoes remain in position on the push rods of the wheel cylinder.

2.  After the drum is fully on, but before tightening the castle nut on the axle, check for free rotation of the drum.  A small amount of drag is OK so long as you can still turn it by hand.  You may want to operate the adjusting cams to engage and then disengage the shoes and recheck rotation of the drums.

I am satisfied with the way this turned out.  Now I can move on to replacing the brake system hard lines and flex lines.

Thanks once more to all who offered suggestions and help.

Joe

Joseph W. Strickland
1021 Vaughan Lane
Tioga, TX 76271-2937

________________________________________
PeoplePC Online
A better way to Internet
http://www.peoplepc.com

-----------------  http://www.imperialclub.com  -----------------
This message was sent to you by the Imperial Mailing List. Please 
reply to mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and your response will be 
shared with everyone. Private messages (and attachments) for the
Administrators should be sent to iml.webmonster@xxxxxxxxx
To UN-SUBSCRIBE, go to http://imperialclub.com/unsubscribe.htm