TR2/3/3A TR3 Rear Brake Position

Reinstalling the rear axle in my 59 TR along with the brakes and can't remember [ no pictures, I am learning] what position the brake adjusting nut should be in [12 1 2 3 o'clock]so that the emergency brake cable dosen't hit the frame or rear springs.
Thanks
Greg

Here is a photo of mine from 1990. It is taken from the rear of my 1958 TR3A and you are looking at the brake on the LHS, beside the mufflers. As with the TR2s, the TR3s and the early TR3As like mine, this is a 10" drum system. At some time later TR3As switched to 9" diameter drum brakes. But the positions are the same.

Here is the same LHS a few years ago with the 10" drum removed.

Thanks Don, picture very heplful
Greg

Don - I notice in the second shot that the brake shoe retaining pins are absent.

Was this because they were not put back on yet or do you run without them?

George - You have a keen eye. On TRs with 10" drums, there are no retainer pins. My early TR3A has never had any. My TR came this way when new.

Mine (with 10" drums) has the pins... they are the sort that have a cupped washer and a spring and lock with a quarter turn.

I left them off when I was doing some experimenting with the position of the shoes and couldn't tell any difference so I didn't put them back on. Couldn't really see how the shoes can go anywhere w/o them and they are designed to allow a fair amount of play anyway.

My car with 10" drums also had the pins and cupped washers. I put mine back together the same way. After 50 years you never know the correct way. Put it back the way I found it. TS14819

I don't think I have any holes in the backing plate. I can't remember if there are any holes there for the retaining pins. The shoes you see in the photo above with the drum removed are the original 51-year old shoes. I had a brake shop bond new linings onto those original shoes in 1988 and since then I've driven 100,000 miles without any issues because there are no retaining pins. As George wrote above, "Where can they go?".

The ten inch rear brakes on my TS23677L do not have the hold down pins or any holes in the backplate for them.

The way the springs that go across the brake shoes are designed, they pull the shoes against the backing plate. I think that perhaps the PO added the hold down springs.

There were (at least) two different types of Girling 10" rear brakes used on TR3/A (plus of course some of the Lockheed rear brakes were also 10"). The later Girling 10" brakes (before they switched to 9") did have adjustable posts like Don's brakes; rather than the hold-down 'nails' like the earlier 10" Girling and the 9" Girling.

The SPC gives the change point to the post as 15332; and TS13571L does have the earlier type with the hold-down nail & spring.

But of course the backplates do interchange, as do complete axle assemblies, so it's not at all unusual to find the "wrong" parts on any given car. TS39781LO had 9" Girling brakes when it came to me; likely because the entire rear axle had been changed. It also had a speedo for 4.1 gears, but 3.7 in the axle.

Those support posts can lead to an interesting problem; took me many months to figure out what that funny "clunk" was when I started to take off from a stop. (On a previous TR3A with the post, somewhere in the TS40xxx range.)

Over the years, cars with steady posts behind the shoes (Girling 10" rear brakes) lose the little white felt anti rattle bushes that sit on the end of the posts. These have been available again for a while from the main supliers.

Regards,

Viv.