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rear brake adjustment

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walshja

walshja

Jedi Warrior
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my 1974 has a new brake master cylinder and front calipers, and braking take a lot of foot pressure to stop, I think only the front brakes are working.

the emergency brake was way out of adjustment, barely gripping when fully engaged.

I read up on how to adjust the rear brakes, my question is can I jack up the entire rear of the car? where can I put a floor jack on these cars? if that is possible.

or do I need to use the factory jack, using the holes on the side of the car?

I manually adjusted the emergency cable underneath the car while changing the rear differential last night, and it does grab better, but still not enough, I still need to check the rear brakes, making sure they are adjusted properly.

I have a floor jack, hopefully there is a spot on the car where I can jack up the entire rear of the car, and if not that, at least 1 side at a time without having to use the factory jack.

advice is appreciated.

joe
 
Welcome! I judt did this a bit ago as well. I'll let you in on what I did, and then some of the guys with "mre knowledge" will chime in.

I jack the back end up by using a floor jack on the rear axle, taking care to make sure the jack is in contact solidly and being carefull not to damage the brake lines that run alongside them. Then I used a stand (or large blocks of wood -- just don't use concrete blocks) to secure one side, while I repeat on the other. If I don't need the back end too high I put the floor jack under the side of the car under the factory jack point (using a piece of wood to spread out the load) and lift the side to remove the rear (or front) wheels and then utilize the stands. I wouldn't use a factory jack and the hole in the side of the car if I could help it. It really should only be used in an emergency. The tricky part is finding a floor jack that is low enough to get under the car, but has enough throw to get the car high enough.

The drums are pretty easy to adjust. There is a square bolt on the backside that you turn to adjust. You want them to just barely be, or about to make contact with the drum. It improved my stopping power a lot.
 
hey John, I should have waited 5 more minutes for your reply, I just used the factory jack.

and wow, by rear brakes were way out of adjustment, simple enough to fix.

taking her out for a test drive now !!

joe
 
A bit of thought for this:

You can raise the rear of the beastie with a floor jack under the pumpkin and JUST enuff to allow jackstands under the axles at the outside of the tubes. Watch that brake lines are not being crushed, as stated above.

Remove wheels/tyres, SLACK OFF the e-brake adjuster so there's no tension at the "arms" to the rear brakes FIRST. THEN use the 1/4" square adjuster nub to (in quarter turn increments, you'll "feel" the "click") a place where the shoes are just in contact with th' drum. Now get aboard the drivers' seat and fully depress the brake pedal a few times then go back and spin the drums again. You should hear the "woosh" of shoes in contact with the drums as you turn 'em. If not, wind the adjuster in one click at a time until you do on both sides. Depress the pedal AGAIN a few times and repeat until there is no need to use the adjuster again before the shoes are "whooshing" as you turn the drums. Only MINOR contact is necessary, not hard resistance to effort to spin the drums. Only after this should you try to adjust the handbrake cable, and you should be able to get full braking with 4 "clicks" of the handbrake.
 
hey, I did what you described, minus the getting in the car and pressing the peddle.

should I start over? prior to be adjusting my brake peddle would travel almost all the way to the floor, now I press maybe an inch and I got full braking with minimal pressure needed.

BUT, I now have rear brakes, what a HUGE difference this made in the stopping ability of the car, it was almost dangerous before, without rear brakes, but never have driven one of these before, I was unsure if that was normal or not.

my emergency brake works like a champ now as well.

when you say pumpkin, do you mean the rear differential? where I just drained the fluid? I can lift there? then put jack stands on either side of the pumpkin?

I love working on this car, so simple . . . so far
 
Well, there you go! I learned something as well. I've never pumped the brakes between, but it certainly makes sense. I might go check mine out and see how their doing and give this a shot.

Thanks Dr.Entropy!
 
Doing that helps center the shoes: Every time you adjust them to the point of just touching, you should push on them with the cylinders to help "align" them to the arc of the drum. It takes up all the top to bottom/fore and aft misalignment in increments. Doing it with the handbrake cable slack insures its actuator arms aren't "falsely" positioning the shoes.

You're quite welcome, John!

...I ain't just another pretty face, y'know. :devilgrin:
 
Surprising, no? :smirk:
 
Not really! Just that brains AND good looks IS SOOO rare!! :cheers:
 
:lol:

...he's blind as a bat... :smirk:
 
I have been told that there is a passing resemblance between a few of us here and that was just a left-handed way of telling myself I dont look too bad either! The eyes are good, just biased slightly towards "that certain look"!!! :devilgrin:
 
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