Frustrated

parkerm

I replaced all the brake parts on the 1940. I then went about adjusting them. The procedural manual says to release the manual breaking system first. Did that. Then using the eccentric to loosen the eccentric nut and turn the eccentric in the direction of forward wheel motion until there is 0.010 clearance at both the top of the secondary shoe and the bottom of the secondary shoe or close to it. Then do the final adjustment using the adjuster (star wheel) to get 0.010 at both locations. I tried and tried and could not get it. The top of the shoe would always become so tight that I could not rotate the brake drum to the lower position to check for 0.010 at the bottom of the secondary shoe. I gave up and moved on to other tasks for several months. I have now come back to try again to adjust the brakes. I have read everything about adjusting the brakes in the manual and I cannot find where I am going wrong.

I did notice however, that whomever adjusted the brakes on the car before I got it, must have had the same problem because the brakes shoes were worn out at the top of the shoe, literally down to the metal, but had practically new shoe material at the bottom of the shoe. When I took them apart at the beginning of this process and saw that, I thought, hmm, the person that did this did not pay much attention to how to adjust these shoes; it is very strange to have completely worn out the shoe at the top, but not at the bottom.

Well, now I have tried numerous times to get them adjusted and I cannot figure this out. I am sure many of you have adjusted brakes on Hudsons that have the eccentric. The eccentric moves both shoes either backward or forward pivoting on the anchor pin at the top. The shoes sort of swing back and forth when you turn the eccentric. The consistent problem is that the top of the secondary shoe always tightens to 0.010 way before the bottom of the shoe no matter how I try to adjust using the eccentric and the adjustment wheel at the bottom. I have even tried loosening the anchor pin and tapping it forward, then tightening it again, and then adjust the eccentric. That did not work either.

I need sage advice.

Thank you

Courtesy Man

Don't know if this could be  the problem. Perhaps need to measure the diameter of the drum - if it has been turned before - then the shoes need to be arced or ground to that diameter too. In other words the new shoes may be too big for the curvature of the drum.

charles4d

A dumb question are the shoes on right not backwards

Geoff

You need to adjust the anchor pin position.  It is obviously too high. 

parkerm

Charles4D, yes the shoes are on correctly.
Geoff, I did not realize the anchor pin was adjustable vertically. From the procedural manual I thought it only adjusted horizontally. I will try tapping it down and I hope it moves so I can finish this project.
Thanks for the questions and suggestions. Sage Advice