Finished the brake overhaul of the `70 cougar. Before the shoes where cracked and worn and the car seemed hard to stop.
Replaced all four drums, wheel cylinders,shoes and spring kits. Also new master cylinder and front brake hoses. Also new front bearing cups and bearings.
The car still seems hard to stop. Even with all the new parts , it seems I have to stand on the brake to stop the damn thing.
What am I missing?? Or is this just how poor four drum brakes are?
No, I`m not spending $1500 to upgrade to front disc. I really need to keep this car as original as I can.
Properly rebuilt and adjusted the drum brakes will lock up all four wheels easily. There is a technique for adjusting and bleeding that is learned, not easily taught by typing words in a forum reply.
Actually Dad was just telling me this weekend he had a mechanic adjust the brakes on his first car – a 53 Merc I believe it was. The mechanic said to set the adjuster until you just couldn’t turn the wheel by hand and then back it off 7 clicks for manual brakes and a few more (Dad remembered the number) for power brakes. He said those brakes were rock solid after that with little movement in the pedal. You still could barely turn them by hand when the guy first got them set but after a drive around they block they spun free.
All of my stuff now is disc front at least, but thought about giving it a try on the rears of a couple.
I had good results using an actual drum brake caliper, but I’ve only ever even seen the one set.
Well, I benched bled the MC , bleed brakes starting at the right rear then LR then Rf Then Of
Adjusted front brakes until the wheel locked up the backed off until wheel skinned one revolution. At 45 mph ,I can hit the brake, let go of the steering wheel and does NOT pull to the left or right.
It just seems it takes a lot of pedal force to stop the car.
Yes, when I took off the shoes, I kept them on the floor the way they came off. When I installed the new shoes , I sized each one up with old ones. Big shoe in back ,small in front.
I dunno, I think a lot of pedal force is normal for a manual drum car. It’s much more than we’re used to these days anyway. You may have everything dialed in perfectly, and that’s all you’re going to get. I remember being pretty scared when I first started driving mine as an 18-year old. I’ve since upgraded to a 1970 factory front power disc setup. Still era-correct, but with dramatically improved stopping power. They almost overdid it on the brake boosters back then, if you’re too anxious on the pedal it’ll send you through the windshield.
OK, rechecked every thing and re-bled the brakes. The only thing we noticed is when I bled the RR the wife said the pedal went down slow. When I bled the LR she said the pedal went right down. I didn’t see any air bubbles front or rear. I re-adjusted the front brakes and drove it a few miles. I have better braking now, a little better than before the brake overhaul. Hit the brakes hard enough and they will lock up.
One thing I noticed in the shop manual, there was a different procedure to bleed the master cylinder. On manual brakes, it says to bleed the MC on the car. On power brakes it says to bleed the MC on the bench ?? I benched bled mine.