I know there has been several discussions on these and I have read through all that I can find via the search feature. I finally got all the wheel cylinders, master cylinder, shoes and cleanup and paint done. Put it all together (after reading Nate's good advice on adjusting, especially about having the rod on the master cylinder rod rattle), bled all cylinders. But on my final shoe adjustment on the front, I get it to where it just "wsh wsh's", I step on the brake to make sure I have pedal and come back to the wheel and the both fronts are too tight to move. I readjust the shoes, try again, same thing. Tight as a drum (pun intended). Being a total novice, what am I missing? How much resistance should the drums have? No spin but no noise either? I did see that my fronts are probably a little out of round. Thanks for any info guys. Brian
New return springs solved this for me. Apparently the old springs just get weak and don't have enough left to overcome the expansion of the hydraulic fluid. Good luck, Gater
I know that this sounds really stupid, but it happens. Make sure that you do not have the shoes upsidown. I am not kidding. about 8 years ago I was working about 60 hours a week and did not have time to do the brakes on my truck, so I took it to a shop. Here is what happened... They did the brakes in the afternoon, and I picked the truck up later that evening. The brakes locked up on the way home. I was pissed when I took the wheels off and noticed that the brake shoes were on upsidown, so I took some pics and had the truck towed back to the shop so they could fix it.... again. I got the truck back the following evening, and they said that there was nothing wrong, and that they just needed readjusting. They were still doing the same thing, so I took the truck back again, and made them pull the wheels off so I could point out their error. I also pointed out that they had charged me for some other parts that they had not repalced. I picked the truck up the following day, and It was finally fixed. Unfortunately some dumbs#!* that put the wheels back on forgot to torque the lugnuts, so my drivers side wheel fell off as I was pulling into a turnlane. The wheel rolled across the street and bounced onto the hood of a 98 jaguar! I was flaming pissed. I don't think that this shop had ever seen such an angry woman in their garage before. I do all of my own work now, and I have not taken the truck to a mechanic since. Check your work, I would also change out your return springs, and make sure that your brakes are adjusted properly. They should only slightly rub when you spin the wheel.
Thanks J.B. and Jess. It does seem like the only explanation would be the return spring. It is only happening on the front wheels, the rear spin fine. I'll do some checking if CP carries those. I don't think they would be a standard spring. Jess, sorry to hear about your "tough brakes"! I'd be hacked too. The Huck shoes have the holes for the pins that only go the right way and I marked them side by side with the old ones before redoing them. But I'll order some springs this week. Hope this works. Brian
Can anyone tell me if the parking (emergency we called it) brake hooks up the same to the brake shoe on right and left rear wheels? Either something is missing or I don't understand the situation with the left one on my '49 C Boy, a picture of what it is supposed to look like would be nice. Many thanks. Harold
Thanks Ken. I see that another possibility is that my brake pedal isn't making a full return. I am pretty sure it needs adjustment too. Thanks for the link. Brian
Fun With Huck Brakes (! NOT !) Brian ; If you didn't replace the flex hoses , try this little test next time they begin to drag or lock up : Crawl underneath the truck with your BOX END wrench and crack the bleeder screw ever so slightly ~ if brake fluid spurts out under pressure , there's a restriction somewhere ~ usually it's old brake hoses but occasionally the prake pedal return spring isn't strong enough to hold the pedal firmly against the Toe Board resulting in slight pre-loading of the MC pushrod . Or, the check valve in the MC is clogged or defective . Once in a great while you'll discover the steel line feeding the front brake circuit got smooshed (technical term there) and is restrictive . Harold , go to Chevy Obsolete in...?Georgia? (IIRC) and look at thier most excellent pictures there . the park brake pedal _must_ be all the way up before you connect the cable and also before you adjust the rear brakes else you'll have low brake pedal forevermore . Huck Brakes : Meachanized Death I hope this helped .
Nate...I'm getting a vibe here! Do you not like Hucks?Dare I ask for a tutorial on converting to Bendix? All joking aside, what modifications are needed to go from Hucks to Bendix? Are the drums the same or are they different? I know that the slave cylinders are different, what about the MC? I've already decided to go to Bendix in the future, but I want to do it right! What about the backing plates? etc, etc, etc!
I Hate Huck Brakes You'll need the entire loaded backing plate , drums etc. ~ the whole shebang . Best bet is to find a Hot Rodder and buy his takeout axles as they tend to go cheap . You can sell the leftover axle (maybe) when you're all done , you use your axle . You cannot but imagine my dismay at descending a narrow mountain road with 1 ton of used auto parts crammed in the bed of my old '46 and discovering that " fanning " the brakes won't scrub off anough speed so you use the service brake untill the pedal bangs uselessly against the Toe Boards..... And I thought children were the primary cause of grey hair Now , when I go to Death Valley and other such places (9% grade !) I descend the hills in the same gear I ascended it in and when the brake pedal either gets soft or goes more than 1/2 way to the floor , I stop and park the truck sideways to the hill and leave it sit with the brakes Off_ (including the park brake) for 15 minutes or so then I continue on my merry way ~ having flipped a vintage vehicle @ freeway speed due to bad brakes , I'm much more cautious these days .
Thanks Nate. I can use the existing front spindles, right? This should be pretty easy, as i've got a '51 donor truck and '52 panel just waiting to have stuff ripped off of them.
Bendix Upgrade I believe so ~ there's maybe some inner bearing spacers you'll be wanting to carefully take off the old Bendix Spindles and use on yours , I forget , sorry . of course you know to only do ONE SIDE at a time ! . thjis way when there's a problem , you can go look at the other , unmolested side and figure out that part isn't on or in , correctly .
Ken: Don't know if my '57 brakes would fit, but you are welcome to them if you'd like. Only thing I used when I swapped to disks were the hubs.
Come on guys -- like the Air Force bomber pilots say about the B-52; "IF it was good enough for my grandpa, it's good enough for me!" Lord only knows why they put those silly disc things on real trucks anyway!!
Thanks Bill! I might take you up on that. BUT, if I do, you got to promise me that you won't let Zig find out that I'm putting GMC parts on my truck. Do you realize the amount of grieve he'd dish out over that?
Yabbut ; Therin lies the rub : They WEREN'T good enough for Granpa ~ Huck Brakes were marginal in 1937 when fitted to a two door coupe and were never suitable for use on loaded commercial vehicles . B-52's OTOH , were great aircraft and pretty good music too -Nate
huck brakes Why do yall call them huck breaks? I have a 53 1/2 ton, so I assume those are "huck" brakes. It is the name type brakes I had on my 62 Olds, 68 GTO, 69 Roadrunner and even the rear on an 80 Datsun pickup I still own. They look and feel safe to me. kentc
Huck Brakes Few car companies design thier own brakes , GM doesn't ~ they bought the design in 1937 from the Huck Company . Your '53 (and your Olds & Goat) have Bendix brakes , a vastly superior design . Your '80 Datsun 620 Pickup might still have the dual leading shoe design , some had discs . dual leading shoe brakes are one of those engineer's delights , looks great on the drawing boad but not so spiffy in the field ~ for one thing , they don't self energize in reverse rotation and they loose much effiency after they're worn & loosey-goosey . VW used them on thier earlyer Vans much to the dismay of most owners .
Gotta correct your grammar, Nate! B-52's ARE, not were, great aircraft! Being an Air Force brat in the '50's and '60's, I've learned alot about the stratofortress. Went to the drawing board in 1945. First flight 1955. Proudly served our country in peacetime and in wartime. Still in active service and will not be phased out until 2040. That, in itself is pretty remarkable, as the last B-52 was built in 1962! Let me bore you with what I think is a funny story. We were living on "base" housing in '62 about a half a mile from one of the runways at Offutt AFB in Omaha. One weekend, dad didn't come home all weekend because of exercises. All Hell broke loose as a gazillion B-52's were launched within a matter of minutes right over the house. I'm going to "date" myself right now by saying that every "what not" and/or "knick knack" fell off the curio!!
