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If you have the correct paperwork to transfer ownership in Connecticut, I would think that would be sufficient to transfer ownership in most other states. I recently purchased a car in Maryland which, if I remember correctly, requires only the current registration and a bill of sale to transfer ownership for older cars. When I brought the car home to Ohio (a state that demands a title for all vehicles) the local BMV was well versed on the requirements in force in other states and accepted the Maryland paperwork and issued an Ohio title with no questions asked. (Of course, they couldn't figure out what a Packard Clipper was...but that's a whole different issue...)

Good luck with your sale.

Thanks to all that have thus far offered both your expertise and your insights.

Since hitting something was mentioned in David's post, I'll say that while I've not run into anything with the car, I do live in northeast Ohio where finding a smooth road is often a challenge and bent suspensions are pretty common. That said, a straight edge confirmed my suspicions that the backing plates were not damaged.

Nevertheless, the thought of something being "tweaked" has stuck with me and, thinking back to Ross' suggestion to look for a twist in the shoe, I took a closer look at the pair on my car. As I mentioned earlier, I took some measurements and found that the friction material was worn no more than 1/32" at its worst spot and a visual inspection confirmed that there was no twist in the shoe frame.

However, the measurements did indicate a wear pattern from side to side along the length of the shoes was unusual. Without trying to explain my very rudimentary attempt at modelling my measurements, I came to the tentative conclusion that something was causing the friction material to wear in a twisted pattern. Taking the theory a step further, I guessed that the "twist" worn into the shoe linings might be just enough to cause them to ride in and out along the drum contact surface and scrape along the underside of the drum.

With that in mind, I returned to the shop that turned the left drum and had him turn the right drum. (Like the left drum, he found that the right drum was in good shape and needed a minimum of material removed.) I then picked up a set of NAPA TS10A shoes and put everything back together.

Although rain curtailed a lengthy test, I did get out and around the block a few times with no noises. The hand brake is still disconnected and a lengthier test drive is needed, but I feel like I'm narrowing this down to a positive outcome. If things go well, I'm going to attempt a post-mortem on all of this to help the next guy that bumps into something similar.

I was just out in the garage doing what you suggested.

Right side: .005" near end of taper and .004" on thicker end near backing plate.

I could look at this one of two ways...

1) The left side is out by roughly twice the amount the right side is out

...or...

2) The left side is only out .004" to .007" more than the right side. For perspective .007" is about 1/128".

In the strictest sense, it comes down to what the specification allows. In a practical sense, I would think a bent axle shaft would transmit some vibration or other unwanted sensation into the car and my Clipper rides, steers and brakes quite nicely with no unexpected shakes, rumbles, etc. except for the grinding.

O_D

Funny you mention the axle shaft runout as I did check it but couldn't find any reference spec in the manual with which to compare my numbers.

At the end of the taper I measured .012" runout and near the thicker end I measured .0085" of runout. This is with new outer Timken bearings, races and seals-I have no idea the runout with the old bearings which were in service when my problem first arose.

Regarding my measurements...I am not machinist and am working with a Harbor Freight dial gauge and an old magnetic stand that I inherited from my grandpa (who was a machinist) so my results may not be the best.

Also, here's the short version of the backstory:

-Bought car and drove it regularly for a year or so. It was regularly maintained by the previous owner.
-On a weekend drive I noticed a grinding from the left rear drum at braking speeds of 25-30mph. Brake performance was not affected.
-At this point I had never had the rear brakes apart so I adjusted all four brakes and hand brake and nothing changed with the grinding.
-I replaced all hold-down hardware and return springs and nothing changed with the grinding.
-I replaced rear axle shaft bearings, races and seals and reset the end clearance to .0045" (using a dial gauge) with a shim stack of .024" on the right and .020" on the left. Again, no change with the grinding.
-I disconnected the hand brake completely to eliminate possible misadjustment. Still no change in the grinding.
-Today, one of the last shops around me that will turn drums looked at the drum and didn't find anything wrong. He turned it the absolute minimum just so I could definitely rule it out as the culprit. Of course, it rained this afternoon and, as a matter of prudence, I just won't test brakes in the rain. So here we are...

Don - It's a '55 Clipper Constellation. The junior brakes for that year measure 2" wide with 3/16" thick friction.

Mine are definitely not original but do fit the car. I took a variety of measurements on both shoes and they vary in width between 2.000" and 2.053" for the primary shoe and 1.996" and 2.055 for the secondary shoe. At least to my eye the width in excess of the 2.000" specified by Packard seems to be the small "lip" of the steel backing that extends outboard beyond the actual friction width. I will say the shop that turned the drum suggested I might have to consider carefully removing that lip with a grinder to ensure full clearance.

I also measured friction depth on each and found the primary shoe ranged between .176" and .210" and the secondary between .145" and .224." While I don't know the exact age, they definitely do not have much wear on them.

Also, because I noticed that the end section of the primary shoe displayed a slight trapezoidal shape, and in an effort to drive myself completely mad, I compared friction thickness at various points of each shoe at both the inboard and outboard edges of the shoes and found deviations in thickness (side to side) on the primary shoe from .008" up to .020" and, on the secondary shoe, from .008" to .017". So they were not wearing evenly but I don't think the uneven wear was great enough to cause any problems...although I'm happy to hear what others might think.

All good thoughts.

I just had the drum checked by a one-man shop that comes highly recommended for drum brake work. He said the drum checked out within specs but ran it on the lathe (which was older than my car) to "clean it up" and help eliminate one more potential question mark.

He also suggested pulling everything apart and checking for burrs or any other damage on the shoes or backing plate. After seeing the rubbing on the drum, he indicated that the actual contact was relatively minimal (although certainly loud and annoying) and that the answer would likely lie with a problem "measured in the thousandths."

If none of the above works, I'll swap the drums and see if the problem moves with the drum or stays with the axle shaft.

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This has been in the back of my mind as well. Over 70 years a lot of different people have been in and out of these brakes.

What I can't figure is, if this were to be the case, why were the brakes fine for so long? Maybe I'm thinking about it wrong, but with the force the hub seats onto the axle, I would think that, if the hub seated too deep onto the axle, the grinding would show up immediately at the time of reassembly. In my case, I bought the car and drove it without ever opening up the rear brakes for more than a year with no problems.

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That really sums up what is so maddening about this. Basically the brakes were fine and then they weren't. I tried adjusting them, then replacing all the hold-down hardware and return springs, then checking axle bearing clearance (with new bearings and seals), adjusting everything again, and, most recently, disconnecting the hand brake just to make sure it wasn't pulling things out of place. So far nothing has changed the nature of the grinding one bit. At least if I had put something together wrong I could blame myself and then fix the problem.

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Interesting thought. The grinding started about a year after I bought the car. During that first year I drove the car frequently with no problems and, until the noises started, I had never taken the rear brakes apart so if something didn't fit right it was like that before the grinding started. Also, when I performed the rear axle service I cleaned the axle flange and the backing plate and installed new shims. None of that changed the nature of the grinding for better or for worse.

As for a bent backing plate, I can't think of anything that would have caused damage to the plate in my first year of ownership. Again at the time the grinding first began I had never taken the rear brakes apart.

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The problem is only on the left (driver's side) rear brake.

Still no luck. I completely released the hand brake tension at the equalizer (fully slack) and made sure that the rear service brakes were adjusted and then took her for a spin with the exact same results as before: grinding at braking speeds of 25-30 mph or above. The braking behavior was normal and pulled the car down steady and straight.

My thinking in leaving the hand brake essentially disconnected was to isolate potential mis-adjustment in the hand brake and ensure that nothing would impede the shoes from seating on the anchor pin. And then I hoped for the best but to no avail.

Attached are pictures that I took after my latest test drive. You can see the "polished" edges of the shoes with the heaviest contact occurring at the bottom of the secondary shoe and lighter contact at the top of the primary shoe.
The second picture shows the "polished" rivets on the underside of the drum. These points of contact do not seem to be getting any larger, if that makes a difference.

Again, I'm open to any thoughts. The shoes are probably the next suspect although I'm not sure how to identify a slight twist as they pass a visual inspection. After that, I suppose looking at the drum for warp is next.

Attach file:

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  Drum1.JPG (200.88 KB)


  Drum2.JPG (286.95 KB)


  Drum3.JPG (194.01 KB)


  Drum4.JPG (271.68 KB)