Re: Larry's 1951 Club Sedan Project

Posted by d c On 2014/7/12 10:46:27

Hey Larry. I am not sure of the Packard specific spring colors but as I remember on all gm cars primary shoe is the large shoe and the rule was -primary shoe to the rear of the vehicle. With newer style drum breaks with "self adjusters there is a bracket with an arm acting on the star wheel. the star wheels and threaded sleeves are different right and left and cannot be interchanged or the self adj when engaged will loosen the shoes away from the drum surface instead of bringing them closer to compensate for shoe lining wear. If that yr Packard has no self adj bracket and must be manually adj per mileage the star wheel adjusters may all be the same rt hand threads. Anyone else have info on the 51 star adjusters?
The drum brakes with 1 hyd wheel cyl at the top of the backing plate are called self energizing due to the rotation of the drum(with the vehicle moving forward) causing the bottom of rear shoe to be pulled against the drum face and apply more force. hope this helps