Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

The rear brakes on my 745 are becoming a bit too keen, especially on the driver's side.

The brakes on the car are super-efficient, in fact a bit too much as there is little feel on the pedal. Anything more than the slightest pressure takes the car from deceleration to squealing rear tyres! (The cobbled streets in merry olde England make this much worse........ )

The Bendix service bulletin talks about setting up each wheel so that the drums are just catching and then balancing both front wheels and both back wheels, but not front and rear axles.

Would you suggest its simply a case of backing the rear brakes off a half-turn so as to bring up the front ones a bit more or is there a more in-depth issue? The Bendix documents don't talk about relieving the "snatch" that I am currently experiencing.

Thanks again chaps.

I will leave the details of this answer to the experts, but it does sound strange that you describe the rear brakes as 'grabbing'. My experience with the mechanical brakes on the 1927 Amilcar racing special that we have would indicate that it is odd to get this response from a balance issue - I would have thought it more likely that you would simply not get the braking effect required from the front brakes instead. There are a number of reasons why drum brakes might grab, but the one we had the most trouble isolating was when the drums themselves were slightly out of round.

Would I be correct in assuming that the 745 Bendix brakes are all trailing shoe and hence not self energising?

No, they are self-energising

Check for a leaking axle seal on the offending wheel.

Bob Aller, in his last tech session at the Salado Meet, talked about a mechanical brake adjustment procedure. I don't recall all the details, but I think it went something like this.

Disconnect the rods to the front brakes, then do the normal adjustment on the rear brakes. When doing the adjustment on the front brakes, adjust the rods so that the rear brakes will come on just before the fronts.

He claimed this procedure would result in a better stopping Packard. The rear brakes coming on first would make for a more stabilized stop. Maybe someone here has had experience using this procedure.

(o{I}o)

Problem solved.

The wheel in question was catching slightly so I backed off the cam adjuster and also half a turn on the end of the brake rod and it seems to have cured the issue.

Thanks for your valuable advice.

There is a manual on site here for the servicing and adjustment of the Perot brake system. Brake adjustments for mechanical brakes can be a bit tedious and time-consuming but if done very carefully and precisely, brake performance should be outstanding, fully the equal of any vehicle with drum/hydraulics.