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An alternative to sourcing new shoes is having your old shoes fitted with new friction linings. Years back shops doing this work were common and everywhere; since your old linings may contain asbestos it will be more difficult these days to find a shop doing this work, but they are out there.

And the major Packard vendors probably have new shoes with modern non-asbestos linings

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Thanks, I'm looking into it and seeing what I can find. I might just need to pull the fronts off and take them down to Napa and see what they have.


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They do for sure, and I may end up having to go that route. But I'm also trying to save some money and get the car back on the road, so sourcing locally would be easiest. With all the stuff I've done to the car over the past several months, plus the expected expenses of new brakes, bearings, seals, tires, seatbelts, and insurance to get the car on the road, I'm trying to save where I can. My goal is to be driving in mid-April. Not sure if it will happen, but I'll push for it.

-Kevin

I found some time this evening to remove one of the front wheels and take a look.

The bearings looked to have fresh grease, and from my untrained eye seemed to be in good condition. I didn't note any scoring or burn marks anywhere on them. So, theoretically I should be able to reuse these bearings on the front?

Inside the drum was pretty dirty, with lots of cobwebs. Appears to have the original springs still. I'm not sure how to tell if the brake cylinders are still good or if they need to be replaced. I have no idea on the history of the car.

Brake shoes look like there is still a lot of material left on the pads. Looks like they have been replaced at some point in the past. Again, not sure when.

Inside of the drums looks like some pretty good grooves and scoring. I'm hoping I can just get them turned. I also confirmed that the diameter is 12" on the brakes.

So what would you do here? I don't know if I can just clean up what I have here and adjust the brakes properly, or if I need to get all new components top to bottom.

Lastly, my two and half yr old twin boys know what a Packard is, and I figured I'd continue to indoctrinate them by putting up pictures in their rooms. I found a couple of really nicely done watercolors by Vince Geraci, who used to be head of styling at AMC. Picked them up on Ebay for under $20 a piece and put them in frames. I might end up taking them out of the boys' room and keeping them myself.

-Kevin

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  Front wheel bearing.jpg (200.74 KB)


  Front inner wheel bearing.jpg (288.07 KB)


  Front brakes.jpg (298.10 KB)


  Front brake shoe meat.jpg (201.89 KB)


  Grooves in brake drum.jpg (178.07 KB)


  Vince Geraci 1930 Phaeton.jpg (118.43 KB)


  Vince Geraci 1954 Caribbean.jpg (111.80 KB)

Hi Kevin. I would replace the steel lines, the brake hoses and the wheel cylinders. I think I would leave the springs, pins, brake shoes and drums as they are. Just clean them up, lubricate the pivot points lightly and adjust everything properly. -I hope I am not opening myself up to liability here by advising you on brakes, but from what I see, that is what I would do if it were my car. I think that is pretty much what I did when I restored my clipper.

Mike - of course, I should mention that I wouldn't ever hold someone liable for advice that is given. I'm just looking for some direction here because I've never dealt with drum brakes before, and I didn't want to get in there and throw away perfectly good components.

I'm ordering what supplies I can find online, and will compare the replacement wheel cylinders to the ones I pull off the car. If they match, then great. If not, then I'll send them back and see what else I can do.

-Kevin

I'm with Tobs. As long as the lining isn't coming loose off the shoes it looks to have a good bit of live left in the shoes....
John

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If the brake shoe linings are scored like the drums, is that a potential source for scoring to occur on skimmed/good drums?

Doesn't look to be riveted lining. Have to see a better picture face on of the lining. It has probably caught a pebble in there at some time to score things.

To be on the safe side I would take the drums to a brake shop and see if the drums are turnable, they might be over size already and need to be replaced. The shoes are bonded and if the city you live in is large enough you should be able to find a shop that can bond on new lining. They do this for trucks all the time. A good shop can turn the drums and ark the new
shoes to fit the newly turned drums. I never say that is good enough with brakes.

The front are easy to change later if there is sufficient meat on the shoes. The rears are a PITA because of having use a puller to get the drums off. So you don't want to have to go back in there if you can help it. So unless they are pretty much new shoes, replace them, also, change the wheel seals and repack axles bearing for the same reason. Who knows when it was done last and it a pain job to do. So do it once and it should be good for a very, very, very long time.

Also, brake hardware and spring kits are not that expensive, so I just replaced everything while I was in there.