Packard Forum Index » General

I am replacing the cylinders, shoes and hoses on my 40 Packard 120. How do I identify which is primary and which is secondary. How are the installed, which is front and which is the rear shoe on each wheel. I am confused because the left front on my car is opposite of the right side. Can someone please help. Thanks Tom woud really apprecitate an email on this topic, tmlinar@ymail.com

Primary shoe with shorter lining on the front.

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Agree. I was taught, " Short shoe forward". a long time ago.

Additionally, if the two brake shoe return springs have different tensions (not all years and models do), the weaker spring goes on the primary (forward) shoe. This provides a force multiplication - the forward shoe makes initial contact and the friction of it against the rotating drum exerts additional force to the action of the rear shoe which since it does more of the work, has the longer lining. An original feature of these Bendix brakes was a different lining material (different frictional properties) for the primary shoe but in recent years most shoe kits use the same lining on both shoes. This type of Bendix brake is generally called a "self-energizing" brake, referring to the additional force transmitted to the secondary shoe by the primary shoe.

They not only use the same lining but the last set I bought had the same length lining on all the shoes. It caused a bit of concern at first, but they are working OK.