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Howard - I brought my adjusters in to NAPA when I ordered a bunch of other brake parts to see if they had anything that would work. They didn't have anything in stock and didn't think they needed to be replaced. I like our local NAPA but they almost never have the parts I need...not surprising since it's a small town and I'm the only guy in a hundred miles with a postwar Packard.

Just got off the phone with Kanter and new shoes are on the way.

-Kevin

Umm, I think I may have completely missed something on my rear brakes. I reassembled them exactly how they appeared when I took the drums off. But I'm looking carefully at pictures of other people's rear brakes it looks like my parking brake arms are completely wrong.

See the picture below. The parking brake arms were on the outside of the brake shoe when I opened the rears up, and that's how I put them back together. Other cars show the parking brake lever assembled on the inside of the brake shoe....see BigKev's pictures here: https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=57&post_id=19369#forumpost19369

The hold down spring is possibly keeping the parking brake lever from sitting all the way back. Behind the shoe there is only the hold down pin, allowing the lever more room to move back.

Am I correct on this?

-Kevin

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  Passenger rear brake assembled.jpg (158.70 KB)

This may be apples vs oranges, but here's what my '41 looked like:

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And my '49...

Edit: Doesn't the 'L' on the lever part number indicate 'Left'? Is that where it is?

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I think you are correct that you have the lever on the wrong side. Parts illustration also shows the lever behind the shoe.

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  brake.jpg (134.55 KB)

Kevin:

I went off looking for artwork in Packard shop manuals. The only thing I could come-up with is Figure 20 in the ’48 shop manual, section 6 (attached). I also started looking at rear brake photos of other cars I own. Seem the 51 years later (1999 Suburban) the e-brake lever is still mounted behind the shoe.

I think you’ve found the reason that the shoes would not retract to the correct diameter. I know I always try to put things back the way I found them, but your experience highlights the hazard that the person before us may not have been so motivated.

dp

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Oh how true this is! I've learned working on old cars in general to never assume when you take it apart that it was put together correctly by the last guy! A really good example is the location of the primary and secondary shoes on self-energizing versus non-self energizing brakes. Manual transmissions also.......seen a lot of weird stuff in those.

And I found out the hard way that in addition to the Shop Manuals and Parts Manuals, the Service Bulletins/Service Letters (and other various names) should also be checked for further info that may be pertinent to a particular task.

Ok, that answers my question. Thank you all. I had just assumed that things were correct when I disassembled the brakes. I knew to check the primary and secondary springs, as well as the shoes. I found one of the springs were backwards. But it never occurred to me that the parking brake lever would have been wrong.

On the positive side I will make the change tonight and see if I can get the rear drums on.

On the negative side, if the above works, then I'll have brand new shoes from Kanter for no reason.

-Kevin

Well, I feel like an idiot. Swapping the parking brake lever to the inside made the difference. If only I had caught this earlier. Now I have Kanter's shoes coming next week and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them.

The passenger side drum fit pretty well over the shoes. The driver's side is tighter....this is the one that can't be turned. How tight should these rear drums feel? I can adjust the eccentric a bit to free them up, but I can't adjust the shoes in any more....I'm completely adjusted in. I haven't completely sat the drums yet by tightening up the axle nut. Not sure if seating the drums fully will make them too tight.

-Kevin

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Kevin, maybe this was suggested earlier, but why not get the shoe linings ground to the drum diameters? This is a common procedure to do and a good shop should be able to fit the linings to the drums. The correct lining to drum contact and a proper adjustment will ensure good braking.