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Re: Mojave Tan - A 1956 400 Saga
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Pgh Ultramatic
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The squeal will probably go away from just driving the car 50 or 100 miles country, or an afternoon of city driving.

Posted on: 4/19 21:30
1955 400 | Registry | Project Blog
1955 Clipper Deluxe | Registry | Project Blog
1955 Clipper Super Panama | Registry
Email (Parts/service inquiries only, please. Post all questions on the forum.)
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Re: Mojave Tan - A 1956 400 Saga
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56Clippers
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Quote:

kevinpackard wrote:
Vacuum is staying steady and brakes feel pretty good. They squeal like crazy though. Need to fix that.


Time to put vacuum and hydraulics on the back burner and deal with the friction.

The squeal is caused by the brake shoe vibrating when pressed against the drum, usually due to the surfaces not mating smoothly.
In the pictures, the shoes look to have plenty of material and don’t look glazed, and the drums don’t look bad but you said there are some ridges. You should be able to bed the shoes to address the issue.

Posted on: 4/26 3:08
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Re: Mojave Tan - A 1956 400 Saga
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kevinpackard
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Quote:

56Clippers wrote:
Quote:

kevinpackard wrote:
Vacuum is staying steady and brakes feel pretty good. They squeal like crazy though. Need to fix that.


Time to put vacuum and hydraulics on the back burner and deal with the friction.

The squeal is caused by the brake shoe vibrating when pressed against the drum, usually due to the surfaces not mating smoothly.
In the pictures, the shoes look to have plenty of material and don’t look glazed, and the drums don’t look bad but you said there are some ridges. You should be able to bed the shoes to address the issue.


What's the best way to bed the shoes? Pull the shoes, put sandpaper between them and the drum, and lightly sand them down?

Posted on: 4/26 10:41
Kevin

1954 Clipper Super Panama "Van Halen" | Registry | Project Blog
1938 Super 8 1605 | Registry | Project Blog
1953 Clipper Deluxe Club Sedan "Rusty McRustface" | Registry | Project Blog
1956 Packard The Four Hundred "Tanner" | Registry | Project Blog
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Re: Mojave Tan - A 1956 400 Saga
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56Clippers
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Quote:

kevinpackard wrote:

What's the best way to bed the shoes? Pull the shoes, put sandpaper between them and the drum, and lightly sand them down?


The shoes and drums seem to be in reasonable shape based on your pictures, description, and how well the brakes are currently working so it doesn't seem that you need to work on the individual surfaces. Unless the ridges you said you have on at least one of the drums are wider and deeper than they look in the pictures. You should also check the drum inner diameter and the size of the lip on the inside edge. If there are no issues requiring other preparation, proceed with bedding the shoes and drums so that the two surfaces are worn such that they mate smoothly and have the maximum contact area. This has to be done by wearing the shoe and drum together.

There are many similar bedding procedures, but they all go something like this:
- Find a long reasonably straight road that you can go about 60mph on and has very light traffic.
- Do 5 or 6 60-15mph reasonably hard, but not panic decelerations in succession. You want to cause wear and generate heat.
- Drive a while to cool the brakes.
- Do another set of 60-15 decelerations.
- Cool the brakes.

Posted on: 4/26 12:06
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Re: Mojave Tan - A 1956 400 Saga
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kevinpackard
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Had a few minutes to mess with the 400 today.

Thanks for the tips on the shoe seating Bob. I did some high speed slow downs, from about 55 down to 5. Three in a row. I could definitely smell the brakes afterwards. Squealing is still there, but seems to be a bit better. Hopefully with more driving it will quiet down. Otherwise maybe I'll pull drums and have them turned, and dress the face of the shoes. Low priority right now.

I cleaned up the passenger front panel. Cleaned up surface rust on the stainless, pulled the light and cleaned up the chrome (poor shape), cleaned up and polished the clear plastic, and painted all the black lines. It looks much better than it did when I started
Click to see original Image in a new window


I also realized I never posted a picture of the redone gold trim on the car. Came out okay I think. I did do some clear over it, but it tended to dull the gold, so I sprayed gold back over it and left it as is
Click to see original Image in a new window


The car has always had significant dripping on the driver's side. I thought it was both power steering and brake fluid, but now I'm thinking it's all power steering. Leaves a lot of drips, and left this nice line on the way out of the garage. I can't tell where it's coming from because everything is wet. I don't want to load up the parts cannon. I'll see if I can get eyes on while my wife turns the wheel with the car on. Probably a bad hose.
Click to see original Image in a new window

Posted on: Yesterday 23:58
Kevin

1954 Clipper Super Panama "Van Halen" | Registry | Project Blog
1938 Super 8 1605 | Registry | Project Blog
1953 Clipper Deluxe Club Sedan "Rusty McRustface" | Registry | Project Blog
1956 Packard The Four Hundred "Tanner" | Registry | Project Blog
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Re: Mojave Tan - A 1956 400 Saga
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Pgh Ultramatic
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Front trim looking very nice.

I will caution you that the power steering fluid can be ignited by the exhaust manifold once the engine has run long enough. So, I would recommend disconnecting the power steering belt (takes under 1 min) for driving, and reconnect it only when you are trying to again troubleshoot the issue. Of course this will also (maybe) fix the problem of the system running dry after a short drive.

There is a bit of a theme of this as the "other" Kevin also disconnected his, and I will on mine as well since my hoses have visible wear. Need to fix this summer.

Posted on: Today 7:26
1955 400 | Registry | Project Blog
1955 Clipper Deluxe | Registry | Project Blog
1955 Clipper Super Panama | Registry
Email (Parts/service inquiries only, please. Post all questions on the forum.)
service@ultramatic.info
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Re: Mojave Tan - A 1956 400 Saga
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kevinpackard
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Quote:

Pgh Ultramatic wrote:
Front trim looking very nice.

I will caution you that the power steering fluid can be ignited by the exhaust manifold once the engine has run long enough. So, I would recommend disconnecting the power steering belt (takes under 1 min) for driving, and reconnect it only when you are trying to again troubleshoot the issue. Of course this will also (maybe) fix the problem of the system running dry after a short drive.

There is a bit of a theme of this as the "other" Kevin also disconnected his, and I will on mine as well since my hoses have visible wear. Need to fix this summer.


I'm glad you brought up the fire danger, because I had forgotten that. It seems to me that something is spraying, but not sure where from. I'll disconnect in the meantime.

Interestingly the reservoir still has a lot of fluid in it. So it's not a massive leak, but enough to get all over the frame and leave drips literally everywhere. I have drip marks all over the asphalt and concrete now, all from this issue.

Posted on: Today 12:23
Kevin

1954 Clipper Super Panama "Van Halen" | Registry | Project Blog
1938 Super 8 1605 | Registry | Project Blog
1953 Clipper Deluxe Club Sedan "Rusty McRustface" | Registry | Project Blog
1956 Packard The Four Hundred "Tanner" | Registry | Project Blog
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