Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

How sloppy are the anchor pins? As documented in my '37 blog when I got my complete brake kit from Kanter, they supplied pins that were too long. Which left near no tension on the anchor washers.

But I don't think that is your issue.

Everything should be under tension as an assemble with fixed point being the anchor eccentric. There should be no way for that to loosen up unless something is binding pulling shoes apart at the bottom.

Check for burrs or other catches along where the shoes ride on raised points on the backing plates. Also that all the springs are in the right spots and haven't been switched if there are different primary and secondary spring colors.

As others have said you want some brake lube at all the raised pads, and the eccentric.

Funny thing my '54 Clipper pulled to the left. Turned out the brake shoe on that side was picking up coolant from the rad overflow tubr. Glazed. Maybe same thing could happen on the right? Sorry if this has been addressed already in the thread.

I went through everything one more time.
I set the brake adjusters
Every thing is set . I adjusted the anchor pin and they are right on center. The anchor pin is tight.
These shoes are brand new. I haven’t driven the car more than 100 miles
I followed the information from the video sent to me, which by the way was very informative
With great expectations, I did another road test
Again the car pulled sharply to the left.
Now what?.
I did replace the right brake hose. It is a smaller diameter. NAPA said the new hoses are stronger and better even thought smaller.
I guess I could reverse the springs, although I can’t see the difference in size

We did a thorough check on the brake operations on the shop and both fronts are working
I am really lost.

Did you check that the brake line is not crushed somewhere? Easy to do when doing an engine swap.

Another idea is to swap the shoes from left to right and readjust in case you somehow got shoes with different linings.

You also need to be sure that your primaries and secondaries are installed properly and your brake drums need to be in the same condition. Drums of differing diameters or cylindricities (i. e. taper on the working surface) will give odd results.

It sounds and appears that everything is as it should be, so I'm wondering if it is something you can't see. Were the shoes checked to see if the radius of the shoe was the same as the drum? If not this could be your issue, particularly if the two sides of the care are a bit different. If the areas noted in the picture below are high, this could cause the shoe to grab. Were the drums ground as well?


Not Packard brakes, just a pic I found online.

If the brake drum caliper doesn't identify an issue or you don't have one, you can do a functional comparison test by swapping the drums.

Quote:

That's a good point. As a way of isolating the problem, shoes and drums could all be swapped from one side to the other to see if the issue is also swapped from one side to the other.

The springs were originally color-coded, in most cases They may look the same, but they probably aren't. Mis-placed springs could allow one brake to self-energize before the other one, and cause the problem you are having. I'd also check for dents or kinks in the steel brake lines, as suggested above. Is it possible that your left brake is not working properly? That could cause a pull to the right when the brakes are applied. Another possibility is debris in the brake lines. I have seen a case or two where applying the brakes normally got normal results, but a quick application of the brakes got a hard pedal and no braking whatsoever. The cause was rust in the brake line between the master cylinder and the rest of the system. Have you checked your steering linkage and front suspension for loose or worn parts?

Quote:

You want to isolate one thing at a time.

We know:
- The front brake cylinders are new and bled correctly.
- All the brake hardware is new.
- The brake shoes were new from Kanter
- I did replace the right brake hose. It is a smaller diameter. ( We hope that is an outside measurement only. )

What we don't know:
- The condition of the drums, both absolute and side to side relative
- Fluid pressure and volume at each wheel cylinder.

The drums can be measured for both diameter (inside) and cylindricity.

Without the equipment to measure the drums, swapping the drums will isolate them for the test. If the problem moves with the drum, look more carefully at the drum.

You may need to arc the shoes to fit the drum or you may need a new drum.

You could put a gauge on the bleeder at each cylinder to check the pressure. A difference in pressure would indicate a line, hose or cylinder problem and would have to be tracked back to the master cylinder.

Is primary and secondary referring to the length of the shoe?
The thickness of the shoes is the same.
What side is the primary shoe to be on ?