Drum Brakes Grabbing - SOLVED!

[Easternair]

Yes I used the ceramic shoes in the front and the regular less expensive ones in the rear since the majority of the braking falls on the front.

 

[Bob Jordan]

I am struggling with the same problem. NEW Bosch riveted shoes. Very short non centered lining on primary. The areas on the shoe plate that should contact the pads on backing plate are in wrong locations. The brake activates when rolling tire forward and releases when rolling tire backwards (car on stands). DO NOT BUY THESE CHEAP BOSCH BRAKES FROM ROCK AUTO. I was fooled by the name. Will report back when I get better shoes on the car - 64 sport fury.

 

[JG71B]

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I am struggling with the same problem. NEW Bosch riveted shoes. Very short non centered lining on primary. The areas on the shoe plate that should contact the pads on backing plate are in wrong locations. The brake activates when rolling tire forward and releases when rolling tire backwards (car on stands). DO NOT BUY THESE CHEAP BOSCH BRAKES FROM ROCK AUTO. I was fooled by the name. Will report back when I get better shoes on the car - 64 sport fury.

I had this issue until I saw this thread. I posted some pics a page or two back. No matter what I did they clunked, grabbed etc. Ran to O'Reilly's and looked at a new set side by side with the old. Felt they were GTG. Lining was way off on the old ones. So far so good. Bad thing is they are bonded but, will get me through this summer. Everything is getting an upgrade over winter

 

[Ron H]

Sadly, I’ve encountered other aftermarket parts that are an ill-fit creating more hassles and damage. Irritating when contacting the mfg/suppliers to inform them and they don’t give a rat’s rectum; but put me on their email list getting sales messages every week..

 

[Ron H]

By the way, thanks to the OP for taking time to share his experience. While not on the topic, maybe I could toss in what I was talking about above fyi. One has been posted elsewhere: Beware of weather seals and wind lace. Some have found ingenious ways to garner a fit; but this involved some metal 'fabbing' I didn't want to do.
Another was obtaining new center caps for my Magnum wheels. I broke a screw in the first cap torquing them down. Chit hey! Drill press time and re-tapping. Comparing the new ones with the old, the thread depth was shy from the old ones and the supplied screws were longer than they needed to be. Some grinder time taking off the unneeded length of the screws. Yeah, something I should have checked. Kinda job where a 3rd hand would be handier putting those on as the tires are on the wheels.

 

[Bob Jordan]

Well I am still struggling with this puzzle a bit. I found some local shoes with the primary lining where it should be but now noticed that these new ones AND the crappy ones I just took off don't have tabs or little bent areas on the shoe plate that line up with the contact areas on the backing plate. These are plain old 10x2.5 1964 Fury brakes. Did they make different contact locations for 10x2.5 brakes?? Yes I have the shoes in the right location. I ordered these the picture looks like it might work,

DYNAMIC FRICTION

1903058100

 

[Bob Jordan]

Well the plot thickens. Stopped by an old timey part store and looked at their old catalogs. The old catalogs show a #155 shoe for our 64 with 10" brakes. Later catalogs show a 169. SOME 169s appear to have the contact points in the right location and some do NOT. I WILL find a set of shoes that mate to these backing plates and I will post what I found.

 

[Ceedawg]

Well the plot thickens. Stopped by an old timey part store and looked at their old catalogs. The old catalogs show a #155 shoe for our 64 with 10" brakes. Later catalogs show a 169. SOME 169s appear to have the contact points in the right location and some do NOT. I WILL find a set of shoes that mate to these backing plates and I will post what I found.

Take your old shoes and have them relined.

 

[Bob Jordan]

They were also wrong. My brother had the brakes done before this. I got into them to fix a hard pull in the other direction. I think I am on the right track to identify the right shoes and will post soon. There are two problems with some of these shoes. 1) the primary lining material is too short. 2) the little shoe plate bends that are supposed to touch the backing plate contact spots are in the wrong place.

 

[Bob Jordan]

Maybe we should eventually build a list of parts that work and do not work for this application. My brother is disabled and I maintain his car and this has been a nightmare.
The BOSCH BS169 shoes DO NOT FIT CORRECTLY. The primary lining is short AND the shoe plates do not interface correctly with the backing plate.

 

[Bob Jordan]

OK I'll leave this here so folks can see at least one example of a shoe that fits and one that does not. Look at the primary shoe on the left. It is a bosch BS169R. The primary lining is biased way down low and the little crinkle pads on the sides (I hit them with a white marker) DO NOT LINE UP WITH THE CONTACT PADS ON THE BACKING PLATE!!!!! In fact those little contact crinkles hit those pads on the tops and sides and keel the shoe from operating correctly. These little dimples also seem to have great potential to wear grooves on the backing plate. See the primary shoe on the right. The lining is thicker and seems to be where it belongs. this shoe has bent over metal tabs in EXACTLY THE RIGHT PLACE to contact the contact points on the backing plate in a much friendlier fashion. This is a DynamicFriction 1903-0581-00 that I also got from Rock Auto. IT is also made in China but it fits. I communicated with Rock Auto and Bosch and neither cares that this Bosch piece of crap does not fit the application. Look at the difference in the contact area locations! Crazy!!!

 

[KPumroy]

I joined this forum because this thread helped solve my grabbing brakes. The essence of the problem is that the after market parts look ups are giving us the wrong
brake shoes. This was my completed work on the right rear of my 1968 Charger. Look closely at the shoe tabs. The top ones are wrong, they are too small and in the wrong part of the shoe. This is causing the shoes to bind on the back plate. I took everything thing apart twice and reassembled it carefully. They would grab and drag and smoke. I cut the parking brake cables and pulled out all the levers bars and springs because the cable was sticking but that did not solve my problem either, they still dragged.

 

[KPumroy]

So I pulled my old shoes out of the trash can and cleaned them up and reinstalled them with new springs and adjusters. They have plenty of lining left. Problem solved. Here is a picture of the old shoes before I started this "project". Note that these shoes have the pin in the back shoe for the adjuster that is used on 1969 and later models. I drove the pin out because I suspected it might have caused interference with the older adjuster movement.

Look at the brake shoe tabs, the upper tabs. These are the correct shoes. So now I don't have a parking brake but I never used it anyway.

 

[dadsbee]

You'll be amazed at what it takes to get a guy with an automatic to start using the parking brake !!!

 

[R413]

You'll be amazed at what it takes to get a guy with an automatic to start using the parking brake !!!

Think like a drag racer, no engine running unless someone is in the drivers seat.

 

[KPumroy]

You'll be amazed at what it takes to get a guy with an automatic to start using the parking brake !!!

Yeah I know. Its kind of a hack, I saved all the parts. Maybe if I get ambitious I will replace all of the cables but I don't like working underneath vehicles anymore.

 

[R413]

Sad you cut them for no reason. Next time just disconnect and remove the lever between the cable and shoes and leave all the cables alone.

 

[KPumroy]

Sad you cut them for no reason. Next time just disconnect and remove the lever between the cable and shoes and leave all the cables alone.

I figured they were shot anyway. Didn't want to leave any loose metal parts in the drum.

 

[Stumper]

If you have drum brakes and have serviced the brakes and replaced many parts including the brake shoes and now your drum brakes drag and lock up when turning in forward direction but release when turning in the opposite direction the problem are your brand new brake shoes! The primary shoe has the shorter brake lining material and many new brake shoes are coming with that front lining not centered but much lower on the brake shoe (see pic). Many reputable companies are putting out these brake shoes probably because they are all being imported from the same factory in China. And therefore have the front lining off center. After reading many forums at 'b-bodiesonly' and having many well intentioned participants giving out the same wrong information and changing many parts including wheel cylinders..master cylinder..even the power brake booster and trying out multiple return spring combinations thinking that they weren't strong enough to pull the shoes back, the problem would not go away. The brakes continued to self generate when rotated in the forward direction and lock up but functioned normally in the reverse direction. The solution is to look at the photos closely and replace your brake shoes with ones that have the lining material in the center. (see 2nd and 3rd pics). The problem is that the top edge of the off centered lining is getting caught on the brake drum when the brakes are applied and causing the shoes to self generate which is clearly visible by watching the star adjuster move aft as the drum catches the leading edge of the front shoe and starts to self generate causing the wheel to lock up. Change the brake shoes with ones that the linings are centered and your problem is solved.

View attachment 1240493 View attachment 1240494 View attachment 1240495

I’m a bit confused on the mechanism that causes the lock up? What is meant by self generate? Are you saying the adjusters are tightening the shoes moving forward?

 

[Ceedawg]

You'll be amazed at what it takes to get a guy with an automatic to start using the parking brake !!!

We called it by its real name, emergency brake, and I’ve used it as such with the single master cylinder cars. In 55 years I’ve never used but one “to park a car” I did drive a 1960 Dodge that had no ‘park’ with a push buttons auto trans, the ‘emergency’ brake WAS used when at rest.