Should I change over to self adjusters?

[VitaminCRR]

Just spent the morning struggling to change the rear brake shoes and get the rear brake adjuster stop spring installed on my 69 RR. (It's got non self adjusting brakes) I was just ready to pitch the extra parts in the parts bag when I saw it had all the parts needed to convert over to self adjusting brakes. Should I go ahead and take the few parts off that I need to and convert over to self adjusting brakes?

 

[Red63440]

Personally I have never seen a car of that period without self adjusting brakes. If your car had the self adjusting wheel and the spring then all that was needed was the cable and guide to attach to the lever for the adjuster wheel...go for it if you have the parts, just remember they adjust when you back up and hit the brakes .

 

[VitaminCRR]

Thanks for the response. It didn't have the self adjuster wheel and spring, it had the non self adjuster and this heavy-*** spring that keeps the adjuster from spinning. The car came with non self adjusting brakes. I'm gonna go ahead and change them over. Just wanted to see if anyone had a good reason to keep the brakes non self adjusting.

 

[Photon440]

Personally I have never seen a car of that period without self adjusting brakes. If your car had the self adjusting wheel and the spring then all that was needed was the cable and guide to attach to the lever for the adjuster wheel...go for it if you have the parts, just remember they adjust when you back up and hit the brakes .

Both self-adjusting and manual adjusting are in the service manual, even for 1970. My dana is manual.

 

[66Satellite47]

I prefer the manual adjusters on my HP cars that see the drag strip. I've had more issues with the self adjusters than manual. To each their own. Manual adjusters take just a little attention.

 

[66 Sat]

I was ready to set fire to my drum brakes (non-self adjusters) a few days ago, but after doing both sides now and buying the right spring pliers I'm pretty comfortable with them. I'd agree with the comment on the manual adjusters being fine if you're the kind of guy that loves working on their car - there's enough moving parts in there already - less to go wrong.

 

[Bill76]

Don't do it ! Leave the manual adjusters in.
I had nothing but trouble with them dam auto adjusters , They would tighten up and drag , bought a new kit same problem . Been replacing brakes for over 50 years so I aint no rookie at it and never had the problem before. Pissed me off so bad I took off all the factory brakes and pitched em in a pile in the shed and put on disc brakes.
If you do switch over to self adjusters SAVE the manual adjusters because you can not get them anymore.