Dragging Front Drum - 69 Charger R/T

[EddieE]

I had an interesting conversation at Carlisle yesterday with a brake expert. I think his name was Wayne but I could be wrong. I remember his company is out of Texas and they are brake specialists. I told him that I had a chronic dragging problem with my left front 3" wide drum. All parts are new, including the drums. No power brakes. I switched the drums from side to side and the dragging problem stayed at the left front.

I showed him a picture of the setup, and he stopped me immediately and told me that I had the wrong shoes. When I asked him why, he said "because they're blue, and they're aftermarket." He told me that a few companies had tried to improve the poor stopping performance with bonded shoes, and that they had a lot of problems with dragging. He told me to find reman original shoes with rivets and he was quite certain that would solve the problem. He said it won't stop very fast either way.

Has anyone received this same advice or learned this from experience? I don't doubt him at all. I actually had to wait in line for about 10 minutes just to talk to him, and he was handling some extremely detailed questions.

Also, where should I go to get the original remans with rivets? When I asked if he sold the shoes, he said "No, you don't need to get them from me, just make sure they have rivets and you'll be fine."

Thanks.

[cdr]

i dont think so .

[cdr]

1st thing to do is when it is dragging,jack up the wheel & open the bleeder,if the dragging goes away you have a rubber line problem,if not,make sure the wheel cyl is not sticking,also the backing plate can wear grooves where the shoes rub, sand the contact points & put a dab of grease at each point.

[EddieE]

Thanks cdr.  One thing I forgot to mention...the driver's side drum only drags going forward (counterclockwise).  It doesn't drag at all going clockwise.  It feels as though the the shoes are binding as soon as I turn the drum, like they want to lock up.

[cdr]

IS THE SHORT SHOE ON the front,or possible bent backing plate. or adjusted to tight

[cdr]

[EddieE]

Here's what I've got:

[cdr]

you are missing most of the hardware,the lower spring is all in a bind,it should look like mine,those are some funky lookin blue shoes ,mine are bendix # 445,10x2.5,hardware kits are cheap.

[Dino]

You're missing parts for the adjuster.  Once it's all on there you can turn the adjuster wheel from the back of the drum to set the tension. 

[68 RT]

11" brakes do not have self adjusters, they are manually adjusted. Did you grease the backing plates?  When do they drag? All teh time?, On pedal release? Do brakes pull any when appllied? May have brake line restriction, weak springs, brakes not adjusted correctly. It is not being caused by the shoes, I just rebuilt my 68 r/t's front 11 inch drums with out rivited shoes and have no problems.   

[EddieE]

Good points.  Since everything is new (except that lower spring looks used) I'll just get a new hardware kit to take that possibility out of the equation.

[68 RT]

The kit I got did not have the lower spring, I reused my old one. This spring only  hold he shoes together. The top ones pull them back.   

[EddieE]

Yea, it looks like the lower spring on mine is old as well.  I wonder if there's a kit that has the lower spring?

[bull]

The '70 I had back in the day would always drag the right front to the point it would eventually cut a groove all the way through the drum. Never could figure it out.

Yeah, that helps you a lot, right?

[EddieE]

Misery loves company...I just look at all that new fiber on those shoes and think "Can't we all just get along?!".

[green69rt]

Check the front verses rear shoe, on the same drum.  There is a diff.  From your pics, I can't tell but the front shoes and rear shoes are different. Someone have a picture??  One she has a bigger pad.

[EddieE]

The shoe with the smaller pad surface is on the left (front of car) side of the driver's side front wheel.

[tan top]

 
got the same blue  brake  shoes & manual adjusting set up


silly question i know , but how much is it dragging ?  , if you put the drum & wheel on , then spin it by hand , what happens  will it spin a few times then slow to a stop or will it spin a few times then just stop ,


thinking out loud  , wonder is the drum is not centralising  on the hub because the studs are not swaged or what ever its called    

[EddieE]

I slip the drum on with just a little drag.  As soon as I try to turn it by hand counterclockwise, it locks to the point that I can't turn it by hand (with the wheel off).

[cdr]

have you driven the car since you did the brakes?

[green69rt]

Did the runout on the drum get checked?  If they were turned at some point they still need the runout checked after turning..   Swap left and right drums to see if the drag follows the drum.

[68 RT]

Sounds like shoes are not adjusted correctly.

[tan top]

did  you use one of them  brake shoe to drum adjustment gauges or what ever they are called to set them up ?

what i would do , back the shoes right off ie close them up ,  put the drums & wheels on , torque lug nuts to factory torque in the star shaped pattern , then adjust

adjust shoe so it just catches, ( hear a slight slight scrape )  the drum when its spun , do  same both sides !

[EddieE]

have you driven the car since you did the brakes?

Yes, I've driven it about 75 miles.  It has a slight pull to the left, but I have power steering so it's just slight.  I had the front end checked and aligned when the car had about 5 miles on the all-new front end.

Regarding switching the drums, I did that and the driver's side acted the same with both drums.  The first thing I did was switch the drums.

[green69rt]

Well, I guess I would switch the shoes.  Or did you do that already?