Brakes 1930 model B

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I have mounted new liners on the brake shoes and I am going to assemble the brakes again. To ajust the brakes there is a cam with off center so you can press the secondary shoes up and down from outside the plate. Look at the illustration marked with yellow. What is the best way to adjust the brake shoes with the cam (look at the photo below) – the direction of  #1 or #2?

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Oivind,

The eccentric cam you show is symmetrical, so it can be actually be adjusted from either direction. On my 1929, there is a covered slot in the drum that is used to test the distance from drum to show with a feeler gauge and I strongly recommend you use it. I have recently been down this path with mine and it is not trivial. Keep trying to spin the wheel until it drags on the high spots of the drum as you adjust it. The other thing the feeler gauge can help you understand is whether the shoes have the same radius of curvature as the drum. re-curving each shoe before putting them back on the car was a point of adjustment at one time when re-lining the brakes.

Here is a web page for adjusting the Bendix 3-shoe brakes; http://dmacweb.com/tech/brakes/bendix/BENDIX.htm

There is also a manual on the web that I have printed out that goes into great detail on how these brakes work. There is a download, if you scroll down in this AACA forum: https://forums.aaca.org/topic/163474-three-shoe-brakespros-cons/

Getting everything to balance is not that easy, as there are about 4 variables on each wheel (eccentric, main cam pre-load, rod setting to balance between wheels and how round is your brake drum. Put the car up on jack stands and do the major adjustment on all 4 wheels to keep them in balance, so the car won’t pull to one side.

Since these drums are STEEL and not cast iron, you don’t want to turn them and normal brake machines cannot handle it anyway. Good luck with it – there is a lot of trial and error as you. Herb

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