Quote:
Originally Posted by 66starfire
Does anyone know about what size drums my car has? Or should have? I got an extra set of drums with it in the trunk, I THINK they are originals for the rear, but am not sure. I mic'd them and got 11.155in. and 11.045in. Anyone know what specs are for rear drums on the 66 starfires? I am machining them now on a lathe, just wondering what the specs are. Ive found that rear drums are hard to find so an extra pair would be nice. also im asking because its hard to take off the rear wheels in my apartment parking lot...
and back to the master cylinder conversation, what master cylinder would i use? out of which car would fit? would an 88 one fit? and also does anyone know how to figure out which steering system I have? ive heard some mid 60's Olds used TRW and saginaw. how can i figure out what I ahve...because I need a new front end, and centerlink and such I need to know.
thanks guys.
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Hello,
I also own a 1966 Starfire, and completed some brake work on it about 4 months ago. That followed a scary episode where the left rear wheel cylinder went from a slow leak to a really fast leak while I was on the road.
Please believe Kennybill about that single/dual master cylinder business. I feared for my life for a few minutes there. Incidently, you can't put the shifter in park while the car is moving, as an emergency method of stopping the car. It just makes a grating noise, but doesn't even slow down the vehicle.
Anyway, here's what the 1966 Oldsmobile Chassis Service Manual has for Starfire brake specifications:
LINING AREA: 208.6 Sq. In
RATIO (Percentage of Braking Effect): 56% Front, 44% Rear
DRUMS---
Inside diameter: 11.00"
Out-of-Round (Total Indicator Reading): Front: 0.005" Max Rear: 0.006" Max
LININGS
Length - Primary: 9-3/8"
Length - Secondary: 12"
Width - Front: 2-3/4"
Width - Rear: 2"
Thickness - Primary: 1/4"
Thickness - Secondary: 5/16"
I also have the emergency brake cable and brake cylinder specs if you want them. According to the Service Manual, the Starfire and Delta 88 have identical brakes in every respect. However I suspect that that might not actually be the case. If you look in the USA Parts Supply catalog,
http://www.usapartssupply.com you will notice that they exclude the '66 Starfire in their brake parts list. They have all the Starfires up to 1965, and all the other models in the 1966 lineup, but not the '66 Starfire. I ignored that fact when buying brake parts from NAPA. I just told them that I had a '66 Delta 88, and got a whole box of parts -- wheel cylinders, generic bend-to-fit brake tubes, brake shoes, brake shoe hardware kits, and brake shoe self adjuster parts. Some of the stuff fit, and some of it didn't. If you do similar brake work on your Starfire, I thought you might be interested in what NAPA has that you can actually USE
Here's what worked fine:
Brake shoes, front and back
Wheel cylinders, front and back
Brake lines ( we used 2 40-inch lines in the rear, as I recall, which had just enough extra length that we routed the right side line to the left side center feed, and vice versa)
And what mostly worked:
Brake shoe hardware kit, front and rear (was able to replace most but not all of the brake shoe springs. So be careful when removing a spring; you might not be able to replace it with a new one).
Rear brake shoe self-adjuster repair kit (only about half of the springs fit. Many self-adjuster parts had to be carried over from the old brakes)
And what didn't work at all:
Any self-adjuster parts for the front wheels (the car's prior owners either didn't know or failed to mention that the car's self-adjuster harware for the front brakes was COMPLETELY MISSING. Napa does not sell a self-adjuster repair kit for the front wheels, and the onesey-twosey parts that I did find were not at all sufficient to comprise a self-adjuster assembly.)
I have a suspicion that the reason the front wheel self-adjusters were missing were that they broke at one time, and the prior owners failed to find the parts to fix them. I can live without self-adjusters, I guess. It just means that every year or so we will have to take the tires off and advance the brake shoes a few notches.
Here's the NAPA part numbers for the parts that worked for me:
UP32071 -- Left front wheel cylinder
UP32072 -- Right front wheel cylinder
UP13388 -- Left rear wheel cylinder
UP13387 -- Right rear wheel cylinder
TS260 -- Front brake shoes
TS262 -- Rear brake shoes
UP2335 -- Rear brake shoe hardware kit
UP2346 -- Front brake shoe hardware kit
UP80683 -- Left rear brake shoe self-adjuster repair kit
UP80684 -- Right rear brake shoe self-adjuster repair kit