Need a some pics of how to assemble rear drum brakes on my cutlass. It's a rear end out of a 442. I don't know if that matters but some help would be nice. Or links to good vids.

 

Yeah, I always do one side at a time so I can run over to the other side to see exactly where that spring goes

I don't know of something right off, but there maybe some pictures on this site that would help. You might try the search function to see what you can find.

If you plan to work on your car I'd encourage you to get a Chassis Service Manual as it has lots of pictures, diagrams, and step by step descriptions of how to take things apart and re-assemble. They're on ebay all the time, some vendors want more than others. You can also join wildaboutcars.com for free and view the Chassis Service Manual there.

John

 

This should be close:

 

THIS is not the correct drawing, as Cutlii do not use cables to actuate the self adjuster. The photo is the one you want to follow.

 

It's been a while since I pulled mine apart so I posted both. I could not remember which was correct. I was going to do mine next week.

 

Supposed to do 1 side at a time, leave one together for reference, until you have it memorized.

That said, surely you have a service manual, right?
Or at least the ability to search youtube for this info...

 

Thanks guys. And I have a full 1968 cutlass/422 book but I couldn't find a diagram of the springs and everything!

 

Damn kids. That would be a quick way to get some .223's thrown back lol


John

 

Guess you didn't look very hard.

Third page of the Brakes section of the Chassis Service Manual:



- Eric

 

Actually, page 5-14, figure 5-26 of the 1968 CSM has the exact 31-48 series drum brake parts.

 

Good diagram. Just one other note, there's supposed to be a long and short shoe on each side. Don't recall which goes front vs rear. But the last set I bought, they were all the same length.

 

Yes, but that's an exploded view - it seemed to me it might be easier for him to see what it's supposed to look like assembled.

But... Point taken:



- Eric

 

Short shoe goes to the front.

- Eric

 

In fact, if you look closely at this diagram from the CSM, the Primary and Secondary shoes are called out, and you can see that the Primary has the shorter lining. This is because the self-energizing nature of drum brakes causes the leading edge of the front shoe to "dig in", so a smaller shoe is required on the front to equal the stopping force with that of the rear shoe.

 

Which probably matches the parts he has strewn about on the garage floor at the moment...

 

Hmmm, that's the last time I buy brake parts at Autozone.

 

True. But the illustration doesn't note that the front is the right hand side of the frame, that this is a right-side brake and that the left is a mirror image.

- Eric

 

Bookmarked this some time ago:

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...-tutorial.html

 

I just replaced a rear wheel cylinder on my 1968 442 and was surprised to find that it is not self adjusting. It doesn't have an adjusting lever, and the actuating link is short and does not look like the one in the CSM.

My first time to take the brakes apart.

 

Do you have a picture of yours you can post?

 

Then it is missing parts. Drum brakes have been self adjusting long before 1968.

 

Here are pics.

 

Yes sir, you are missing some parts.

 

Ya you are missing all the adjuster pieces. They are available from any parts house otherwise they will never self adjust.

 

Thanks for the help. I checked the rear brake on the other side of and it is missing the same parts. Haven't looked at the front yet.

I was happy to find that my local O'Reilly has a Brake Self Adjuster Repair Kit for the left rear and one for the right rear that contains all of the missing parts for $11. They list the applications as rear only (not front). I also found the rear only listed at Napa and Advanced.

Are the self adjusting parts for the front the same as the rear?

 

Honestly I don't know if they are the same. Rock auto doesn't list front adjuster parts either. I've never compared front to rear I only do one corner at a time.

 

The O'Reilly Brake Self Adjuster Repair Kit (H2532 and H2533) fit the rear and work. Made in the USA by Brake Best. Haven't looked at the fronts yet.

 

I finally looked at my fronts and the self adjuster parts are missing. It appears that the rear self adjusting parts would work on the fronts, but I am not planning to install them to verify. I removed all of the drum parts, converting to disc.