I pulled the brakes apart on our Automatic Jetfire to find that I have 5 styles of brake shoes. Two corners have the primary shoe on the back and another corner has two different styles on one wheel. I knew the brakes were all mismatched soon after we got the car and just now swapping them out.

I picked up a 61 Buick that just had the brakes replaced so I went out to pull them to install on the Jetfire. I found that they had two primary shoes on the right front and two secondary shoes on the left front. The back had both sides with the primary shoe on the back. This Buick was done by a well know shop near me that do many brake jobs.

 

Aah! What is this world coming to?

Its not that hard to do it right.

 

Some peoples kids...

 

When I had my shop and had a guy looking for a job I would ask them to put the brake shoes BACK IN THE BOX, If they couldn't do it, 1 STRIKE, 3 and your out.
Most kids now don't have a clue on primary and secondary shoes.

Johnny

 

Apparently they can't read or look at pictures either.

 

I'm horrible at doing drum brakes, just don't touch them often. I did have an issue once where the design of the replacement shoes would cause the wheel cylinder pins to pop out of the bores because of how the profile was cut where the pin contacted. That was a scary (and enlightening) experience.

 

They wouldn't fit any way if they were FULL SIZE BUICKS -- for a 1961
Full Size BUICK uses 12" x 2 1/4" in the Front and 12" x 2" in the back.
Whereas, Oldsmobile of that generation was 11" for full size.....


Now, the 1961 - 1963 Buick Special / Skylark and the 1961 Olds
Cutlass / F85 -- D O -- use the same brake shoes... and I have those
in N.O.S. ++ Asbestos ++


WARNING: Do not USE anything else on those cars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

This is the 62 Jetfire (f-85) and 61 Buick Special... What price do you have on your NOS shoes? Do you have front and back?

 

Yes, those two cars are, of course, the same,


The # 195 Fronts -- 9 1/2" x 2" ---- $ 40 / set // NO CORES REQUIRED.


The # 196 Rears -- 9 1/2" x 1 3/4" ---- $ 55 / set // NO CORES REQUIRED!!


I am in Long Island, New York -- cheapest way to ship to Indiana would
be USPS (Post Office) in the "If it fits, it ships" Box.


Call me -- Craig -- 516 - 485 - 1935.....thanxxxxxx

 

I will call you a little later tonight. Thanks

 

A couple years back MCR had an article on a resto of a very nice '68 Camaro SS/396. They showed a pic of the "restored" front end without the brake drum on & sure enough the guy had the short shoe on the back & the long one on the front. Servicing drum brakes definitely seems to be a lost art these days! My neighbor back in the early '70s was a mechanic at the local chebby dealer. I remember him bitching when GM made the change to those "damn disc brakes" as standard equipment on most of their cars. The full size cars in '71 & the A-bodies in '73.

 

What got me was disc brake pads are WAY simpler to change out than drum shoes, yet you paid more for a brake job with discs. Well- simpler except for those damned Ford wedge fit pads on early 80s
Fox platform...

Guy I work with bought a 95 F150 pickup new. It had weird brake issues and the dealer finally pulled the rear drums and found: 2 LONG shoes on one side of the truck, two SHORT shoes on the other side. This was the factory that did this...


I learned a long time ago not to trust memory, and to only disassemble one side of drum brakes at a time.

 

Same principle as leaded vs unleaded fuel, you had to add lead and yet it was cheaper back in the 70's.

 

Here is a pic of the brakes removed from the Looks Good At First Glance '69 Cutlass from 2006

Everything had to be redone.

Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't the braking action generally shove the shoes to the rear and up against the anchor, therefore one should install the longer shoe in the rear or trailing position? [The "primary" vs "secondary" thing I still have no good memory trick for].

wikipedia says
"Each brake assembly has two shoes, a primary and secondary. The primary shoe is located toward the front of the vehicle and has the lining positioned differently from the secondary shoe. Quite often, the two shoes are interchangeable, so close inspection for any variation is important."

well, that clears it right up

aha!
http://community.cartalk.com/discuss...of-larger-shoe

"Automotive brake shoes consist of a primary and secondary shoe. The primary brake shoe is the front shoe and normally has a slightly shorter lining than the secondary shoe. The secondary shoe is the rear shoe and has the largest lining surface area."

and

"Virtually ALL drum brakes today are "Bendix Self-Actuating Duo-Servo Drum Brakes". Bendix once had a patent on that design. Today, everyone uses it in one form or another. If one shoe has more lining material than the other, that shoe, the "secondary", is ALWAYS mounted towards the REAR of the vehicle. Period.

Here is why. At rest, the shoes are centered by a pin at the TOP. When you step on the brakes, the wheel cylinder pushes BOTH shoes off the pin. The front (leading, primary) shoe is "drawn" into the rotating drum, a wedging effect, BUT it is connected by the bottom self-adjuster link to the rear shoe. Remember, both shoes are trying to rotate with the spinning brake drum..The REAR SHOE is getting force applied from TWO DIRECTIONS, the hydraulic wheel cylinder AND THE BOTTOM LINK. This means the secondary (rear) shoe gets more overall force applied to it than the leading (primary) shoe. The big shoe goes on the back side...Many backyard mechanics make the mistake of installing them backwards, and in another life when I was a State Inspector, I would flunk their cars for 'Incorrectly Installed Brakes". Usually, they will work okay, but they will wear unevenly and sometimes can get grabby as the self-actuation of the too big front shoe nears 100%..."