Brake Shoe Question
 

Can someone please set me straight here? Are my brakes installed correctly? I have the thicker shoe to the rear (this picture is of the driver side) and the thinner shoe to the front. I can't seem to get my e-brake adjusted properly and when you spin the wheel by hand it seems to spin fine for 1/2 rotation and then starts to bind up. These are 14 bolt brakes on a 1967 K20. I am wondering if I have the shoes on backwards?? I failed to take a picture before disassembly.


Thanks, Clay

Re: Brake Shoe Question
 

Pretty sure the longer shoe goes towards the front.

Re: Brake Shoe Question
 

Short shoe goes to the Front.

I remember this being instilled in my Brain when I was Younger.

Re: Brake Shoe Question
 

Here's some "memory glue" to help you know which shoe goes where. In a group photograph, the short people are always on the front row... So to answer your question, regardless of the thickness, the shoe with the short lining always goes to the front...

In your picture, if the vehicle front is facing to the left, then your shoes are installed correctly.

Re: Brake Shoe Question
 

Self energizing brakes: the front shoe tries to rotate and pushes on the adjuster link and forces the bottom of the rear shoe into contact with the drum. The rear shoe does most of the braking and the front shoe has a shorter lining so the brakes are not too sensitive and lock up easily. If you get them reversed the rear brakes will lock up too easily.


Does it bind up a lot or just drag a bit? Drum out of round? Rusty ridge at edge interfering with new shoes? Where is contact patch scuffing show up on the shoes? you want it in middle of shoe, preferably a nice long patch showing the shoes and drum are close to same radius and a nice wide patch across the shoe showing drum and shoe are parallel. You don't want contact patch at ends of shoe, brakes will be grabby, likely to tear up the shoe before they wear in. If only one shoe has a contact patch or if the drum binds in one direction but not the other there is something wrong in how things are held to the backing plate

ebrake - is the lever on properly? I don't see as much of it showing from behind shoe as I'd expect. if you pull it on with drum off does it spread the shoes off the pivot at top?
Adjust the shoes both sides for light drag, go stomp the brakes or put on ebrake a couple times to center up shoes and check adjustment again. If you have a good high brake pedal the ebrake should work, the cables only need adjusting if they are replaced or someone cranked them tighter to make the ebrake work rather than adjust the shoes at wheels.

Re: Brake Shoe Question
 

Thank you all for the sanity check! :-)

Yes, this is the driver side. The longer shoes are to the rear on both sides. I got confused because the longer shoe is also the thicker one and I read somewhere that the thicker one was the front one. But it would seem that regardless of the thickness, the shoe with the longer friction surface goes to the rear.

My other challenge is that my drums and backing plates have no provision for adjustment as there is no hole on either. These are the 11" variety for the 14 bolt axle. Actually, these are 14 bolt brakes bolted up to an Eaton HO52.

Thanks, Clay

Re: Brake Shoe Question
 

The drums are all new, so no rust on it. I will have to pull the drums back off and see what the contact patch looks like. This picture was before I got everything else setup on the truck, but was the only one that I had available showing how I installed stuff.

Regarding the ebrake, I think that my cables are way too stretched. There is no more adjustment left in the cable adjuster near the transfer case so I ordered a new set of cables. I will install those and report back.

Clay

Re: Brake Shoe Question
 

the cables do not stretch an appreciable amount. Finding the adjustment fully used is usually a sign that someone 'fixed' a lack of parking brake by adjusting cables without adjusting shoes. Cable adjustment is a one time deal, you set it up and it will not need adjustment again ever. ebrake will work as long as the self adjusting brake shoes are working properly. Using the ebrake regularly and putting the brakes on when backing up should keep the brake shoes properly adjusted

with the cable adjustment fully used up you will typically see that the ebrake is holding the shoes off the top pivot. back the cable adjustment out until that is not the case. if the cable adjustment is fully used up and the shoes are not off the pivot something is not together right or the cables are too long for application

you need to track down the binding problem as you take it apart.
I can't recall if those drums are pressed to the hub or just slide on? Slide on, make sure everything is cleaned up you have a couple bolts tight to center them. Pressed on, back in the day we'd always mount the drum to hub then put both into brake lathe and true up the drum surface.