Did 1970 C-10 front drum brakes come with struts?

[mattfranklin]

I'm redoing the fronts on my '70. The adjusters seem to be frozen, but not much wear on the shoes. I'll focus on geting new adjusters in and adjusted properly.

KEY QUESTION: Should the fronts have struts like the rears?
The best diagram I have is this: http://www.pbase.com/nufsed/drumbrake but it's for rear drums. When I compared my fronts to this one, it matches part for part in position for position, except that the e-brake parts (obviously) are not there and the strut is missing (puzzling). My brake shoes each show a notch for the strut, but no strut. I suppose that they might use the same shoes front and rear? But I'm just not sure. And the factory manual pictures are not that clear to me.

I read that one guy on here said his '67 didn't come with struts, but I didn't know if he meant it came from the factory that way or just from the previous owner that way.


Any ideas? BTW, I'll probably eventually convert to discs, but that's not in the budget right now (at least for a year or two). I just want to have a little better braking than the single rear that always locks up all by iteself until I pump everything a lot.

[70cst]

ttt for an answer

[Wookiee]

I don't think so. I think it's part of the parking brake hardware. It's been a while since I've done my front brakes though so I can't say 100%. I do remember the fronts being stupid simple compared to the rears though, and being totally confused by it.

[TBONE1964]

No sir,

The struts are used for the parking brake on the rear. If you do not use the parking brake, you can remove them from the rear. The struts move the front (small shoe) forward into the drum when the parking brake is applied. That is all they are for.

[mattfranklin]

Cool. Thanks for the crystal clear answer.

[sduckworth13]

Originally Posted by TBONE1964

No sir,

The struts are used for the parking brake on the rear. If you do not use the parking brake, you can remove them from the rear. The struts move the front (small shoe) forward into the drum when the parking brake is applied. That is all they are for.

I learn something new everyday, I would have wondered why my brakes didn't work as well as they should. I'm in the process of redoing the rear brakes, the complete parking brake system and the brake lines and brake hose at the rear of the truck. I had the parking brake levers on the small pad shoes instead of on the big pad shoes. Lucky I am still searching for the parking brake strut for both sides or I would have had the brakes on yesterday. The truck I'm working on is a 4 speed w/ the granny low. I guess the PO owner...s thought putting it in gear worked fine as the parking brake. Good info Tom, thanks.

[TBONE1964]

Originally Posted by sduckworth13

I learn something new everyday, I would have wondered why my brakes didn't work as well as they should. I'm in the process of redoing the rear brakes, the complete parking brake system and the brake lines and brake hose at the rear of the truck. I had the parking brake levers on the small pad shoes instead of on the big pad shoes. Lucky I am still searching for the parking brake strut for both sides or I would have had the brakes on yesterday. The truck I'm working on is a 4 speed w/ the granny low. I guess the PO owner...s thought putting it in gear worked fine as the parking brake. Good info Tom, thanks.

You are welcome Scott. 30 plus years of beating my hands up and working on brakes as well as a lot of other things does pay off at times. I am honored to share my knowledge with anyone and I appreciate what I learn from others on here as well.

Take care,
Tom