Front drums- setting up

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Fri Jan 21, 05 7:02 pm

I've got a '72 Challenger with power drums all round,and I'm having a job getting the car to pull up evenly,stripped checked,cleaned and adjusted them,and everything seems A OK,till I go for a run,and they pull to one side,I've had them pulling to the left,and to the right,but never 100% in the middle! Any hot tips? I'm nearly there,but still a slight pull to the right.....

MrNorm · Post by **MrNorm** » Fri Jan 21, 05 8:38 pm

My hot tip is to fit disc brakes!!

Sorry, doesn't really help. My Challenger had drums all it's life until I took it off the road. Braking was guesswork - you never knew where it was going to go! One of the things I'm really looking forward to is driving with the discs it now has. I think the best you'll do with drums is get them close. But as they wear they will probably get worse again.

Hopefully someone else will have some more constructive advice!!

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Fri Jan 21, 05 8:44 pm

I know Disc brakes are the way to go,but having just bought the car,and loads of other bits,I can't afford a disc setup just now! I own a wee garage up here in Scotland,and look after quite a few classic cars,and always manage to get Moggy Minors and such braking evenly and square with drums all round,but no matter what I do with the Dodge,my grip on the wheel is directly linked to my foot on the brake! i.e the harder I brake the tighter I grip!!! not very confidence inspiring.......

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Fri Jan 21, 05 10:14 pm

After a few heart stopping moments when the car won't you'll soon come round to the idea!

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Fri Jan 21, 05 10:17 pm

are you sure theres not something amiss with the bushings up front to be giving you than much "feedback" through the steering when braking?

Sometimes soft bushes can allow the car to track one way or the other when the nose weight is increased by braking forces.

Worth checking if everything else is right.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Fri Jan 21, 05 10:24 pm

Thats worth a look,I'm doing bits and bobs to the car in between other work,and when I decide to have a bit of time on it,and clear the ramp to get it up in the air,some old buddy turns up in a Clio or something,and describes this "noise" or a BIG lady turns up in a Panda and complains their seatbelts are too short (this is true)......I was very professional.......

Mind you,aren't Challengers pretty soft at the front end anyway...If you watch Vanishing Point,at the beginning when Kowalski's being chased by the motorcycle cops,you can see the front wheel "waggling" around over rough ground!!!!

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Sat Jan 22, 05 12:45 am

A lot of people adjust drum brakes wrong,the correct way is do 1 wheel at a time, adjust each adjuster (mine has 1 each wheel) until the drum wont turn then back off until the drum turns without binding (watch out here in case your drums are slightly oval), on the rears you might have to back off the hand brake cables before adjusting (dont forget to readjust it after) I dont have a problem with the power drums on my 68 charger

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Sat Jan 22, 05 12:49 am

yep, I've done all that,did it first,then when it made no improvement,I did it as per the manual,and all I got was a pull the other way! The brakes are actually quite good now,with decent bite,but stilll pull slightly to the right,maybe the left tomorrow....who knows!

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Sat Jan 22, 05 9:21 am

Tiff the only other thought ive got i s have the drums checked to make sure they havent gone oval.Could also be the front wheel cylinders sticking sometimes.

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Sat Jan 22, 05 2:24 pm

I never got my Chally braking straight when it had the drums. It stopped VERY well but no matter how I adjusted them it would pull to one side if you braked very hard or tried an emergency stop. It usually pulled the same way every time but now and again it would go the other way just to see if I was paying attention.

Since fitting the discs and adjustable proportioning valve it stops perfectly. Even when on a bend.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Sun Jan 23, 05 12:05 am

Did you guys with drums have problems at MOT time with this? You are allowed 25% difference side to side,but I must have more than this!!!!

Alex · Post by **Alex** » Sun Jan 23, 05 12:46 am

Takes patience but I can get them to balence, I find Mustangs hardest to get right which is wierd as they use Kelsey Hayes brakes same as Chrysler !

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Sun Jan 23, 05 10:49 am

You'd be surprised what the MOT doesn't pick up.

My Cortina went through a test a few weeks back, and the brakes pull quite hard on that. But on the rollers it was less than 5% difference. "almost a perfect pull mate" says the tester. So like an eejit I say, "drives shocking though, pulls hard left."

But he just laughs and says "not on my rollers it doesn't" so we yak about tracking and tyre pressures and even differing grip as he's happy with all my bushes and the location of all the arms and rods OK.

He's a good bloke, after he's passed your car he'll help you work out whats really wrong with it.

MrNorm · Post by **MrNorm** » Sun Jan 23, 05 11:16 am

Dave wrote:I never got my Chally braking straight when it had the drums. It stopped VERY well but no matter how I adjusted them it would pull to one side if you braked very hard or tried an emergency stop. It usually pulled the same way every time but now and again it would go the other way just to see if I was paying attention.

My EXACT experience, to the word.

I always wondered how it managed to pass the MOT. I adjusted them so that they pulled straight AFTER the initial 'pull to one side' weave