I have a Ford Transit with drum brakes on the front, I replaced all 4 wheel cylinders, had the dums machined and the shoes profiled to suit the drums, the brakes still grab and pulse, any ideas!, Thanks.
jmma,
Oct 19, 9:16pm
Loose backing plates!
pettal,
Oct 19, 9:31pm
give them a decent work out in both forward and backwards direction .
tatts2,
Oct 19, 9:37pm
Its a transshit what more can you say.
sr2,
Oct 19, 10:16pm
Hate to say it but if everything is assembled and adjusted properly I would be pointing the finger at the person who machined the drums and radiused the shoes. With fewer cars running drum brakes the once commonplace job of setting a drum up properly on a brake lathe is rapidly becoming a ???black art??? particularly at brake shops that only work on modern cars. With twin leading front shoes the Transits would grab if not set up properly. Would help to know if the pulsing is felt through the steering wheel, brake pedal, the seat of your pants or a combination of the three. Can you also get a feel for if the grabbing is on the front, rear, or one side more than the other!
intrade,
Oct 19, 10:50pm
the shoes on both sides brake the corners of the radius with a grinder inside and out and they wont grab no more, that is the trick to use when they grab and all is assembled correctly i fixed quite a few brakes like this.
ceebee2,
Oct 20, 1:22am
What year Transit is it and did you have all 4 drums machined.not clear in your description!
mechnificent,
Oct 20, 1:27am
You don't say the shoes are new! Could they have a very small amount of brake fluid soaked into them! That can cause brakes to be grippy and grab slightly. Other than that, it is probably what others suggest and you need to radius the shoes, and bed them in carefully.
amberley1,
Oct 21, 1:21pm
Thanks for all the comments, its a 1969 transit, the work was done at Saf r brakes here in chch, the pulsing is definitely coming through the pedal and from the front, hard to tell which side, I might pull apart again and readjust, cheers.
If the pedal is pulsing then something is out of round.
The grabbing will probably be because the shoes need chamfering or they are contaminated just enough to make then "clammy", which is very slightly damp, not really even enough to detect with the hand, but enough to stop them being dry and slide smoothly.
supernova2,
Oct 21, 5:25pm
I think you should be greatful, that a 69 Transit is still capable of moving and now you want it to stop as well.that really is being gready.
tshop,
Oct 21, 5:28pm
Ask franc123
mechnificent,
Oct 21, 5:42pm
Even though you had the drums machined, they may not be fitting up against the hub flatly, or they may fit on the hub slightly off to one side, or the hub may be distorted. That would explain the pulsing. The pulsing though could be one of the other brakes as well. a rear brake say.
The grabbing is probably made worse by the out of round, but it won't be the whole cause. Grabbing is clammy shoes or loose lining on the shoe, or not enough chamfer. It's not as likely as the other causes but a loose backing plate, or something in the suspension, and it would have to be something really quite loose, could cause the problem.
turbophil,
Oct 21, 5:50pm
given that safe r brakes do a good job and the shoes are assembled with leading chamferes and fitted the right way, Have you checked the wheel bearings are ajusted correctly! loose bearings will cause the brakes to pulseas the drum will not run true
tshop,
Oct 21, 8:39pm
Maybe the shoes are moving too much, check all pins, clips & slot tolerances on the slave cylinder.
amberley1,
Nov 8, 1:17pm
Thanks to everyone for your help, it turned out to be the wheels!, they were widened and had 6mm plate steel used as the centres, they were causing the drums to distort under braking, I got a set of factory transit rims and the brakes are great now, cheers!,
intrade,
Nov 8, 1:23pm
yea well there is always something like this , you did not tell us that but good to hear you got it sortednow.
sr2,
Nov 8, 2:27pm
Thanks for letting us all know what the solution was.
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