ZGjethro wrote:Thanks for that answer Charles. The brakes on my 52 m37 which I bought in October seem weak. I am thinking of doing a complete build of all shoes and brake cylinders. I have already replaced the leaking master cylinder. It is comforting to know out of round drums are common. I can feel my brake pedal pulse as one warped drum pushes back on the system.
It is common as drums are worn to the extreme, no good replacements are out there, and new drums are practically extinct. If the pedal is pushing back at you, that is extreme, likely that drum should be scraped. It will be so thin by the time enough material is removed to get it back round that it will only take a few good brake applications to get the thin metal hot enough to warp again and you are right back where you started only now with a dangerously thin drum that could easily crack and get you in some real trouble. In most cases turning is not even a smart option, and is $$ wasted.
We have tried it all, the absolute best option is to save your $$ and convert to the 4 wheel disc system. Once in place you can easily maintain this system with over the counter components that will be safe, reliable, and afford much better braking. The drum system is by in large a gone animal unless someone decides to reproduce some good quality drums, I don't see that happening and there are no new drums in any quantities that I'm aware of anywhere.
We have relining equipment, we have shimmed linings for turned drums, that is the better option there. We have also used 5/16" thick linings and radiused the ends to give a good curvature fit in turned drums, this works well, but is more difficult and time consuming to get that perfect fit. We also have new shoes that fit a good drum great, this is the best bang for the buck, except that there are practically no good drums out there anymore. All of these issues drastically affect the adjustment procedure, simply put, if components don't fit together correctly, a good adjustment set up is not possible using any procedure.
Looking at this issue from a common sense standpoint, this is my view. One must ask the question, is it smart to invest in trying to build a decent drum type original system? Why, here is the next question one must ask, will you be able to rebuild that system back to a good, reliable system when it comes time again? The next question, would it have been a smarter decision to have spent the cash more wisely such as installing the disc system, it is a very worthwhile upgrade if you plan on keeping your truck, instead of all the investment that is now lost in maintaining the soon to be impossible to upkeep original system? That is upcoming very soon unless some reproduction drums come to life. Remains to be seen if that ever happens.
We have a stock pile of take off drums, I've been threatening to scrap them just to get them gone, we search through them trying to find a get by when we have to have one. If you are in need, please come and haul them away, I'll take current scrap price for as many as you want. We have many take off backing plates with good shoes installed, all they need is a new wheel cylinder to be ready to go.