I'm trying to ID the spindles on my '32. A previous owner converted the car to juice brakes. I'm going to take another look at them in my barn after work tonight. Braking performance is...... less than desirable let's say. The brakes are kinda weak. I'm trying to figure out what I have so I can develop a plan to address it.
Your spindles are ‘42-‘48 Ford, you can tell by the tall boss on the top where the king pin passes through. ‘37-‘41 k/p’s are 5 3/8” long, the later ones are a 1/2” longer.
Adjusted correctly? EDIT: the brakes are adjusted properly. Got it. Had a DUH moment! LOL Would this cause darty steering? It gets a little squirrelly above 40-45mph. Gotta check the alignment.
I don't think the brakes would cause darty steering. When you are checking your brakes, measure your drum size. They may have been turned a bunch of times and are oversized. Mine were so I had my shoes relined with extra thick material and then had them sized exactly to match the drum. That made a world of difference.
Yes they are. They lack the lower adjusters than were on the earlier backing plates. Your shoes are adjusted by the large hex nuts at the top of the backing plate.
Those wheel cylinders look like they may be leaking. I can't tell if it's just crud build up around them or bubbled up paint from contact with brake fluid. If brake fluid gets on the linings then the shoes will be really grabby, that happened on my Model A, it would pull hard to the left when trying to stop.
Fluid on the linings would cause the steering to grab as you describe when breaking, but wouldn't cause general the steering to be squirrelly at X speed.
I'm hoping to get some actual drive time this summer and it's becoming clear that I need to go through the brake system and suspension to ensure it's all up to snuff.
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