Technical Tips on adjusting the brakes on a shoebox Ford

I have recently bought a 49 Ford sedan. The brakes were said to have been completely rebuilt. I’m not so sure that is true. I have only driven it a few miles around my neighborhood so far. First test drive, I knew something was wrong with the brakes. I ***ume they were out of adjustment, not right at all. Now I put in 2 inch lowering springs and had to unhook the brake lines. First of all, I know the system now needs to be bleed. Is there any trick to bleeding these brakes with the master cylinder mounted under the floor? Maybe there’s just enough elevation to make these things bleed naturally, but I’m not so sure.

Also, would factory stock 49 Ford drum brakes be self adjusting? I adjusted brakes when I was a kid, but that was 40 years ago. I need to be reminded of the procedure. Thanks for your help friends

 

They didn't come out with self adjusting brakes until sometime in the 60's. A lot of guys put them on older cars though.
Since my computer has turned into a wack job that doesn't want to do things with photos I had to snag this shot off Ebay for show and tell. That slot you see down low on the backing plate that you can see the blue paper through is the adjuster slot.
I'd be lying if I said that I knew which way you had to turn the star wheel to tighten or back off the adjustment. I've done who knows how many brake jobs for a living back when I was turning wrenches and had to stop and think or cheat a bit most of the time. If you can look in the slot and see the threads on the adjuster and see what angle they are at you have a chance of getting it right.

This is how I have done it since Bill Palmer my auto shop teacher taught me in 1962. Tighten the adjustment up until you cannot turn the wheel with your hand and back the adjuster off 11 clicks and go to the next wheel . That is pretty well how I have done it on every brake job I have done since 1962.

On the lowered rear you may have to hunt down a brake s**** that has the right bend in it to clear the spring. I've got a dozen brake s****s in my box and some of them are pretty well certain vehicle specific as they work better on those vehicles better than the other s****s in the box.

 

The first brake job I did was on a 1970 cutl***. I think that one shoe is bigger than the other. I think I put two of the large shoes on one side. It’s been a long time. Any chance 49 Ford has the same situation?

 

I was told that to tighten the brakes you have to move the brake s**** so that your hand hits either the rear axle or the front suspension. If your hand doesn't hit anything, you are losening them. It has worked correctly for me for the last 60 years.

 

The safest you could do is order the shop manual for this car and then do the work.
Sorry,You will probably have to bleed these brakes the hard way with 2 people, one pumping and holding down the other bleeding.
Because the master cylinder is lower than the wheel cylinders, you wont be able to gravity bleed.

 

Yeah, I mounted the master cylinder down low on my old flathead dragster. It was a ***** to bleed. You guys are giving us a good advice thank you.