Busted down 2 sets of plates to make one good set. While in the beginning stages of cleaning I find left and right markings. Never worked with these before but the plates look universal to be either a left or right so long as wheel cylinder and shoes are placed correctly onto them. So are the markings factory? Does it really matter which side they go on because I find no reason why they can not?
As far as we can figure out, they were marked so the proper brake****embly would be installed on the proper side on the line. The cylinder and shoes are side specific. If stripped down, the front plates are universal.
The front plates should work on either side. The only difference I can think of might be the adjustment might need to turn the opposite direction? The rear plates will only work on the side they were meant for. If swapped the emergency brake cable holes and internal hardware would face to the rear. Probably not a good idea.
They were probably marked that way because as said, on the****embly line they were put on the car with the shoes already installed on the backing plates. Long shoe to the front. If bare backing plates it makes no difference.
That wasn’t enough I guess. Since Kelsey-Hayes provided brakes to Ford I guess they made sure it would go where it was suppose to. Kind of like McDonalds having to print “Caution: Content Hot”.
On the other hand, if you have a right and a left, even though the are interchangeable, why not install them as marked?
The Jalopy Journal
