I while back my roadster needed new brakes. I found that the pads on the backing plates were worn. I figured I would just level them off. How hard could that be? The car would not stop worth a darn. I bought new shoes and drums. I desided to see if the grinding job was accurate It was not. The wear on the shoes gave it away. The wear was slanted. I took a piece of scrap and drilled some holes in it so it would fit over a stud and a bolt could go thru on the other end. I swung it around and found the lowest pads and ground the high ones to match. I used a 1/4-20 bolt. A quarter turn moves the bolt is .0125". I found you can judge contact by the sound of the bolt dragging over the pad. I checked the shoes and they measured great. PS, I used my 4" grinder with a worn down wheel. .
That gets a "why the hell didn't it think of that 50 years ago when I was doing as many as 20 brake jobs a week." . That is the HAMB home made tool of the year.
The Jalopy Journal
