I think you are being cut off because you are replying to each individuall . Your replies are seen by everyone . Also if you are replying by email that may also limit you . Logging on to the site should let you post as much as you need .
Thanks George, I am gonna try the back up technique tomorrow.
It would be great if my brakes improved over time too. I would love that.
thanks for all the good info.
If your pedal is going lower then your gas pedal and still not doing anything to stop the vehicle then you either have a new master cylinder with the wrong pushrod or push rod length (too much free play in the pedal)… or something elsewhere is way out of adjustment…
You need to find a shop that can check the brake fluid pressure at the master cylinder with a pressure gauge (and probably wheel cylinders also) to make sure the master cylinder is producing proper pressure and the push rod/length is adjusted correctly, then make sure there is no air in the lines, make sure the shoes are installed correctly (primary/secondary shoes and hardware) and adjusted to the drums correctly also…
Probably check for air in system 1st…
I hava a question when putting a lot of money into a fully depreciated vehicle. The insurance. Wouldn’t the insurance company give a value of like a hundred bucks on a car that old for totalling purpose? Do you have to declare a special value when insuring?
On my Hot Rod I told my ins company what I wanted it valued at, but they have ins company’s that specialize in classic car insurance… Hagerty and Grundy Classic Car Insurance are just a few…
Ordinary insurance includes liability, damage to others property, medical, uninsured vehicle protection, the area where it is driven, etc. Those are the expensive parts. There are a couple of specialty insurance companies that offer reasonable rates on seldom driven classic cars, like Hagerty. But they have their own definition of classic and do not accept all vehicles.
I looked in the owner’s manual for how the car owner does that, but the procedure wasn’t there. Puzzling, I’m thinking they left it out of the owner’s manual b/c they thought brake adjustment would happen automatically every time the owner backed up, nothing the owner needed to worry about.
https://onemanandhismustang.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/1966-owners-manual.pdf
fyi this vdo shows how the back-up adjustment method works.
Remember, you’ll need to do it several times, it makes a small adjustment each time.
The back up brake adjustment may not be in your owners manual, but it was a heavily advertised feature at the time. Maybe Ford thought the ads were sufficient.
If you have to pump up the brakes, then you have air in the lines. Because your car has a single master cylinder, the bleed order is very specific and has to be done in the correct order. IIRC, the order is the right rear, left rear, right front, left front.
The mechanic has to check the repair manual because if the brake line going to the rear brakes runs up the passenger side of the vehicle instead of the drivers side, then the order LR, RR, RF, LF.
If after pumping the brakes up, you still have to push the pedal more than 1" for the brakes to start to engage, that is one inch from the top, not 1" from the floor, then you also need an adjustment or the mechanic did not put the adjuster in the correct location. They were different than todays drum brakes where the adjuster is at the top.
Some libraries may still have the old car manuals in their reference section. Your mechanic may need to visit. You cannot trust the internet to give accurate information.
That only applies to power brakes.
I doubt the shop tech would place the adjuster mechanism high rather than low, but that function is pretty sensitive to the placement of the adjustment cable. IIRC it has to be placed on the top post before installing any springs. And the pinched (crimped) side must be facing out, away from the brake backing plate. I always soak the adjuster for an hour in gasoline, then dry it off & apply a little moly-lube to the threads. While the rest is soaking I manually file the star wheel with a triangle file (like you’d use to sharpen a saw) so it has nice, sharply defined teeth and valleys. It’s easy to fail to properly seat the cable routing gadget to the hole in the shoe too. I also apply a little moly lube to the cable where it goes around the routing gadget.
All these details are what pro mechanics who work on drum brakes already know, should have done this job hundreds of times, very unlikely they’d do it incorrectly. Not something the OP should be concerned with imo.
Nice. Detailed brake adjustment procedure. OP has zero clue about details. Maybe she can tell shop how to do it.
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You are abolutely correct, too much information may overly concern the OP. But you are also right that it is something the OP can discuss with the shop, ask them to double-check, should the problem continue.
Don’t listen to George.
Tester
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Agree. Let the pro mechanics do this sort of work. They know how.
Wow, I thought I was OCD about brakes. I do what you do more or less except file the teeth of the star wheel, but I do clean them throughly. If they are damaged, then I replace but I don’t recall ever replacing an adjuster for damaged teeth, usually damaged threads or worn slots. I too use moly-lube on the threads and on the contact points on the backing plate.
But we don’t know much about the guy who did her brakes. He might have never even seen a drum brake from that era and since they are working so poorly, I suspect he was in over his head.
Oh yeah, I only used solvent for cleaning, but I knew some guys who like gasolene better. I didn’t like what gas did to my skin.
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Turns out I have a brank fluid leak on the left side of the car. It leaked on my neighbors (slanted) driveway today and when he put a few drops of “Brake Clean” on it, it dissolve it immediatly. Maybe this explains why the brakes don’t stop the car until the pedal is almost at the floor?
I also have a pretty aggressive gas leak at the new fuel pump. Maybe this explains why my garage smells like gasoline?
The car goes back to the shop Thursday morning. I’m sure they are not going to enjoy having me (a girl) tell them what is wrong. They didn’t seem thrilled when I went back Monday telling them that the brakes were not good.
Thanks to everyone for all the great advise the past few days.
Gas leak? That’s dangerous. Any spark in the garage could cause a fire. And if the brakes are leaking I wouldn’t want to be driving it. Can they get it towed to the garage?
Maybe you didn’t understand what I was saying, It may have not read correctly…
On a manual brake system, endplay is adjusted at the pushrod clevis on the brake pedal side. For power brakes, that adjusts the booster endplay.
Basically you are ensuring that the brakes are not being applied by the rod before you touch the pedal (too long), or that when you do hit the pedal, the gap isn’t so much that you have a low pedal (too short).
That will do it…
And as said above, both leaks are unsafe and should not be driven…
Oh ok…I was gonna drive the car a lot tomorrow and use the brakes to get them worn in like I was told to do but if the gas leak is dangerous I won’t. It is leaking right at the new fuel pump.
I did get a new master cylinder too. I have the invoice and will upload it.
On a 66 Mustang there is no adjustment of the rod length
