I have a 69 camaro with four-wheel drum brakes, and they have started to grind really bad. I have already bleed the lines and that didnt help, and the rotors have been turned fairly recently. Do I need to replace the shoes, and if I do need to, what about replacing all the hardware, and honing out the wheel cylinders? What is the best brand for the shoes?Any comments would really help!

 

If you by grinding means that the shoes are turning the drums and eating away on the drums you are in big trouble. Then you of course need to change the shoes.

Can you be more specific about what the noise is?

Jan




------------------
Jan Suhr
Stockholm, Sweden
-----------------
1969 Camaro Z-28 Cortez Silver with 396 BigBlock

 

You said it was 4 wheel drum, but you also say the rotors were turned recently. Rotors are for disc. Did you mean the drums were turned? How did the shoes look, that is, plenty of pad and not glazed on the surface? If the shoes are glazed, they will make a groaning noise.

 

I would say that the shoes almost definatley need to be replaced.
Just use plain old Raybestos... don't buy anything fancy.
I would replace the wheel cylinders at the same time.

 

my mistake I did mean to say that the drums were turned recently. The grinding noise is really hard to explain,it doesnt sound good at all though. Should I replace all the springs and stuff or are those allright, they look fine?

 

I'd go for replacing/reworking all the stop-related parts you can afford. 4W drums isn't the best-stopping combo out there, so anything to help slow you down would be well worth it.
OR (if it's in the budget) find a front-disc conversion kit. There are plenty out there, and it'll be well worth it the first time you have to make a panic-stop!

 

thanks for all the great information, I will take it all into consideration. Thanks again!