Have a 65 Buick special that is drum drum. I replaced all the steel lines, flex lines, master cylinder, rear cylinders when I bought it. I find when hit semi hard the rear lock right away, especially the right side. Also, after 20 minutes or so of stop and go highway traffic the car starts to pull to the right and vibrate - but stops straight and smooth otherwise in all other conditions. Thought I would replace the front cylinders,springs, pads to see if that helps and wanted to know if there is a superior pad out there for drum brakes that people have used? Thoughts on pull? rear lock up, maybe that is normal for all drums? 90% of the time the car stops straight and smooth so now looking to fix these issues that sometimes come up. Thanks. Also, I have read here that drum brakes need adjustment, I thought that when you reversed the drum brakes adjusted themselves?
For the record, drums take shoes, not pads. Also remember that there is a primary shoe and a secondary shoe. The shoe with the larger lining goes to the rear. Vibration when stopping is due to a warped drum. You'll need to get the drums machined true as long as there is enough material left to machine. The machinist will need to measure the diameter. You'll want to manually adjust the star wheels until the shoes just touch the drums.
I would buy brake shoes made by a well known major company, like Raybestos, Wagner, only ones that come to mind, I'm sure there are others, heck AC Delco may still sell them. I strongly recommend not doing business with this guy http://musclecarbrakes.com/ , I tried him, turned into a costly boondogle. He was slow, sent the wrong parts, told me I didn't know what I was talking about the parts were correct. They were not. I sent them back and lost 20% restocking fees. He is on the bottom of my list, and I doubt his products are worth a hoot. No resto companies sell or use his stuff, like Year one etc. But his site comes up in a search. I advise staying away. Buy from a major company and be confident in the parts. Pay close attention to wheel cylinders, grease seals, hardware. When you take the drums off everything should be powder dry, not even a hint of anything wet, sticky, thick residue, etc, it should be totally dry. If not then you know the problem was not your shoes anyway. Any tiny bit of contamination in there will cause the problems you describe. Mike
