The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Brake squeal

I have a 52Chevy 3/4 ton and about 2 summers ago I put in a new master cylinder and had new wheel cylinders and shoes put in and the drums turned. Since then, I think I've put about 2,000 miles on the beast and now the brakes squeal when stopping right before coming to a stop. Is it an adjustment or are my shoes shot already? I find it hard to believe that the shoes would be toast.
Any advice would be great.

Pieman (new to Stovebolt)

shoes are prolly glazed - open it up and see if there's any weeping from the cylinders, blow out the dust and clean them lightly with med sandpaper - could also be things are slightly worn outta position so that the edges of the shoes are rubbing the drum - look for shiney spots

and welcome to the garage, we'll help ya get yer truck to stop sounding like a volvo with disc brakes

Bill

Something else it could be is surface rust on the drums, especially if it sits alot. I've been having alot of customers with brake noise lately since the humidity has been up, theit rotors/drums will get a light rust on them overnight, then squeel until the friction wears it off.

Outside of what has allready been mentioned you can do the old brake burndown test.
Just run your bolt a a steady 45 mph with you foot firmly on the brakes and look for smoke. If they smoke replace them and turn drums and or rotors. A joke just a joke.
Common causes for brake squeal; oil or fluid on the drum or shoe, a fine powder build up inside the drum, or glazed drum or rotor surfaces.

Another cause could be the linings. I found that linings wirh a FF rating worked much better since they were softer and made stopping a lot easier with much less pressure. The linings should not be worn out in 2000 miles. They should go 40 to 50,000 miles easily. I would go back to whoever did the work and request a re-do. Hopefully the gave you some sort of guarantee? Most honest shops want happy customers and return business. By the way the FF linings were rebuilt ones and cost only about $30 for the full set for my 62 1/2 ton Chevy truck. Another way to save money is to get someone to show you how to dedo your own brakes. It isn't that difficult with your model of truck--just a thought..

Thanks for all of the advice. I figured they were probably glazed. I will also talk to my brake man for a little "warranty work". I can see this forum will be very helpful in the months/years to come while I work on the Binder. Last week I just put new front leafs, shackles, and shocks in and they are working great.

Thanks Again.

Pieman

pie,

the brakes on my 50 (3/4 ton) used to make a lot of noise when i stoppedd. after finding a relatively decent rear set of drums and putting new "shoes" on, everything got real quiet.

the linings on the back did not look that bad overall but i replaced them anyway and it really seemed to eliminate the brake noise when i stopped.

ok mine did this and I found that the return spring...not quite sure what it's called...
it holds the two shoes together had snapped...
it would screech when I stopped...
it was a $2.50 fix...
took longer to get the drum off than it did to do the job..

Pieman, welcome to the SB page...

Pieman, you mentioned working on a "Binder".... what is it?

Also, brake dust might cause a bit of a squeek too... I always wash my brakes out when I'm washing my vehicles... just make sure you dry them off before you park!!! (i do it using Toyvo's method of smoking them, but not to that extreme).

open them up and blow out the brake dust should help

Don't just "blow it out", brake dust is preety hard on your lungs. Use brake cleaner spray and wet it down good to keep the dust from getting airborn. Also, while it's been banned is US made linings since '78, some imported (Tiawan) made linings still contain asbestos, which requires a wet method of removal to keep it contained.

Brake dust is my vote. Also they could be picking up some road dust. Do you routinely drive on gravel roads? Are your backing plates in good condition, or are they damaged so as to allow dirt to get in? I would pull the drums, clean up, scuff the drums up with emery cloth and scuff the shoes as well, or if they are badly glazed run a power wire brush over the contact surfaces. That'll do it.