The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Brake suggestions

I have a 1950 3600 with orginal huck syle brakes. I have new e-brake cables and they are moving great. I noticed I was out of adjustment on the ebrakes so took the rear drums off. The shoes have about 1/8 to 1/4 inch on them. The drums look to be in good shape. The ebrake arm moves fine and there are no leaks on the wheel cylinders and the adjusters are working fine. I did notice that there is a slotted screw with a locking nut on the pivot point of the ebrake (top behind the rear shoe). The locking nut backed off but the slotted screw did not turn...

So, my questions are as follows...

Should I replace the shoes and have the drums turned? That does not look to be too big of a job?? Hints and/or tips?

OR should I upgrade to newer bendix style brakes?

The fronts look to be in better shape but will most likely do those at the same time?

Thanks.

The first thing I would say that unless the drums are causing a problem, I would not turn them. You probably can't buy new drums.
I got my shoes relined and was pleased with the result.
There is a procedure in the shop manual for adjusting the eccentric on the parking brake lever.

I do not like turning drums especially on a truck like yours where drums are hard to find.
The thing about turned drums is it changes the diameter enough that the shoes do not match the contour of the drum anymore. This makes it so the shoes only make contact in a very small area at first. They will wear in eventually but they are unsafe at first. In the good old days they would re-arc the shoes to match the drums but almost nobody has a arcing machine anymore.

Thanks folks. I think I will just plan on getting the shoes relined at some point. I did see the procedure on adjusting the eccentric, but after seeing the shoes with about 1/8 inch of material on them, I thought it best to wait for new shoes. Plus the eccentric screw for adjustment seems to be frozen, the locking nut backs off fine. I could not get a wrench behind the screw without removing the shoe itself.

I have a complete Eaton HO52 rear end out of a 49' 3600 I just swapped out for a Dana 60 with 3.73 gearing. I had intended to keep it stock but the 4:57 gears just had to go. I have re-lined linings and rebuilt wheel cylinders as well as the rear drums turned with maybe 10 miles on them. If you need something let me know. Parking brake cables too.