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MG TD TF 1500 - Brakes - Adjuster shim

The brake drums on my '55 TF-1500 have been turned so many times that the adjusters cannot push the shoes out any closer to the drums. I saw John Twist's video about the problem and followed his fix. It worked! I have plenty of adjustment available after the fix.

Here is the link to the University Motors video. Threads about similar fixes are in the archives.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2-0Vqje1LM&list=UU40j4KqUJPMVv4FQ29ro-xQ

I sent John an email asking for more info and he responded immediately with the details that I needed. Nice guy. Here is his response ...

"We purchased shimstock from NAPA, BK 6651913 which is 1/8” thick. We cut rectangles: 1/2 x 1 1/8. Weld the ends (the 1/2”) as welding the sides interferes with the fitting. We used our MIG welder. Then sand to fit if they’re too thick (they won’t be)."

NAPA shimstock:
http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/CatalogItemDetail.aspx/Body-Alignment-Shim/_/R-BK_6651913_0361078766

Easy. You don't need to remove the brake shoes. Just stick a screwdriver in one of the holes in the shoe near the wheel cylinder; pry against the backer; and move the shoe away from the mask.

Lonnie
TF7211

LM Cook

Great to know! I'm rebuilding my brakes and I don't see any adjustment problems but I'm filing this away as a solution for the future!
Geoffrey M Baker

The rear brakes are the problem. The adjusters are the same for front and rear brakes, but the front brakes both shoes have their own cylinder and adjuster (twin leading shoes, while the rear brakes have a leading and a trailing shoe operated by a single cylinder and with a single adjuster. Consider what is happening on the front shoes as they wear - each shoe looses 0.00X" amount of material. Since each shoe has it own adjuster, the adjuster only has to move each shoe out a distance of the loss of 0.00X" to bring them back to their original distance from the drum. Now, on the rear wheels - When the shoes loose 0.00X", the adjusters see a total change of 0.002X" in the distance of the shoes to the drum, thus you are having to adjust a distance that is twice as far as the front brake adjustments. The result is that the rear brakes to run out of adjustment in about half the time (probably not that fast as most of the braking is done by the front brakes) for the shoes to be out of the range of adjustment.

O'Connor Classics (no longer in business) used to sell adjuster masks with a shim welded in place and I purchased a pair so that when I replace the rear shoes, the mask with the shim welded in place will not fit with new shoes. Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

OR,,, you can use a penny as shown,,, I used pennys fopr many miles, abnd the never fell out!

STEVE WINCZE

Steve, that makes cents! A fix for only pennies per wheel. Easy to find the parts.
Be well,
David.
D. Sander

I must add that the rubber bands are there just to keep the cylinders together whilst doing a brake job,,,the shoes will keep the pennys in there under normal operation....

SPW
STEVE WINCZE

David S. - Groan :-) Cheers - Dave D.
David DuBois

Davids,

Just to keep it as an original fix, I found some 1952 pennys,,,,

SPW
STEVE WINCZE

Gentlemen,

Thank goodness I live about an hour away from the US border in Canada. Now I can get access to US pennies since the Canadian Government did away with our penny about 2 years ago.

So much for progress!

Gene
G Burgess

Gene; Still have my penny jar.... be glad to send you some! ;-)
CR Tyrell

This thread was discussed on 27/03/2014

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