Brake Adjustment

Northern Advocate, 28 May 1938, Page 15

Brake Adjustment

A feature of modern car design, of which few private owners seem to have knowledge, is that the means of brake adjustment have been simplified to' the point where it is quite an easy matter for any owner to quickly compensate for the wear which has occurred. This is because it is not now necessary to make any adjustment on the operating rods, except in a very few cases, because the rods have disappeared. Consequently, the only points of adjustment left on most modern braking systems are those on the wheel drums, and usually a careful examination of them is sufficient to disclose the method of brake adjustment, although to be on the safe side it is always wise to consult the instruction book. Particularly is this advisable because of the fact that on some brakes there is a separate point of adjustment for each shoe, a fact which might be overlooked by some owners, with the result that only one shoe is adjusted in each drum. When adjusting brakes, each wheel should be jacked up in turn, and the shoes within its drum adjusted so that they are just free of the drum. Then the car should be tested on the road by attaining a speed of about 30 miles per hour and applying the brakes as hard as possible. If there is a tendency to slow to' one side, the wheel tracks should be examined. They will indicate which brake is coming into action earlier than the others, and this should bo slackened so that the car will stop- in a straight line, no matter how hard) the brakes are applied.