[kevallen]

My eight lug drums finally wore out on my '67 Bonneville so I bought a refurbished set from Roger Riehl’s inventory @ Custom Circuits in New Berlin NY (I’m in Santa Cruz CA). The drums should have been good to go right out of the box but that wasn’t the case. Any speed over 40mph and I get terrible vibration/shuddering through the brake pedal and steering wheel. Roger recommended the softest shoes possible (Raybestos) and filing down the lead edge of the shoes, which I did with no luck. Since then and over the past year I had the drums turned, new brake lines and a new spring set installed. All this produced a minor improvement but it’s still a no-go on the freeway. I've restored and owned this car for 15 years and have never been more frustrated with a mechanical problem. ANY advice/recommendation/direction would be greatly appreciated. Any great brake guys in the No. California area?

[kevallen]

My eight lug drums finally wore out on my '67 Bonneville so I bought a refurbished set from Roger Riehl’s inventory @ Custom Circuits in New Berlin NY (I’m in Santa Cruz CA). The drums should have been good to go right out of the box but that wasn’t the case. Any speed over 40mph and I get terrible vibration/shuddering through the brake pedal and steering wheel. Roger recommended the softest shoes possible (Raybestos) and filing down the lead edge of the shoes, which I did with no luck. Since then and over the past year I had the drums turned, new brake lines and a new spring set installed. All this produced a minor improvement but it’s still a no-go on the freeway. I've restored and owned this car for 15 years and have never been more frustrated with a mechanical problem. ANY advice/recommendation/direction would be greatly appreciated. Any great brake guys in the No. California area?

[scottk]

They might be severely out of balance.
Do they have any balance weights on them?

Have you checked the wheel runout and balance, and the flange/hub runout?

If the drums are out of balance, and you can find an old 'on car' wheel balancer, that might help. Or stick the drums on an old bubble balancer and see if any weight can be added or removed.

You might be able to find someone to put the the drums on a spin-balancer. I've put stranger things on them . The trick will be deciding how to add or remove weight.

Certain vehicles seem to be more sensative to certain things than others. Another car might not care so much about the drum balance, or it might be affected differently by a certain part's runout or balance. something to check anyway.

[Goatracer1]

If you had the drums machined they must be true. Your only other posibility would be balance. Before you go calling someone a crook try having them balanced. If that fixes the problem then he did nothing wrong.
I would like to know in just what junk yard you're going to find 8 lug drums.

[Goatracer1]

First of all I didnt buy any drums from this guy. Second, Did you try to have your drums balanced? I have had to have drums and wheels balanced as an assembly when weights were removed to install custom wheels. Third I probably have built/modified more parts than you ever will because I could not afford to spend $1000 on brake drums. You are not the only person to have had problems with parts that you bought. You learn from it and move on.

[J_JAMNIK]

It think it is a balancing problem myself. An on car wheel balancer is very hard to find, but they are out there. I believe they are called a Hunter 100 wheel balancer. You might also try rotating the wheel to a different position on the drum and see if the problem gets better or worse. I have been known to mount a tire, tighten it down and spin it while off the ground. If it rocks the other direction just before stopping or "favors" a certain stopping point, its out of ballance. I am looking for a guy with a Hunter 100 that doesn't make me leave the car for 5 hours till he gets to it!

[cat tracker]

After reading everyone's post I went out and checked a mint pair(untouched) 62/63 SD/HD front (only) finned aluminum drums. Not 8 lugs but aluminum with a steel insert. I found something I had never noticed before. A factory installed weight (1/2 inch wide by 1 inch long) on one of the drums. It was a small piece of flat steel attached to the front face of the drum by two small screws. I think whomever suggested a balance problem might be right.

[Stuart]

One or two of my eight lug drums have those little weights screwed on around the perimeter. The factory put them in between a couple of the fins, towards the back where they don't show when the rim is on.

[cat tracker]

My dad ran a garage after WW2 and showed me a trick that I never forgot. Before tire balancers (bubble and spin) he would take a car with a shimmy problem and drive it until it got hot. Take it into the shop and jack up the front end. He would make sure the tire would spin free. (No brakes shoes dragging and no drag on the wheel bearing nut) He would spin it and let it stop on it's own. He would mark the bottom of the tire with chalk. The move the tire 90 degress to his right and see if it moved. He would then move it 90 degrees to his left and see if it moved. He would move it 180 degrees and see if moved. He would add weight accordingly until you could place the tire in any position and it would not move. Then he would spin it several times and let it stop on it's own to see if it was consistent. If I had a 8 lug problem I would probably try this on my car and see what happens.

[cat tracker]

Why can't you knock out the rear seal and take the the front and rear bearings out and put the drum on a tire spin balancer?. A friend of mine runs a old tire shop and he thought he could balance the complete assembly (Tire, Wheel, and Drum) on a spin balancer. Maybe he can I don't know, but I would like to find out before I put a set on my other car.

[cat tracker]

When I was 15 years old I thought my dad wasn't very smart. When I turned 25 it was amazing how much he had learned in 10 years. Now I am 64 and Dad is gone but nearly everyday I use a "garage trick" he showed me 50 years ago. - Dwight

[BVR421]

pitt64, when you did the front brakes did you do the pin adjust by the book? I believe it properly positions the leading edge of the shoe to ensure full contact -and- full retraction.
I have exactly the same symptoms on my 63 (not 8 lug) though I only feel it under moderate to hard braking. Feels like out of round left drum to me. I havent dealt with it yet as I have a cherry set of drums to install (thanks to TomS)