Brake Track Replace or Repair

[Roadster Rich]

Trying to get this Town Sedan ready for the buyer. Agreed to get good running engine only, but now he wants it to drive in a parade in mid August. The brakes are pretty bad and I have to at least get it safe for a little while for him to use. All this effort and cost and no change in the sale price, but I guess that is par for the course when you sell to a friend.

I have some pictures of the track on the front brakes. There is a lot of wear and the track spacing to the center of the rivets is about 1.5 inches. I think this should be 1 & 5/16 inch. My question is, to remove the track do I have to grind down the headed part of the rivet on the outside of the plate? To replace do you have to use a similar hot head or cold head rivet, or is there some newer threaded connectors for the two rivets when you put on a new track? I am running out of time and did not want to have to remove the brake hub to take to get these welded up. Any suggestions. I have some actuator pin shim pellets and would need to shim the pin to wedge with about three of them to get the actuator to be just engaging at the 15 degree forward position. Crappy to do work around but that may have to be my choice.

Thanks for any advice.

Rich

[Rowdy]

Only heat the shank end of the track rivits you need to buck, but heat the whole shank. May have to buck them a few times to get the tracks to a point they do not move. Had the tracks on the backing plates for the roadster pickup replaced by a repuatable person and when I began assembly found they would rock a little over 1/16". Ordered the special tool, heated and used a 3X rivit gun and bucked them alittle tighter. All rocking went away. Getting ready to replace the tracks for the brakes of the delivery. Will use an oxy-acetaline rosebud and heat the entire shank before bucking them, not just the bucked end that sticks through the backing plate as the person who did them for the rdstr pu. Rod

[Mitch]

I have always done them with the plates off the car and used the vice to hold the sleeve that comes with the roller track kit. As Rod said you need to get them tight



Roller Track Installation::

Place tool (small pipe) in a vice. Secure roller track to backing plate with one 1⁄4" x 1⁄2" bolt and nut. Place a rivet with the small head down into the tool located in the vice. The purpose of this tool is to prevent you from damaging the small head of the rivet when upsetting the other end. Place the backing plate over the rivet located in the tool so the end of the rivet passes through the track and backing plate. Heat the rivet red hot, then hammer the outer edge of the red hot rivet in a circular direction until the rivet is tight to the backing plate. Remove the temporary 1⁄4" bolt and repeat the rivet operation.

[tbirdtbird]

I have seen them welded up if you have a deft hand by MIG or TIG and ground down with a die grinder. The wear you have is not all that deep.
Nothing wrong with the "pills", after all the ends of the pins and the wedges do wear. I then grease the "rollers" since I am of the opinion that they don't actually roll very much. They seem to slide more than anything. Watch the action when you actuate them by hand....they slide most of the time.

Getting good brakes is very labor intensive

[Mitch]

that's probably the route i would take

[Mike V. Florida]

I'm with these guys.

[Dennis]

If you put a Flathead Ted kit in, those don't get used anymore. Ted's kit has a plate that bolts up next to that and has pins in the kit that fit his plate. I know not everybody likes his kit.

[Roadster Rich]

I will take my backing plates to the machine shop for my business before retirement (an advantage of being the past president) and TIG weld the tracks tomorrow. The reference I have is 1.3125 inches from the bottom of the right to the track. (1 & 5/16) is this from the fat part of the rivet of the through diameter of the rivet?

also a bummer to find that this car has cast hubs on the front wheels. I have been wanting to buy those for my Roadster for many years and just couldn't pull the trigger on $450. Now the Roadster is in FL and the TS here in GA or I would switch them in a heartbeat. Also a very good arch of the shoes to the drum so if I can just get the track done right to center these I should have decent brakes on the front.

Thanks for a simple confirmation on the track dimension

Rich

[Jhva]

I have always done them with the plates off the car and used the vice to hold the sleeve that comes with the roller track kit. As Rod said you need to get them tight



Roller Track Installation::

Place tool (small pipe) in a vice. Secure roller track to backing plate with one 1⁄4" x 1⁄2" bolt and nut. Place a rivet with the small head down into the tool located in the vice. The purpose of this tool is to prevent you from damaging the small head of the rivet when upsetting the other end. Place the backing plate over the rivet located in the tool so the end of the rivet passes through the track and backing plate. Heat the rivet red hot, then hammer the outer edge of the red hot rivet in a circular direction until the rivet is tight to the backing plate. Remove the temporary 1⁄4" bolt and repeat the rivet operation.

Is it normal that new pins will stick up about 1/2” through the backing plate? Seems like a lot of material to hammer down.

[Great Lakes Greg]

It looks about right to me. I think the universal formula is twice the diameter of the rivet sticks up.

[Rowdy]

Looks right to me. You want to form a nice uniform head in the bucking process. As mentioned above make sure the tracks have no movement. Rod

https://www.rotaryforum.com/threads/calculating-rivet-lengths-help-please.29996/

[rusty]

Is it normal that new pins will stick up about 1/2” through the backing plate? Seems like a lot of material to hammer down.

Here is what mine looked like while I was hot riveting.

[Jhva]

Rusty,

What tool did you use to get that nice domed shape? Thinking I could use an air hammer with a domed bit?

[rusty]

Rusty,

What tool did you use to get that nice domed shape? Thinking I could use an air hammer with a domed bit?

I made a rivet header by drilling a 5/16" hole in a peace of round stock.

[Mitch]

Rusty did you use a press?

[Jhva]

Practical Machinist forum had a discussion on deforming a .220 diameter rivet cold at 10 tons, so I imagine less with a red hot heated rivet. Might be something to play around with to get a uniform head shape and solid fit.

[rusty]

Rusty did you use a press?

No press, just a hammer.

[Bob C]

I have some of these for different size rivets.

[Jwmckenzie]

Me too, got them from Big Flats Rivet Company. Also have the Waffle pattern, I really need to get a real rivet gun instead of the generic air hammer.

[Marco Tahtaras]

I really need to get a real rivet gun instead of the generic air hammer.

I have an old rivet gun that was given to me by a retired A&P over 40 years ago. I've used it a bunch over the years including riveting my entire frame together.

Several years ago a group of us were doing a riveting article for The Restorer. I had inherited an air hammer and I decided it would be a good time to see just what the limitations would be with the air hammer. Since I always heat the entire rivet shank red before it's slipped into place I expected at least some level of success.

There was a big trash can about ten feet away, and that was the last time I ever saw that air hammer!