1941 Brake Shoe Mileage and Wear

[J. Russo]

I have a couple of questions related to brake shoe wear. I know that a lot of this depends on how well the shoes are adjusted. I'm just trying to get an idea of how often I should check for wear on my Series 63.

What is normal mileage for a set of brake shoes?

In certain modern cars, brake pads wear out in the front faster than the rear. Does any of this apply to the 1941s or are all four wheels supposed to wear evenly?

I got in the habit of feeling my outside wheel rims for heat after burning up a couple set of shoes because my brake pedal was not adjusted properly.

After each drive of 30 miles or more, I feel the outer rims and they are warm to the touch.....not hot. This depends on how much I apply the brakes while driving.
Is this acceptable?

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

Rear brakes always wear a lot slower than the fronts as the fronts do 99% of the braking.   

The reason for this is that the rears are there for retardation to keep the vehicle stopping straight.   Lock up the rears first, and the vehicle will always slide to the direction of the road camber.

The brakes up to 1959 in Cadillacs were of the non-self-adjusting type, and must be adjusted manually to take up for wear during the life of the brake shoe material (Friction Compound)

When self-adjusting brakes came into being, all this manual adjusting stopped, as the brakes as the word explains self-adjust whilst driving.   Actually, the self-adjustments are performed when the vehicle is reversed, and the brakes are applied.

Whenever I look at my brakes, I am usually not doing anything to the rear brakes until changing the fronts up to 3 times.   Each time I check brakes, the rears still look new.

Bruce.

[toybox]

Hi John, There are many variables in this question. The long and short of it is (about) 10000 miles for adjustments and 30000 to 40000 for replacement. This would be providing you are not a brake rider, that your shoes are adjusted properly and the hydraulics are not leaking on the shoes. This is just from my personal experience . Tim