Rear Brake Adjustment with Auto-Adjusters

Greetings all. New member here. I've got a '62 Galaxie wagon that I've just redone the brakes on and wanted some advice on how to adjust the rear brakes. The entire system is new with skarebird conversion for discs on the front, dual chamber MS and brand new everything on the rear.

I've read several different methods, most of them being judging how far you can spin the wheel and the second being crank all the way down and back the adjuster off a certain number of clicks. What works best?

either way will work--

Crank it down until the wheel drags then back it off two or four clicks, then take it out and drive with the brakes on for sever hundred yards, then go home, let them cool, and adjust again until the wheel drags then back off about 5 clicks.

Originally Posted by drdano

Greetings all. New member here. I've got a '62 Galaxie wagon that I've just redone the brakes on and wanted some advice on how to adjust the rear brakes. The entire system is new with skarebird conversion for discs on the front, dual chamber MS and brand new everything on the rear.

I've read several different methods, most of them being judging how far you can spin the wheel and the second being crank all the way down and back the adjuster off a certain number of clicks. What works best?

Hi did you buy all the parts from skarebird or just the brackets ?? Thier web site shows a spacer on the inner bearing?? I am just starting to look at brake conversions for my 63.5 Thanks bob

The kit came with just the brackets, spacers and parts list. I initially had a clearance issue with the wrong spacers, but he exchanged them and was very helpful. I've only got 5 miles on the kit thusfar, but I like it. My car even with completely rebuilt front end and rebuilt brakes would pull erratically to either side, which is gone now. The biggest absolute pain in the ass was attempting to keep the stock power booster and upgrade to a dual chamber master cylinder, which I've concluded on the '62 to be impossible due to the hood clearance. The solution was to remove the power system all together and go to a '68 Galaxie dual chamber unit and manual pedal.

Wasn't there a technique that required driving in reverse, slowly and then hitting the brakes hard? I thought that was a method for setting the shoe adjuster on old drum setups?

I don't know if you will need it but I had to put a proportional valve on the rear brakes to dial it in. Bought it from the Jegs catalog.

I did the backup and stop thing for about 10 minutes in a parking lot, seemed to have helped a bit, but I think they are still too far out of adjustment. I think I'll just try to do it by hand.

I've got an adjustable valve on the rear line, its all the way open right now until I get the pedal where it should be, then it will get dialed down to keep the rears from locking up before the fronts.

Originally Posted by drdano

The kit came with just the brackets, spacers and parts list. I initially had a clearance issue with the wrong spacers, but he exchanged them and was very helpful. I've only got 5 miles on the kit thusfar, but I like it. My car even with completely rebuilt front end and rebuilt brakes would pull erratically to either side, which is gone now. The biggest absolute pain in the ass was attempting to keep the stock power booster and upgrade to a dual chamber master cylinder, which I've concluded on the '62 to be impossible due to the hood clearance. The solution was to remove the power system all together and go to a '68 Galaxie dual chamber unit and manual pedal.

I guess the 68 duel chamber unit was a bolt in deal then ? That sounds good because i want to stay with manuel brakes on my 63.5, I have the same hood clearance problams you do. Thanks for the reply Bob

Yes, direct bolt-on. Once I pulled the booster off, it mounts into the lower 2 holes if I remember correctly. You'll need to modify your pedal for manual ratio. Ford was lazy on the '62 Galaxies. At least on this year, the manual and power pedals are the same, but the power ones use a second bracket that is riveted to the upper part that raises the pushrod connection point up about 2" or so. Comparing the two, I could have easily just cut the rivet off and then had a manual pedal. I still needed the manual rod anyway for the correct length, so maybe its all good. hindsight, 20/20. :-)