# looking for help with 1964 impala drum brakes



## DTA (May 23, 2002)

with a disk kit that was ordered not working out cause of 13's, i would like to refurbish my stock brake system. has anyone done this , if so can you give me some advice on how to start? this car is almost impossible to stop and i dont feel comfortable driving it. it has the 4 wheel drums with no booster. i would like to keep it that way, just have it working the way it should. as a start, the brake fluid goes low after a while and there is a clicking sound i can hear while driving near a wall on the right. also in a hard braking, the back right wheel locks up and sometimes stays stuck until i go into reverse. i want this to be my priority project, any help is appreciated, thanks in advance to any responces..


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## mr box (May 26, 2006)

which disc brake kit did you order the only kit where 13 will fit is the scarebird kit and most of these kits may need to be modified in some way. i have install the scarebird kit still wating on CPP dual master booster to ship out if you buy the scarebird kit make sure everthing you buy is napa


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## jackhopper (Mar 16, 2011)

he is what you need to do to you stock brakes put in new wheel cyl`s, brake spring kits-good brake shoes not the cheep on`s - and have your drums checked to see if there not over sized all my older cars with drum brakes i did this to with good results.


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## dcairns (Jan 5, 2010)

On my 64, I had a front disk conversion from Eckler's that I put on back in the 80's. Now I want it original so I put it back to drums all around. I really hated the way drums would always pull to one side or another. So to give them the best chance to succeed and because everything was fairly rotten, I replaced everything from the brake pedal to the drums.

New (to me) backing plates in the front.













New brake lines, hoses, wheel cylinders, springs, shoes and drums.












same thing in the back, except I still had my old backing plates. 












Up top, new booster, master cylinder and DOT 5 brake fluid.










Still a work in progress, I didn’t get much time to get things settled in before it went to the body shop.


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## jackhopper (Mar 16, 2011)

looks good when you put the drums back on do not for get to adjust the brakes with a little drag do all four the say way it should help stop your brake from pulling if your brake shoes are not arced on the ends the will pull, if that happens take the drum off if the brake shoes are hitting on the ends and not the middle sand the ends to match with the roundness of the drum in the old days they use to do that ,but with disc brakes bring standard now days no knows the old ways of drum brakes. all so since they are not self adjusting depending on how much you drive the car you may have to adjust your brakes from time to time,i hope this info. helps you out.


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## mr box (May 26, 2006)

stock drum brakes are not that great and safe with out a dual master you guys need to up grade just incase one brake line blows its not fun trying to stop a 3000 pound car with no brakes


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## dcairns (Jan 5, 2010)

Yes, dual master cylinders are a bit safer, but I put over 100,000 miles on this car back in the 80's on a single master cylinder and am still alive. The truth is such failures are very rare, and keeping things well maintained will practically eliminate the issue. Keep in mind that there was a reason the"parking brake" used to called the "emergency brake". It is your backup if the hydraulics fail. Not the best, with only rear wheel braking, but it can get you stopped. 

In my case, stock appearance trumps the very small improvement in safety. I used to have a dual master with a front disk conversion I did. It worked great but the booster/master cylinder and mess of brake lines was horrible looking.


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## plank (Mar 10, 2006)

I had a single master cylinder with no booster and my rear brake line blew and had no brakes on my old 64. The e brake sucks at high speeds on the old big cars. Go a duel master and booster for safety. abspowerbrakes.com has the 13 inch kit. I bought one and they fit great.


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