Brakes revisited ( did a search here, interesting

(Did the search thing too, the archiving of those old posts is really appreciated, saw a lot on those rear wheel bearings, seals etc.)

1. LEFT side, the LOWER return spring is not used on this side, as on the right which uses both.

2. Any opinion on turning drums ? While they're off, probably best to have them turned, checked, (as I saw was the consensus for best performance in the archived posts) Mine are not scored, seem in good shape, old pads were not even close to metal. This I assume can be done at the same kind of place that does ones for cars & trucks, probably low cost item, not sure what the minimum thickness of the drum is supposed to be, (have no idea if they have been turned before, but the book says not to take down more than 0.050")

I think NAPA offers machine shop services locally at their dist.warehouse facility

On an auto, you want brakes to work perfectly, even then, grooving or scoring in a drum doesn't hurt a thing, so long as it isn't out of round.

I have a '67 Ford Falcon, 309,000+ miles on it. All four drums are original, several brake jobs as the first 200,000 mi were city driving. A couple of the drums did get scored badly enough that I had a REAL machine shop turn them and take out the worst of the ridges, but not everything. I wanted the drums as thick as possible.

If yours are not scored, and not out of round, why mess with a good thing?

Tractor drums are no where as thick as a car drum, they don't get near the wear and tear and heat and cooling of an auto.

Charles

I wanted to know if true'ing them up would make a difference in performance, saw a few threads in the archives that mentioned this being good procedure, kind of the "why". Also 1st brake job on a tractor, plus drums are almost a real pain to get off, you risk more damage to your wheel stud threads, tires weigh 500 lbs ea. ( loaded with calcium chloride ), so they are a pain to handle without an overhead pick, so it's kind of a job you want to do one time, correctly in my opinion, thus my inquiry about it here. I'm aware of the application differences, auto/tractor, and agree, the thicker the better.

Eyeballing roundness is impossible, I'll have to measure these, they could be out of round. There is a specialty machine shop I could check with if thats what you mean by a "real" machine shop, as opposed to an auto/truck shop with just a brake drum lathe.