68 fury terrible brakes

Furydude

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Working on the brakes of my 68 fury. The car got parked shortly after aquired and I am finally getting on it. The brakes are terrible. I am tackling a few other issues such as a leak in the rear and decided to focus on rear and getting it button up and work my way to the front.

Going proactive. Popping the drums off and drums look good. I will replace the brake cylinders as one looks a bit old and moist. I'll do them both. While i am there I will replace all the springs, etc. Thats cheap stuff. The brakes lines look sketchy and not sure their age so i am going to replace back to front. I see complete kits out there.

I am not sure if I should replace with steel or stainless. Any suggestions?

Attached is the MC. I missed not having a booster when I was looking at the car. I would think a car this big would have one. A sport fury is high up on the trim level. any chance this is a problem wiht the brakes being so bad. They are "Charles Barley Turrible"

Thx. Tom

IMG_0356.jpg
 
First off www.inlinetube.com can supply the replacement brake lines. I do not use stainless tubing as it is very difficult to get the connections on stainless tube to seal because it is very hard and does not compress to form a good seal. If the brake tubing is shot, the hoses are not far behind, so replace them as well. Power brakes were still an option for the '68 model year and your vehicle was not ordered with power brakes. You can convert to power brakes, you will need a new brake pedal and the mounting plate to accommodate the power brake booster. I would suggest getting the upgrade parts from a salvage yard, be sure to have the booster rebuilt.
www.boosterdeweyexchange.com does a good job on repairing boosters.
You might also want to source a set of brake linings in the original asbestdos as those materials did a better job of stopping the car with less heat and drum wear. There are a couple of vendors on this site that can supply the factory style brake shoes.

Dave
 
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Adding a Booster will also require a different size master brake cylinder. Would be best to exchange that as a complete bundle together with the rebuild booster from the donor car.
 
You also need to decide if you are going to keep the drum brakes in front, or convert it over to disc brakes. The master and booster are different between drum and disc cars. Hate to see you go one way, and then not be able to use the new parts.
 
Don't forget....power brakes have a different pedal. This is not a straight forward change.Manual brakes are just as effective as power assisted brakes, but have better feel, if correctly set up.Go over to FABO ...it's the place to find out about manual brakes.My 1970 Fury has manual brakes and even after converting to 4 wheel discs they are staying manual.
 
Are the brakes "terrible" because it takes more pedal pressure to stop quickly? Or that they fade too easily? Some distinctions.

What width are the brake linings? There were some variations in that area, with appropriate drums and backing plates. DO make sure they are properly adjusted, too. An inside-outside brake measurement/adjustment tool can assist in this area, in the initial adjustment of the shoes.

In many cases, a Sport Fury would have had power brakes, BUT if a customer didn't like power brakes, then it could have been not ordered. Check www.hamtramck-historical.com to see what was standard and optional on Furys that model year.

Enjoy!
CBODY67
 
I'm going through my brakes and converting to a dual master setup. While that's a bit different then yours, unhooking the booster revealed just how bad the brakes were.
I started by trying to bleed and adjust the brakes. Bleeding revealed a restriction in the rears and I ended up replacing the rear brake line. It was plugged nearly solid.
That and a front brake adjustment helped a bunch. The car will at least lock the tires at low speeds but there is some high speed fade.
Remember this is without a working booster and the car has a single pot master cylinder of dubious parentage.
The booster wasn't sent to Portland (hearing an alarmed sigh from the forum) because I can't wait 4 to 5 weeks.
I also attribute the fade to non asbestos shoes, and have purchased a set of front NOS shoes from another site member. I would like to convert to 11x2.5 rears found on '70's Mopars, but if I can't (either way) I'll buy asbestos shoes from someone.
I had a '69 Roadrunner coupe with manual brakes, and while it was a couple hundred pounds lighter than a C body, it stopped real good with those big drum brakes and asbestos shoes
 
I still have the manual drum brakes in my ‘68 Fury III and they work great. Yes you want to give yourself a little more room in traffic and going down a steep grade it’s a good idea to downshift and let the Torqeflite help slow you down so as not to overheat your brakes. Obviously all components need to be in working order. Properly machined drums, good quality shoes, return springs, self adjusters, wheel cylinders, hoses, master cylinder, proportioning block & steel lines. I’m old enough to have driven and worked on 4 wheel drum set ups quite a bit back in the day so they may not seem as daunting to us older guys. Do your research, get a factory service manual, use the right tools, take your time and ask for advice if you’re not sure. Good luck and keep us posted.
 
My 68 Sport Fury has manual drums. I do what @mrfury68 says. I look ahead at traffic and use the transmission to help out. My only problem is if I hop in my wife’s VW Tiguan, I end up hitting the brakes too hard. I guess the brain gets used to the braking of the manual brakes.

One thing for sure-no fiddling with a phone while driving.

Pic of what all of my shoes looked like when I got the car. My guess is overheating.

DC08C20B-BCEC-4321-8732-7C0385486BE3.jpeg
 
As stated above, stay away from the SS lines. They look nice, but are a ***** to get to seal. Same for adding a booster, the pedal pivots at a different point because you won't need the mechanical advantage. New hoses are a must.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that's the right master cylinder. The ones I've seen on drum brake cars have a bolt on top. I think that is a disc brake MC.

If you can, get some NOS shoes. Either Mobileparts or you can find them on eBay.

Drum brake MC

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The master cylinder in the O/P is for a drum brake car. Like the one in your picture it has equal sized ports for the brake fluid. In the picture you can see the lines out of it have been replaced, so it is probably a newer one that was put on.
 
Are the brakes "terrible" because it takes more pedal pressure to stop quickly? Or that they fade too easily? Some distinctions.

What width are the brake linings? There were some variations in that area, with appropriate drums and backing plates. DO make sure they are properly adjusted, too. An inside-outside brake measurement/adjustment tool can assist in this area, in the initial adjustment of the shoes.

In many cases, a Sport Fury would have had power brakes, BUT if a customer didn't like power brakes, then it could have been not ordered. Check www.hamtramck-historical.com to see what was standard and optional on Furys that model year.

Enjoy!
CBODY67
They are terrible because i am used to modern cars and motorcycles that stop on a dime and returns change. The fury requires a lot of pedal pressure. So much that I think something is wrong. it could be normal and just me. I know if I go through and double check it. then i'll know what I know. Right now i dont know anything.
 
ok. steel lines it is. I will also replace all the rubber lines. I'll probably do fancy SS on them.

i'd love front disc but I am going to work on getting the drums right and teach myself all about drums. The lining are 2.5" wide. The drum say the wheel must be 11". So I guess I have 11X2.5". Is there a better way to ID the drum size?

The factory manual is my refernce. study it all the time looking for details and how to figure this out.

Can one even run disc in the front and drum in the rear with manual brakes? That seems counterintuitive?
 
ok. steel lines it is. I will also replace all the rubber lines. I'll probably do fancy SS on them.

i'd love front disc but I am going to work on getting the drums right and teach myself all about drums. The lining are 2.5" wide. The drum say the wheel must be 11". So I guess I have 11X2.5". Is there a better way to ID the drum size?

The factory manual is my refernce. study it all the time looking for details and how to figure this out.

Can one even run disc in the front and drum in the rear with manual brakes? That seems counterintuitive?

mine are 11x2.5 front and 11x2 rear.
 
hmm. I wonder what is supposed to be vs what i got?
Someone more knowledgeable than me can elaborate, but I know they made 3, 2.5 and 2 inch widths. I don’t know which cars got what. My car is a 68 Sport Fury. I guess 2 inch rear because it does less work than front?

There is a guy on this site who has OEM asbestos shoes and other brake parts for sale . I don’t recall his name but someone here will.
 
I had a 66 Fury with a 440, and my non-assisted drum brakes would haul that car to stop just great.
Of course it was rebuilt 100%. BUT IT WORKED!
Just saying...

I don't care what you do or how much money you spend, you're not going to get it to act and feel like your new vehicle. Get used to it. It's a 68 for Pete's sakes.
 
I am trying to decifer the service manual. it does seem like 2.5' wide pads for V8/HD and its the length that is differnt. That is for 10". I measured the diameter of my drumes and it is 11". flip the page and there is a part for police special and heavy duty and that is 11". So my rear is 11" and the manual indicates 2.5". The rear seems aligned with the service manual.

I need to get the front on jack stands and pull the fronts to verify and double check that nothing has been changed or swapped. CSI 101. More to follow.
 
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