Drum Brake Assembly

I am re-assembling my drum brakes on my 66 Catalina.  I noticed while doing it that the hold down springs are different lengths.  Does anyone which spring goes where ???

SMAK  

I just rebuilt my entire drum braking system on my 1969 custom S.  Although there are differences in the drums from your car and mine, I could send you a snapshot of my drums to help.  Message me if you are interested.  I took the snapshots before disassembly to help me get it back together again.  Also, on Amazon.com you can buy a restoration guide with detailed images for around 35.00 and it is well worth the price.  I bought a guide and another book with large color images and diagrams call "How to keep your muscle alive" and it has lots of great brake info as well.  While everything is apart, I highly recommend that you wire wheel and paint any rusty parts with high temperature paint and buy new adjusters.  Put everything in clean and completely flush and bleed your lines.  By doing this and installing new drum brake kits from Performance Suspension technologies, I stop with ease and no noise.  I do notice that the front drums will get pretty hot but from what I know now about front drums, that’s normal.  Double and triple check your adjusters when you put the wheels on and make positive sure that you have zero brake drag after you bleed the system.  You can test this with the car up on jacks and by spinning the wheel.  I had to do this 2 times all the way around to get it right after several test-drives to seat the linings. Listen carefully for any friction and adjust the sar wheel.  It’s also a good idea to check your flexible lines and bearings when doing a complete break job.  I repacked the bearings and changed all my soft lines while everything was apart and it was well worth the extra time because I spotted a pretty deep crack in 2 lines once they were off.  Don’t cut corners on these old drum systems. They are unforgiving in an emergency, and before I did my overhaul, it was scary to take a trip around town.  
1969 Custom S