I agree Mike-

Interesting I think is that the rear HHR brakes shoes
are the same & interchangable..

No Leading shoe or trailing shoe, like most older rides have.

& of course the adjuster being up top, just under the wheel cylinder..

I miss the quik spring retainers.

So the '37 has bolts & not wheel studs, interesting..

 

Yup, lug bolts and not lug nuts, Chevy vacillated back and forth a couple of times in the 30's between the two styles. Honestly I'd like to have studs and lug nuts when heaving one of those "2 Ton" wheels into place, dang things are heavy.

Don't take this as a knock against Michelle's new Fiat 500C, but there is enough steel in one of those wheels to make a whole Fiat, or so it seems.

I do miss the Qwik-Spring retainers too, probably managed to save a few pennies per unit by losing them, and no real need for different shoes as in the days of old.

The rear drums on the HHR are "Self Energizing" to a point, but the brakes on the Carryall are true Self Energizing brakes, they stop hard and true with no need for power assistance...its all in the leverage principal used to pull the shoes into the drums progressively harder depending on pedal pressure. When you drive it you can get a feel of just how well the engineers back then compensated for the lack of power assistance, do things just right, and you never need it.

 

Wifeys former '96 BMW Z-3 has lug bolts..Always was fun doing tire rotations..

Easy to get spoiled just hanging a rim on studs..

Quite a few of my early GM & Chevys had No Power brakes, & stopped fine also..

I'm sure those '37 drums dwarf our HHR drums in size..

 

11" front and rear on the 1/2 ton trucks and the Carryalls, you do not want to drop one on your foot, trust me.

I have a trick to get the rims on without too much drama, I took an old unusable lug bolt and machined the threads off.

When I get to the point of putting a wheel back on...its just a matter of heaving it up into place and sticking the "blind" lug bolt in a hole to keep it in place long enough to get a few proper lug bolts started.

 

Alright, so I got to look at the drums this morning. I cleaned the brakes out with brake clean. The driver side drum was adjusted about perfect, the passenger side was very loose. So I adjusted it and put it all back together. The pedal is a little firmer but definently better. Thanks to everyone for the help. Next is new front brakes since the rears are good now.

 

My 59 Plymouth had lug bolts. I had to replace one of the hubs and got a right side for the left and the bolts were always working their way loose. At that time I didn't realize that there was a difference between a right and legt hub. It was a PITA to "bolt" on wheels.

 

Yep, Plymouth did have Left Hand & Right hand threads..(learned that the hard way also).. Strange but true..

Not sure how long that lasted..I know in the later 60's Plymouth still had Left & right threads, but went to studs..

I used to use a tapered drift pin to locate the hole-position when putting on a wheel on the Z-3 ...