3/4T drum mismatch

[PareosWC]

Gents- is there a smarter way to see whether drums need to be turned or not?

All (4) are disassembled now, and am about to rebuild. Is mating a new shoe to the inside the easiest? What if you have used, but in good condition shoes that are no longer 'round'. I know the correct answer is to mate the shoe to the turned drum, but how absolute is that?

[Kaegi]

what do you mean by smarter way? drums maximum diameter is 14.215. a new drum would be 14.125. I have bought some trucks that had great shoes and replaced or rebuilt the cylinders and adjusted the shoes. But I kept them matched with the drums.
Also never mix up the drums with the wrong hub. they are machined together.

[June J]

Mating a shoe to a turned drum, or even an un-turned drum is absolute. If you "mix and match" you will end up with unbalanced brakes that may pull left or right when applied.

The WC brakes are not exactly brilliant to start with, the word adequate comes to mind, so in my mind they need to be as close to perfect as is possible.

Cheers

Ian

[PareosWC]

OK- thanks for the advisement. I can remember driving a 1/2T WC with the only reliable brake being the emergency...