Finally, after weeks and weeks, I was driven to investigate an intermittent vibration. Think it’s the brake drum.
It is bad enough that it is now acting like an out of balance wheel at 55+, so I have to do something. I’ve had an intermittent vibration under braking that I’d thought was the brakes, then on finding nothing, had started to think was a bad cord in the tire. Nah. Drum is skipping into the shoe once per revolution... sometimes.
See, I had “help” doing the brakes. Also, I turned the drums when marginal, and my *new* wheel cylinder may have had a problem. So, help failed to notice one of the shoe retainers was missing, which didn’t help, shoes were adjusted unevenly, which didn’t help, and the first time the drums got hot, I think they got wet ( and cold, being thin) fast. Distortion.
So I went from needing new front brakes to mysterious shakes (only when the drums were “from cool”) and an imbalance, which has been the straw on the camel’s back for my lower left ball joint. WHEEEE.
Butcher’s bill: two new drums, some new bearings, some steering relay bushings, new lower ball joints, new lower arm bushings, and so on. Some stuff that was not so good that makes sense to address now, but while there I’ll also install the replacements for the anti-bump Ford Bad Idea on the lower control arm that I’ve mentioned before. (Ordered the last parts for that too - two studs from McMaster).
That last normally requires a $300+ kit from Rare Parts, but I’m making my own because YOLO.
On the other side, it may finally brake well and corner correctly for the first time in its miserable life. Maybe also no funny noises...