Drum brakes

[Kruuzin]

Drum brakes are not the best I agree....but I have a question....which pad on the front should hit the drum first...forward or rear pad...I'm thinking the front...just trying to make sure i have it all right...next year,,,discs on the front....hopefully....:D

[Techhead]

The pad pressure is applied evenly on both shoes.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/drum-brake1.htm There is a short vid showing how they work.

[Rochie]

Kruuzin,
Heeyyy, there's nothing wrong with drum brakes if they are maintained properly.
The SHOE (please guys, not pad) with the short lining should allways be in the front of the axle. That applies to the rear axle as well. The short lining shoe is the primary and the longer of the two is the secondary. the front shoe contacts the drum friction surface and starts to rotate with the drum. It increases the pressure applied by the secondary shoe as it rotates toward the anchor pin

[55LINCOLN]

The pad pressure is applied evenly on both shoes.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/drum-brake1.htm There is a short vid showing how they work.

what a neat video

[36_5W]

Kruusin Douge,

I believe the older drum brakes, pre 40's etc, were not self energizing. So in that case it is first come first serve for brake shoe application.

Is that not the big thing about the Lincoln brakes swap, the fact that they were "self energizing"?

C

[Kruuzin]

Thanks Guys....this is great you get all the knowlege back that you forgot...LOL
I'm just goiing over the brakes to make sure I have everthing right...appreciate the help

[64krusty]

Doug,do your brake shoes adjust seperately?
Some older vehicles had a bolt you turned for each shoe that adjusted only that shoe,is that the way yours are?
Is that the question you are asking?

[Aero46Chevy]

Great Post Guys!! Frank..where do you come up with all this stuff? You seem to find a link for everything.

[N2RODDIN]

Just a general comment, we have power drum brakes, front and rear, on our 68 Camaro and they work great, certainly not in a hurry to spend the money to change them over to a disc front.

My N2 cents worth.

[hemiEssex]

My buddy Jeff has a 68 Plymouth GTX with drum brakes all around. Everything checks out good as far as shoes and drums but man, when you tramp on that 440 it does not want to come to a stop too quickly.It is not even an option not to update it to power discs. As far as I am concerned with the amount of cornholers on the road that like to brake quickly to look at wild life or are lost in tourist ville, power discs brakes are the only way to go. My 3/4 ton diesel long box pickup stops on a dime and I have had many close calls with it, I can go to the dealer and get a new bumper and grill to fix it, but I sure would be choked to try and find them for my Essex, I am putting 4 wheel discs on it just for the safety factor. Anything we can do to our cars to make them safer and keep the federales out of our face is the way to go.
Just my 2 cents
Steve

[Kruuzin]

Yeah the fronts do Krusty...I was just wanting confermation on brakes...this thread has done that and more....good stuff....
Hemi I agree with ya...

[tinmann]

Speaking of fine tuning drum brakes...... didn't the ol' time "good" brake technicians also bend the shoe (the metal backer actually) to better fit the drum? In an attempt to have the brake material wear evenly and give full contact right from new.

[stovbolt]

the 4 wheel setup is ok but remember the back ones don't get used to their full potential and do screw up a lot more than the fronts because of it I'm ok with just the fronts as disks cheeper and just as effective unless your going to grand am it

[johnny37]

Stovebolt, I think you're right. We seem to have more problems with 4 wheel disc hotrods. Getting them set up for the nice firm pedal and stopping the way we think they should seems to be an issue that never comes up with disc/drum cars.

[shifter]

Speaking of fine tuning drum brakes...... didn't the ol' time "good" brake technicians also bend the shoe (the metal backer actually) to better fit the drum? In an attempt to have the brake material wear evenly and give full contact right from new.

Nope...we used to re-arc the shoes....(lining material)...on the arc grinder...was great for making clouds of asbestos dust...
But it didnt hurt us cuz we didnt know any better..:rolleyes:
Mike,

[Rochie]

AHHHH Shifter,
you brought back memories...the smell of freshly gound ASBESTOS floating through the air on a bright shiney morning....COUGH.....COUGH.
That's exactly the procedure! I used to like to watch the customer's face when he saw me grinding away on his brand new shoes.

[shifter]

Rochie...it's funny, that smell came to mind as I was typing that....I remember it well....We always insisted on a re-arc if we turned drums...
Many sets of Chevy 227/228 shoes got ground in the day...:D
Mike,

[Olrodder]

Roachie.... that brake dust smell and a cup of coffee kicked off many mornings. The asbestos was a "lung toughner", and we really didn't know any better. You brought back some memoies with that one.....
Clarke