Brakes
 

aloha,
Last weekend I almost had to get off the road coming down a long downhill run when I neared an intersection and the light turn red. Usually my brakes are ok, but I guess there were hot from trying to keep my speed under control.
Anyway I had my foot all the way down to the floor and just barely stopped.
I had my brakes checked a year ago, and I was told that the brakes pad were fine.
I believe I have steel drums, and I am strongly considering switching to cast iron drums. Can you please tell what is your experience switching from steel to cast irons drums?
It seems to be also a fairly easy job, but what should I be aware off, before starting the job?
mahalo

Re: Brakes
 

Re: Brakes
 

From experience, thin steel, (like thinner, worn steel brake drums), can heat, expand, and fail much quicker than thick cast iron.

E.G., try placing a thin steel frying pan on your stove adjacent to a thick cast iron skillet on your stove; then, next, crack & place a raw egg in each.

Turn fire on HIGH on both .... which one solidified faster?

Driver "life" safety is "far" more important than cash in anybody's wallet ..... wealth is renewable & can be replaced ...... lost of life is permanent.

Mr. Randy Gross is one of the best ..... as mentioned on TV .... what's in your wallet?

With a Model A, reply no. 2 recommendation, (all of it), is one of the best ways to avoid future undertaker visits and body shop visits.

Re: Brakes
 

I had my brakes redone by randy it is not cheap but way better than a wrecked car and a hospital stay, pretty cheap if you look at it that way and his workmanship is superb i also installed teds floaters as well.

Re: Brakes
 

I had steel brake drums with hard linings. The linings were like new but didn't stop the car very well. I replaced the hard linings with woven linings and the brakes are fine now.

Re: Brakes
 

Gee, could I borrow you old brakes for the next time that I take my wife out:rolleyes:

Re: Brakes
 

Re: Brakes
 

Not to knock cast iron drums, but my old original steel drums do just fine on some mighty long and steep grades. I just learned early on to pump my brakes firmly with long rest periods. This allows the brakes to cool and minimizes brake fade.

Then again, I am not coming down Mount Ka’ala....

Ken

Re: Brakes
 

I agree with KGB. We all know our A brakes do not perform like modern day power disc brakes. However, if the "A" brakes are properely aligned to the drum and properly adjusted they will work very well. Holding your foot on the brake going down hills will cause fading whether you have steel or cast iron drums. Friction is fricton (heat). Once the shoe lining heats up a glaze forms on the surface of the lining changing the frictional properties between the lining and the drum. When this happens braking begins to fade and the more you push on the pedal the worst it gets. Pumping the brakes helps to minimze the heat build up between the linings and the drums, steel or cast iron.

Re: Brakes
 

Also remember; come down the hill in the same gear you went up in. (even if it's in 1st)
Just because the linings good does not mean the rest of the parts are also good. What condition are your tracks, pins etc in? Does the shop that you had check, understand what to look for on Model A brakes?

Re: Brakes
 

Recently put cast iron drums on my 30 Tudor, which already had Ted's Floaters on with good soft shoes, but I am still amazed at how much better it stops. I must also mention that the biggest difference came from the new drum being perfectly round and it gave me the ability to greatly improve the close tolerance of drum to shoe contact, before depressing the pedal, without the drag that was present on the old drums that were to some degree out of round.
The most helpful tool for adjusting the brakes, in my opinion, is to use the lazor thermometer to adjust all four wheels with no drag and the ability to measure the actual contact of each wheel via the temperature differences when applying the brakes.
The CI drums really resist the brake fade I had prior to the change over.
As is always the case it goes with out saying that eliminating all slop out of all the components and maintaining the 15* foreword angle is an absolute necessity!!!

Re: Brakes
 

I live in a very hilly town with steep hills ending in tee intersections and a stop sign. I used to have to cross my fingers prior to the stop sign. Following the replacement my steel drums with cast iron drums about five years and 10,000 miles ago, my brakes have given me the full confidence of safety on these hills and other locations.

Re: Brakes
 

In such a case you can also use the parking brake, it has separate shoes.

Re: Brakes
 

Re: Brakes
 

Then why is it called an emergency brake by ford? I'm not saying it's heavy duty, but it was designed for emergency stopping. Page 265 of the service bulletins say to drive 15 to 25 miles an hour, and slowly pull on to check for even wheel lock up!

Re: Brakes
 

yea we have several long hills here in the river valley and I see people all the time ride thier brakes down the hills...sometimes you can smell thier hot brakes at the bottom...your model a's have a standard transmission so let the engine do the braking and supplement it by pulsing the brakes. Short on long off!

in moderns with automagics take it out of overdrive by pressing the overdrive off button, shifting to 3, manual mode, or d without the box around it...

Re: Brakes
 

Real men don't need brakes. :D

At least that seems to be the mentality of many drivers these days. A half mile from my house is a bike path overpass over the highway, and there's a red light next to the overpass. Some days I just stop my bike on top and watch the traffic for a few minutes, and you can smell hot brakes because people drive so fast and brake so hard. In the past month I've seen 3 steel disc brake backing plates laying in the road at this one red light. Now, how many miles do you have to drive with worn out brakes and metal scraping on metal before the backing plate finally falls off and onto the road? :confused:
They probably couldn't hear the scraping noise because the noise coming from the radio was too loud.:eek:

This is one reason I don't like to drive my Model A around the cities. Wisconsin has some of the best roads I've ever seen for Model A drives. They are more scenic, better roads, and not too much traffic. :)

Re: Brakes
 

If you do change all of your drums and hubs, clean & inspect your existing wheel bearings and consider reusing them, especially the rears. I have not been able to find any good reproduction rear wheel bearings. Mine failed after 500 miles and the new ones that I went to replace them with were no better. I am currently using new old stock rear bearings that I was fortunate to find.

Re: Brakes
 

my tudor did the same thing I adj the brakes and doing fine now
kevin

Re: Brakes
 

That's really interesting. I've never thought of it that way, but now I will keep it in mind.