[Marshall V. Daut]

A friend in Arizona converted his 1929 Model A Sport Coupe to 1934 brakes in the 1960's. Whenever I drove it - not knowing about the brake change - I was amazed at how well it stopped, even compared to a well-done Model A brake system. I never bothered to look at the backing plates because the car was so stock otherwise. Finally, he shared his secret with me and pointed out the larger backing plates and brake drums. Wow! Was I dumbfounded! 'Sure wish Ford had put drums that size with commensurately-sized brake shoes surface area on the Model A when it was introduced. What a difference!
It's rather funny that in 1932 Ford went to the rear brake shoes operating also as the parking brake. This continued at least through the 1938 Fords; 'dunno about the hydraulic era. Anyway, when Ford first introduced the Model A, it had no separate parking brake shoe provision. As the Floyd Clymer booklets from the late 1950's shrilly announce, "adverse state legislation" forced Ford to re-design the rear brake system so that a separate parking brake system was incorporated. Apparently some states threatened not to allow new Fords to be sold there unless a separate parking brake system was included with the Model A. So. Ford complied in 1928. That's why the early (so-called "AR" since the 1960's) Model A's have the special single step rear brake drums instead of the double step = there were no separate emergency brake shoes! And then Ford goes back to this design in 1932 without catching holy H*ll and facing "adverse state legislation"? What happened in the meantime to make the complaining states change their minds about this design, I wonder?
Marshall