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my bugeye brakes are crummy. pulled the right front drum. lots of graphite like powder that blew out with the air gun. no obvious hydraulic leaks. contact surface on drum is highly polished, no grooves or irregular marks. pad thickness appears adequate, but it too is polished looking as if it wouldn't have enough friction capacity to slow/stop the car. what am i looking at?
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lousy brakes
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First, having run shops and owned them, never, as in ever, use an air hose to blow out drums or backing plates on OLD cars with OLD brakes.
I evacuated a shop once, many moons ago, and waited until it cleared out, when one of my moron workers decided to mount a 1-ton rear drum on the lathe and blow it out.
Old brakes have asbestos on them.
If you don't care, fine with me, but brake and clutch asbestos allegedly got Steve McQueen.
That said, when we started using non-asbestos linings, we found older cars without power assist would not stop, even with two feet on the brake pedal.
I take the shoes down to our local brake reliner and have what they call "A-B" linings installed, and the 60-year-old cars stop like new.
Might be that.
The bigger US cars (like said 2010 Shove-it) are SUBSTANTIALLY heavier than your little frog eye, and they NEED the brake area and assist to even think about stopping.
I evacuated a shop once, many moons ago, and waited until it cleared out, when one of my moron workers decided to mount a 1-ton rear drum on the lathe and blow it out.
Old brakes have asbestos on them.
If you don't care, fine with me, but brake and clutch asbestos allegedly got Steve McQueen.
That said, when we started using non-asbestos linings, we found older cars without power assist would not stop, even with two feet on the brake pedal.
I take the shoes down to our local brake reliner and have what they call "A-B" linings installed, and the 60-year-old cars stop like new.
Might be that.
The bigger US cars (like said 2010 Shove-it) are SUBSTANTIALLY heavier than your little frog eye, and they NEED the brake area and assist to even think about stopping.
G
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Hoses go bad and clog too. If you're having to put allot of pressure on the pedal and it's not stopping well, your rubber hoses might be bad. It's always a good idea IMO, to change them out when in question. They're relativly cheap and readily avalible. Brakes and steering ALWAYS have to be 100% no matter what.
Dad, I thought the same thing when he mentioned blowing it out.
If you would have done that at my tech school, a rather large and old German guy would have hit you upside the head with a high speed spark plug.
He always threw things at us for stupid mistakes, but he REALLY would have "meant" that one!!!
Dad, I thought the same thing when he mentioned blowing it out.
If you would have done that at my tech school, a rather large and old German guy would have hit you upside the head with a high speed spark plug.
He always threw things at us for stupid mistakes, but he REALLY would have "meant" that one!!!
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kellysguy said:
My old Humber Super Snipe had brake issues. Installed new pads, rebuilt the power assist unit (whatever the heck that big pumpkin in from of the MC was called...) and rebuilt the master cyl. But the brakes were still a little soft. One day not long after, I applied the brakes and one of the front wheels locked up and then slowly released. It did this off and on all the way home (about half a mile). Apparently, the brake hose had sucked in and collapsed. I now believe the softness was caused by some ballooning of the hose prior to the complete breakdown. Since then, I check brake hoses religiously.
by crummy brakes im guessing that you mean poor stoppping performance
newer linnings dont have asbestos so they are normally a lot harder material
i found that they will glaze up .. and when they get full of dust it will decrease the efficency i normally shove the hose in the brakes when cleaning to flush the dust out and occasionally ruff the linnnigs back up by rubbing them on the concrete to get the shine off them
hope that might help
newer linnings dont have asbestos so they are normally a lot harder material
i found that they will glaze up .. and when they get full of dust it will decrease the efficency i normally shove the hose in the brakes when cleaning to flush the dust out and occasionally ruff the linnnigs back up by rubbing them on the concrete to get the shine off them
hope that might help
D
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Or, get them relined with softer "A-B" linings.
Funny, for their weight and power, all the frogeyes and midgets I drove stopped just fine....unless the hydraulics were toast...and you counted 6 pumps on the stop pedal before you got any pedal.....
Funny, for their weight and power, all the frogeyes and midgets I drove stopped just fine....unless the hydraulics were toast...and you counted 6 pumps on the stop pedal before you got any pedal.....
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TOC said:
From Steve McQueen's Wikipedia page:
"Shortly before his death, McQueen had given a medical interview in which he blamed his condition on asbestos exposure. While McQueen felt that asbestos used in movie soundstage insulation and race-drivers' protective suits and helmets could have been involved, he believed his illness was a direct result of massive exposure while removing asbestos lagging from pipes aboard a troop ship during his time in the Marines."
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I liked Steve.
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That's why the word "allegedly" is there.
When he was dying, and died, reports out were doing his own racing work on cars and bikes, it was brake and clutch dust.
Now, if all he said was "asbestos", maybe someone puttwo and two together and came up with 16.
However, the full quote of above is:
"McQueen had been surrounded by asbestos all of his life. As a young adult, McQueen was employed in the construction industry, where asbestos was often present at job sites. While serving as a Marine, McQueen worked at shipyards where he was responsible for stripping asbestos off the pipes used in naval ships (asbestos was used in the insulation of modern ships built before 1976). It has also been suggested that McQueen, an avid car racer, may have been exposed to asbestos when repairing the brake linings of race cars and/or wearing the protective helmets and driving suits associated with the sport."
https://www.allaboutmalignantmesothelioma.com/mesothelioma-stories-mcqueen.htm
Which goes to show you can find something to support about anything on the intertrap.
When he was dying, and died, reports out were doing his own racing work on cars and bikes, it was brake and clutch dust.
Now, if all he said was "asbestos", maybe someone puttwo and two together and came up with 16.
However, the full quote of above is:
"McQueen had been surrounded by asbestos all of his life. As a young adult, McQueen was employed in the construction industry, where asbestos was often present at job sites. While serving as a Marine, McQueen worked at shipyards where he was responsible for stripping asbestos off the pipes used in naval ships (asbestos was used in the insulation of modern ships built before 1976). It has also been suggested that McQueen, an avid car racer, may have been exposed to asbestos when repairing the brake linings of race cars and/or wearing the protective helmets and driving suits associated with the sport."
https://www.allaboutmalignantmesothelioma.com/mesothelioma-stories-mcqueen.htm
Which goes to show you can find something to support about anything on the intertrap.
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I can call.
Got a brake and clutch reliner in Seattle, they cal them "A-B" linings.
Supposedly NOT asbestos, as you can't sell the stuff anymore, but soft enough to actually work.
To give you an idea, newer cars (when I was still working) about wore the rotors and drums out by the time the pads and shoes were gone.
That, and the fact they thinned everything up to save weight and get an additional .00000000462MPG's helped the wear.
Seattle Brake and Clutch
2930 6th Avenue South
Seattle, WA 98134-2104
(206) 622-5655
Call 'em up, ask about A-B linings for your car.
We would get 64-67 Mustangs in, with no power assist, if we used off-the-shelf stuff, two feet on the pedal and it would roll through stop signs.
Put the "A-B" linings in and it would pitch you through the windscreen if you used two feet.
49053 Fords, same.
Old Chebbies, same.
Got a brake and clutch reliner in Seattle, they cal them "A-B" linings.
Supposedly NOT asbestos, as you can't sell the stuff anymore, but soft enough to actually work.
To give you an idea, newer cars (when I was still working) about wore the rotors and drums out by the time the pads and shoes were gone.
That, and the fact they thinned everything up to save weight and get an additional .00000000462MPG's helped the wear.
Seattle Brake and Clutch
2930 6th Avenue South
Seattle, WA 98134-2104
(206) 622-5655
Call 'em up, ask about A-B linings for your car.
We would get 64-67 Mustangs in, with no power assist, if we used off-the-shelf stuff, two feet on the pedal and it would roll through stop signs.
Put the "A-B" linings in and it would pitch you through the windscreen if you used two feet.
49053 Fords, same.
Old Chebbies, same.
R
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Interesting how the story line of Steve McQueen modifies.
I for the life of me cannot understand how someone who was in Amtracs in the Corps would be removing pipes in ships... Marines and Navy, two different entities back when McQueen was an Amtracer.. How do I know he was an Amtracer.. He signed the engine bulkhead on the tractor he served on at San Clemente... I also trained on it. He came back for a reunion and signed the bulkhead.. I have never heard from anyone else that served in any unit that McQueen served in, that they were doing pipe work on ships.... I do not give that story much credibility.. There was some asbestos on the LVT-P5's that Steve and I worked on, but it was internal in the bands of the Allison transmission...
I for the life of me cannot understand how someone who was in Amtracs in the Corps would be removing pipes in ships... Marines and Navy, two different entities back when McQueen was an Amtracer.. How do I know he was an Amtracer.. He signed the engine bulkhead on the tractor he served on at San Clemente... I also trained on it. He came back for a reunion and signed the bulkhead.. I have never heard from anyone else that served in any unit that McQueen served in, that they were doing pipe work on ships.... I do not give that story much credibility.. There was some asbestos on the LVT-P5's that Steve and I worked on, but it was internal in the bands of the Allison transmission...
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That is one thing I have never understood.
USN Ship's Company worked on the units in shipyard, never, ever saw a Marine in the engineroom doing any work.
Guards, maybe.
Marines had their own training, for what they did.
We had our own for what we did.
That's like having Sailors go to the USMC Depot and overhaul halftracks.
I never saw it.
Either way.
USN Ship's Company worked on the units in shipyard, never, ever saw a Marine in the engineroom doing any work.
Guards, maybe.
Marines had their own training, for what they did.
We had our own for what we did.
That's like having Sailors go to the USMC Depot and overhaul halftracks.
I never saw it.
Either way.
Thanks for the brake info, TOC, I'll keep track of it. As to Marine's working on shipboard pipe lagging I can by into that. As a sailor during Nam I supporvised Marines from the brig in doing all kinds of nasty jobs! Maybe he was a brig rat!!!! Partyed to hard on shore???
Carrier's had a large contingent of Marines though we kept our distance. I don't think they wanted to admit they were a department of the Navy!
KA
Carrier's had a large contingent of Marines though we kept our distance. I don't think they wanted to admit they were a department of the Navy!
KA
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Ah, the skimmers always used to tell us bubbleheads they were so happy to have such spiffy-dressed bellboys on their craft.
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Okay, possible if he was with the Amtracs on Okinawa... But someone would have to check his service record for verification... while he was in Camp Pendleton(where the Amtracs were) they had their own brig. So he would not have been doing pipe work for the Navy... And most brig "attendees" there, were kept busy doing groundswork...