The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Power Drum Brakes

I put power drum brakes on a customer's 1958 PU.

On a car where you can rest your foot on the floor while putting on the brakes you have better control of the pedal pressure.
On these old trucks where your foot is no where close to the floor you do not have the same control. The forwards inertia tends to make you put the brakes on harder than you want.
That was my and the owners complaint. He ended up selling the truck in part because of this problem.

The owner had me put a power booster on this truck before having me look at the brakes. As it turned out the drums were all .100" or more over causing limited shoe contact. If he would have put new drums on first he would have not needed the power assist in the first place. As I said above, it stopped too good after I installed new drums.