I didn't know what "Huck" meant 'til I saw the post about motorcycle-style brakes. Those I know. 8-)
Most bikes used to have two shoes in each brake, activating on a single cam, which in turn was pulled by the cable. One shoe was 'leading' and tended to self-energize, the other was trailing and didn't. They wren't terribly grabby, or terribly powerful either.
Better bike brakes had two cams, so that both shoes were leading/self-energizing. But the self-energizing is speed-sensitive, so they tend to be grabby and very non-linear.
For either kind, really careful setup and maintenance can give you lots better brakes than average work. I'd bet cars are the same.
Change out Huck for Bendix? I dunno. My old '51 stopped OK. If I was gonna go to that much work, I'd at least opt for self-adjusting Bendix. But those didn't appear until the late 50s, I beleive. Or (gasp) go disk. ;-)
Cheers!
George
53 3600
