The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Needing better stopping brake shoes!!

Seen articles re. using a brake shoe that has improved stopping power vs standard off the shelf replacement. Don't want to go with discs as will interfere with stock artillery wheels. Understand that I need a shoe with coefficient of friction of .4 to .5??? Anyone know where to purchase? Thanks

Also, running '57 Chev pickup 'I' beam dropped 2", rear axle is a 66 Chevy pickup 6 lug.

JiM,

If your present shoes are the "organic" stuff that has been in the parts stores since about 1980 you'll find that old school asbestos works way better. Also, arc grinding the shoes to get full friction contact with the drum is essential.

Some stuffed shirts will huff and puff about how bad asbestos and arc grinding are. Both are harmless unless you work in a brake shop for 40 years and breath in asbestos fibers every day.

If you want any more info on this please let me know.

Brake and Clutch supply in Seattle has relined shoes for me with an "industrial woven" lining that made my Anglia stop great. I put them on my 50 DeSoto and they ended up being too grabby so, I went with one of those shoes and one regular lined one and it was fine. This was back in the 90s though so, quite a while ago. I use to have them reline all kinds of stuff for me when I had my golf car repair business. I will be having them do my park brake shoes and regular brake shoes for my 58 Viking 60 when the time comes as well.

I would see if there is a local shop near you that does just brake and clutch stuff, for big trucks etc, not just your regular auto parts store.

I had the same issue. Ended up using shoes from muscle car brakes. Made a big difference in stopping. As above, the over the counter non asbestos shoes sold today just don’t stop all that well.

http://musclecarbrakes.com

They may be willing to reline what you have if they don't carry what you need. the owner is a pretty good guy, use to be the engineer for reybestos.

Ray, he is running Bendix brakes. If the new shoes don't fit the old drums, new drums will fix that.
No need for arc grinding shoes (nor bloviating about differences in opinions about the risk of lung cancer with airborne asbestos).
Carl

Jim,
You might try Friction Materials in Long Beach. 562-436-4224. They can still get the asbestos lining. They do their own bonding and/or riveting. We used them for all our brake relining for cranes and industrial equipment at the LB Navy Shipyard. Not sure what the criteria is for commercial use, however.
Fred

Ray, he is running Bendix brakes. If the new shoes don't fit the old drums, new drums will fix that.
No need for arc grinding shoes (nor bloviating about differences in opinions about the risk of lung cancer with airborne asbestos).
Carl

Hi Carl.

I've got pretty late model Ford drums and shoes on the 8" Ford rear axle in my '32 Ford roadster street rod and it really benefited from arc grinding the linings to perfectly fit the drums. The way arc grinding has been explained to me is that it gives a brake job perfect. full shoe to drum contact immediately. The roadster also really benefited from swapping the parts store "organic" front discs and rear shoes to old school asbestos. As Fred points out asbestos friction is still readily available.

Don't think brake shops today do arc grinding any longer, used to be common. Here in central Cal we've lost most of real shops that do auto repair. If they cant plug it into a computer they are stumped!

Ray,
Congratulations on your absolutely off topic successes.
The OP has Bendix brakes. New Bendix drums are available and inexpensive, new shoes fit new drums perfectly, therefore no arc grinding is required. The Bendix brake systems design is very effective in stopping power even without asbestos.
Carl

"Don't think brake shops today do arc grinding any longer, used to be common. Here in central Cal we've lost most of real shops that do auto repair. If they cant plug it into a computer they are stumped!"

JiM,

I'm in Santa Rosa (Sonoma County) and here there is a brake supply store that still does arc grinding. They are a couple of brothers who are running a business started by their dad decades ago. It's a rare, old school, honest business that goes out of its way to give their customers the most bang for the buck. My first encounter with them is when I went in looking for more stopping power for my '32 Ford roadster street rod. I was thinking ceramic friction or fancy rotors like drilled or slotted. Because I had built my roadster with common Aspen/Volare rotors and GM metric calipers in the front and Ford drums in the rear they suggested that I try old school asbestos friction before buying expensive techy stuff. They were right. The asbestos made a night and day difference.

Later when I did my '36 Chevy PU tandem MC conversion they set me up with a very compact tandem MC originally used on Jeeps with the same 1" bore as my '36 that is so compact that it fits nicely where the '36 MC originally was.

They really are very helpful.

How far from Santa Rosa is Turlock? It may be worth a trip over here.

"The OP has Bendix brakes. New Bendix drums are available and inexpensive, new shoes fit new drums perfectly, therefore no arc grinding is required. The Bendix brake systems design is very effective in stopping power even without asbestos"

Carl,

According to the Stovebolt information from August 6, 2007,copied below, arc grinding linings was a mainstream procedure in the days of these old trucks:

H
Hotrod Lincoln Online
Boltergeist Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 17,530
Dellrose, TN
Back before the Dirt People raised the panic flag about asbestos, it was common practice to radius-grind the linings to the exact drum diameter, and set the shoe clearance with a feeler gauge. Some relined shoes even came with extra lining thickness to accomodate the grind-to-fit process.
Jerry

.

Dr. Yar,
HRL was referring to Huck brakes on a completely different thread.
This thread has nothing to do with Huck brakes.
Exactly how many molecules of airborne asbestos does it take to to cause lung cancer?
Perhaps you should start your own thread to discuss YOUR topic, instead of wasting the OP's time with off topic minutia.


Carl
Stuffed shirt, a huffing and a puffing on asbestos-free air

Guys.

I think the OP’s question has been answered. Let’s move on.