I appreciate the rear drums.
I didn't know if you were running four wheel drums for a period correct look.
Martin
CK5
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57 Pontiac "Zero Fox"
- Thread starter tRustyK5
- Start date
I appreciate the rear drums.
I didn't know if you were running four wheel drums for a period correct look.
Martin
I was thinking the same thing. I remember trying to whoa my 66 El Camino, with enough ponies under the hood to lift the front tires, thinking I needed rear disks. This was in 1980. Had disk/drum power brakes. Had some sketchy moments trying to stop it. I could not imagine drum/drum on something as heavy as this build, with those ponies, trying to get stopped with hot brakes on 4 drums after a fast run.
There are a number of things I chose to get rid of for practicality and safety reasons.
Single pot master cylinder. It's good until it isn't, then it's really really bad.
4 wheel drum brakes I will sort of defend. They can and do provide plenty of braking...but as they heat up they fade and I don't want to deal with that at the big end of the track. I had a '65 Buick for quite a while and it had amazing brakes for four wheel drum...but they were huge and the fronts were massive finned aluminum drums with steel friction surface inside. I can't imagine how difficult or expensive it'd be to find a set of those anymore.
Ball bearing wheel bearings up front. No tapered roller bearings in '57, and the stock offerings are finicky to adjust, and are weak in comparison.
I definitely want to keep the flavor of the car, and the era...but safety has to trump that.
I’m very surprised your running drums, I almost commented but here I am… I think your nuts but you have facts to back it up and I’m just lazy and like how a disc works lol
I have enough maintenance items on my truck to adjust the shoes.
I have enough maintenance items on my truck to adjust the shoes.
It has front discs...
Even then, but I support your decision. I’m sure you have thought I was nuts for what I did to my truck.
If you have to adjust drums more often than when you first set them up you are doing something wrong. They self adjust when backing up.
I don’t have a rear view mirror in my truck cause I want to move forward then see the past.
Is that so you can't see the various transmission parts spilling out on the road behind you?
Front brakes do 70% or more of the effective braking, so front disc's is a huge upgrade from a heat fade perspective. From a braking power standpoint, drums are actually damn good. The Achilles heel is heat fade. If I was road racing, or autocrossing this car it'd have bigger discs on all four corners, but for street/strip there is nothing wrong with rear drums. Drums also provide a much more secure park brake than is commonly available with rear discs...and for inspection reasons that is also important to me.
Moving on the housing arrived...
Moving on the housing arrived...
You got a sexy rear end Rene!!
No homo…
No homo…
If drums were not good big rigs wouldn't have them.
My 2012 freightliner has drums even in the the front still.
The problem is like rene said they fade when hot, so don't let them get hot, don't overwork them.
In 12 years I never had a problem stopping 80k lbs.
It was in the last few years that they started using disc brakes on semi trucks.
And as for the rear axle GM didn't switch the truck rears to disc until what 2002?
They switched to rear disc in 1999 on the gmt800 trucks and then went back to drums on the back of 1/2 tons with the gmt900 trucks as standard equipment. Rear discs got forced on with a couple of options like the max trailer package or Vortec max type stuff.
Greedy bean counter bs as usual.
Sweet rear axle beef dude. Badass!
I forgot the gmt800 started in late 1999
I get confused because the van continued on till 2002.
Got some time to play with the new rear end from Quick Performance.
Wiped it down, stood it up and gave it a coat of etch prime. Gave the center chunk a coat of black, and hit the drums with some high heat cast iron grey.
Wanted to bling things up a bit under the car, so I chose this metallic green lacquer base/clear.
Next up was installing the studs for the third member, then fighting that heavy bitch onto said studs. Axles and brakes were next...
At this point I threw a u-bolt on because things look really tight in that area. Can't get a washer in there, nut barely threads on. Hmmm. I looked at the drum vs backing plate and saw the drum could go deeper, or more specifically the backing plate could go further out. Seems stupid, but I removed axle, brake assembly and retainer and changed the order a little I now have the retainer plate first with the backing plate outboard of it. Stupid, because to remove the shaft the brakes are coming with, but how often is that happening?
After swapping the order
Comparison of drum fully seated on the allegedly correct side vs the out of order side that actually works.
If it's stupid but it works, is it really stupid?
Wiped it down, stood it up and gave it a coat of etch prime. Gave the center chunk a coat of black, and hit the drums with some high heat cast iron grey.
Wanted to bling things up a bit under the car, so I chose this metallic green lacquer base/clear.
Next up was installing the studs for the third member, then fighting that heavy bitch onto said studs. Axles and brakes were next...
At this point I threw a u-bolt on because things look really tight in that area. Can't get a washer in there, nut barely threads on. Hmmm. I looked at the drum vs backing plate and saw the drum could go deeper, or more specifically the backing plate could go further out. Seems stupid, but I removed axle, brake assembly and retainer and changed the order a little I now have the retainer plate first with the backing plate outboard of it. Stupid, because to remove the shaft the brakes are coming with, but how often is that happening?
After swapping the order
Comparison of drum fully seated on the allegedly correct side vs the out of order side that actually works.
If it's stupid but it works, is it really stupid?
Where does the shoe end up on the surface? And does the backing plate need the support of the "sandwich" the retainer plate makes?
beags86
Eastbound and Down
Absolutely no way in hell would I ever get a axle to stand up on a paint can like that in my garage.
Murphys law would dictate: "that's not going to happen you stupid F☆☆K. I'm making that axle fall over As soon as you turn your back once the finish coat was on."
