My '69 Polara has factory power drum brakes. They work fine in normal driving but if I step on the pedal for a "panic" stop the pedal just gets rock hard and it doesn't slow down any quicker. Has anyone experienced this before? I have driven other cars with this problem and asking around some brake shops they say the usual crap like "duh what about new pads and rotors?" I know what worn brakes feel like, they are still linear and it shouldn't affect the pedal feel like that where you can't panic stop worth a damn.
Bad power brake booster?
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I have had that feeling and just accepted it as drum brakes
Stormer
Old Man with a Hat
Disc conversion ASAP. $800 for a complete bolt on kit or you can hunt parts for cheaper if you know what you're doing. I bought the kit...
The car came with drums, it stays with drums. They work fine for what she does
1966newport
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I guess stopping isn't one of them.
Now that's funny right there
1966newport
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whatever, I had one panic stop in a 4500 c body with them. all new drums shoes etc. it took twice as far to stop as 4x4 pu.
Stormer
Old Man with a Hat
No way in hell I'm driving a 4 drum car on a regular basis.
Now that's funny right there
Tell the truth Dave. You didn't really put much thought into that did you?
72Fury
Senior Member
Upgrading the brakes is a good decision. Even for non performance driving, todays traffic and drivers are much different than when these were built originally.
Stormer
Old Man with a Hat
Yea, kinda seems like common sense to use the best safety equipment that is readily available. If you're gonna drive it on the street you should be able to make an emergency stop.
Especially on road trips through the mountains....
theos911
Well-Known Member
There is a reason the FIRST item I fixed was my horn relay.
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
Never once have I come across a person who got into an accident because they had drum brakes. Not once........
I can see it if you're towing a 32' Airstream through the Rockies.
I can see it if you're towing a 32' Airstream through the Rockies.
You could still do it with drums as long as you didn't ride the brakes and create too much heat and brake fade.
cm23uoc
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Some drum brake setups lock up unevenly especially but not only in wet weather leading to accidents by running in the ditch then etc. and just couldn*t get properly adjusted, there used to be some sort of campaign with car mags over here that lead to front disc brakes becoming more and more common.
commando1
Old Man with a Hat
The mags that screamed the loudest were the sports car crowd from the likes of Road & Track who only got a hard on if it was British/European.
They were so into rallying and gynkhanas back then that to be part of the cool crowd you HAD to have disc brakes and a chronometer even though no one knew how to use a chronometer....
La-de-effen-da wannabes. All of them
cm23uoc
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On the other hand the largest German publication which was full of journalists who were also good competition drivers did some very favorable reviews about V8 powered American cars, for example a very positive review of the 59 Impala including brakes and handling; on the other hand they refused to test a 4 wheel disc brake big block C2 Corvette as it was considered not fit for public traffic, possible it was a lemon car or an overstressed test car that already made the rounds with other publications.
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