Brake improvements

F

Fargo Mike

Junior Member
I have a late 1931 tudor. I'm interested in improving the cars braking without going to hydraulics. I have drilled out holes & replaced pins, replaced many oyher brake parts as well. Floater kits from Flat Head Ted, Bratton's and others are in the $160.00 to $200.00 range for a complete front & rear kit. Some kits are said to work better than others, while some are said to be difficult to install. I would like to start the work soon, but remain confused about which one the several kits is the best. Comments welcomed.
 
Cast Iron Drums! Work great and brake fading is gone-for the most part. The others will comment on the floaters.

Mike
 
Cast Iron Drums as ArtDeco Mike suggests.
New drums are now referred to as DUCTILE STEEL by the vendors which I guess is an improvement over the cast iron drums.
They are about three times thicker than your present drum walls and my brake job pretty much eliminated the need to constantly be anticipating EVERY little action ahead on the road, permitting me to just drive without white knuckles.
 
I used Flathead Ted's floaters and my brakes are a tremendous improvement. However, I did find a serious issue while doing this that I had never checked. I did check all the way from the brake to the activating lever on the wheels. replaced a few worn parts, and hsd this very tight. When I finished the first front wheel with the floaters, I checked the actuation of the wedge and found I had tremendous "slop" in the pin to the wedge. I remember replacing with new parts as a kid first working on this car (wow back in the late 60's) and it appears the pin is short. I added two pills to each front wedge. Now the wheels will lock up. Can't tell how much is the floaters versus the correction of this pin length, but I think following the video "stop on a dime" is still the best advice before you start to add hydraulics, or even floaters. I'll bet mine would have been great without the floaters.
 
Roadster Rich said:
I used Flathead Ted's floaters and my brakes are a tremendous improvement. However, I did find a serious issue while doing this that I had never checked. I did check all the way from the brake to the activating lever on the wheels. replaced a few worn parts, and hsd this very tight. When I finished the first front wheel with the floaters, I checked the actuation of the wedge and found I had tremendous "slop" in the pin to the wedge. I remember replacing with new parts as a kid first working on this car (wow back in the late 60's) and it appears the pin is short. I added two pills to each front wedge. Now the wheels will lock up. Can't tell how much is the floaters versus the correction of this pin length, but I think following the video "stop on a dime" is still the best advice before you start to add hydraulics, or even floaters. I'll bet mine would have been great without the floaters.
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I'd bet you would be right too!! :rolleyes:
 
All 3 of my model a have flat head ted floaters, they work like modern brakes . If i ever change it will be to hydraulic. When you consider the advantage of better brakes the cost is low. God bless
 
Its surprising how well these brakes work when they are repaired and adjusted correctly.. The limiting factor then becomes reaction time and tires.. I don't know anything about the floater conversion,but, adding self-energizing features I imagine would certainly reduce pedal pressure..
 
I rebuilt EVERYTHING and used new Cast Iron Drums and wolven linings. The shoes were arced and correctly centered, (VERY IMPORTANT) and I did install front floating wedges.

NOW, There is one more thing that I did which I think really helps. I lingthened the front brake levers. I made them about 1 & 1/2 times their original length. This adds more brake to the fronts while not decreasing the brakes on the rear.

PLEASE NOTE, I do not intend to get into a big discussion by others about if this works or not. This has already been previously hashed out. I am not saying others should do this, I am just letting you know this is what I did and I feel it really helped. The brakes on my Tudor are very good and give me a very comfortable feeling when driving in traffic "at speed" where I may be in a situation to have to stop quick. I have a modified "B" engine and overdrive so at times I will drive the car at 60 MPH or so on the highway. I With the brakes I now have I would NOT consider installing Hydraulics.

This is my opinion,

Chris
 
What is the prevailing opinion about brake linings.....woven or bonded with cast iron drums? Seems I have read that woven work best with the steel drums, and that bonded should be good with the cast iron. I just pulled my front drums today, and found the bonded linings quite glazed....they were shiny and the car was not stopping well. Going to pull the rears tomorrow and check them........not sure if going with bonded was the best idea now.
 
TerryH said:
What is the prevailing opinion about brake linings.....woven or bonded with cast iron drums?
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I like wolven linings. They are "softer" and have a higher coefficient of friction and will not glaze over like some bonded linings.

In the "Old Days", we were able to get "soft" molded linings but they contained asbestos. Today, most current molded linings are actually quite "hard" and also have metal in them which I think is hard on the cast iron drums. Henry used wolven linings with cast iron drums for many years with the late Model A's and on into the early V8s.

I have wolven linings on my Tudor with cast iron drums and they work really well.

Again, This is JUST MY OPINION.

Chris
 
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For historical correctness.

I am pretty sure Ford introduced a molded lining in 1931 before the cast drums were introduced. Ford sold molded lining as a service replacement after 31, not sure if that was exclusive or if they sold woven at the same time.
 
Kevin in NJ said:
For historical correctness.

I am pretty sure Ford introduced a molded lining in 1931 before the cast drums were introduced. Ford sold molded lining as a service replacement after 31, not sure if that was exclusive or if they sold woven at the same time.
Click to expand...

I have seen many early V8 Mechanical Brakes with Wolven linings that appeared to be original Ford. I have also been told by a long time Early V-8 guy that wolven linings were used by Ford well into the 30's.

Again, the molded linings we used to get is not at all the same as you get today. Todays linings are much harder and do not have as high of a Coefficent of Friction and requires more pedal effort to stop.

Again, this is just my thoughts on the subject.

Chris
 
heres what ive done that made a BIG difference
i use brattons front floaters put in tight clevis
woven linings arked the shoes to fitthe drums
and put in new parts to take up all the wear in front and rear brakes lot better and used the orginal set up on the rears
this brake job was a refreshing but realy imporved the ones i had i did my dads two cars all now work great'buzz
 
Flathead Ted will tell you his system will NOT improve poor brakes! So the first thing you should do is bring your brakes up to a good service level. At that point you can decide if spending another $200 will improve them. I have heard it just reduces the pedal pressure. After all, good brakes are good brakes! The reason I recommend bonded linings to my customers is mainly because they do away with the rivets, and allow you to use ALL of the brake material thickness, instead of just 33% of it. It just seems more economical. (before you start rubbing the rivets on the drums) JMHO, Jim
 
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