Brakes

[millsrd]

Y?all, two times now I?ve seen my life flash before my eyes. I?ve never driven a car with drum brakes up front. Is brake fade really bad on these cars? I had been in stop and go traffic and been stopping fine. I?ve learned to give myself extra space to stop it, but yesterday I applied the brakes and I wasn?t slowing down, I pulled the em brake and it didn?t slow me down. I almost re-ended someone. Thank goodness I was able to drive up into a grass median but it still didn?t slow me down. One time before I almost went through an intersection. I have noticed that it pulls to the right a little so i?m thinking the left front needs to be adjusted. The place I just purchased the car from just replaced all of the wheel cylinders and brake hoses and some brake lines. Does this happen to yall a lot? Is this just something to expect? It?s so scary. I just got the car Saturday and almost totaled it last night. Would it be total sacrilege if I converted to disc brakes in the front?

[Barry Wolk]

Properly done they are safer than throwing parts at a car and hope you have correct front/rear bias with zero engineering. Some of the kits require machining. Who sells a product like that? Compare new drum to new disc and you’d never make a change.

Do you know if your brake booster is a sleeve-type or a poppet type?

[millsrd]

I don?t know which one it is, how do you tell the difference? I found two kits online for our cars, one is $3500 and one is around $950


https://abspowerbrake.com/

I can?t get the other web page to pull up

[Llfordman]

Who has new drums, for the front or the rear of a Mark II?

[jdsnoddy]

Just send it to white post restoration and have it professionally rebuilt.
Same goes for the wheel cylinders if you have any leaks.

https://whitepost.com/#hometop

[Milsteads Garage]

I converted my car to an 8 inch power booster and a 1 1/8 corvette 4 port master cylinder but leaving the drum brakes. It takes a good amount of skill and doing it right to pull off having a car that stops right. The end result is the car stops well and has a modern pedal feel to it. I personally like my brakes a lot.

[Mark Norris]

Mine has the original drums all round but with a modern dual circuit booster. Its always stops well with never a hint of fade (in fact when they are cold the car practically stands on its nose). I fitted all new cylinders, hoses and copper brake pipes when I got 3186 in 2017. Also I cleaned all shoes with solvent and refitted the often missing anti-squeal springs to the outside of the drums (one of our German forum members had them remanufactured).

I like my brakes a lot too!

Basically I'm saying if you are having such issues the brakes system probably needs an overall (despite what the shop has done) and naturally that includes the booster and vacuum system.

[tluke]

My current Mark II still needs some more work before I do more than just short drives, so my brakes never really have a chance to heat up. Heat is the enemy and poorly installed/adjusted brakes are the cause of the heat. My first car with disc brakes was my '86 Nissan 300zx, so from the time I was a teenager until in my 30's I drove on drum brakes without issue. I live in Utah in the Rocky Mtns and drove my '55 Cadillac over 100K miles across 5 states including coming down mountain roads from ski resorts (8000 ft) etc. and was always able to stop easily (except on icy roads). I do remember as a boy scout coming down I-80 from Parley's Summit (7200 ft) in my scout master's '57 ford and he was having problems with brake fade and just a few years ago coming down that same stretch with a '72 Chevy pickup that my grandson had purchased, and it had terrible (and scary) brake fade. Turns out only the front brakes were doing all the work. Correct installation and adjustments are critical to keep them from overheating. See Barry's Brake Job Tutorial for doing it correctly. The arc'ing of the brake shoes is critical.

Click for Barrys Brake Job Tutuorial (https://www.markiiforum.com/showthread.php?2989-Brakes-Brake-Job-Tutorial&highlight=brake+lines)

Terry