[Healeys] Brake Problem (addendum)

WILLIAM B LAWRENCE YNOTINK at msn.com
Wed Aug 7 15:59:27 MDT 2019


To Michael Oritt and others who were interested in this topic I have a late contribution:

On the late test drive of my 100 after having it laid up for some time and installing new brake shoes (I can't remember the source, but probably Moss) I encountered the same problem.

On removing the brake drums, which took some extra effort, I found that the shoes didn't have the proper arc to fit the drums. they were touching the drums on the leading and trailing ends, but not in the center. The excess thickness at those points made installation difficult and caused the shoes to drag on the drums.

After searching out all of the old school brake shops in town I found that nobody has the equipment or expertise to reline or arc brake shoes anymore. A possible argument for converting to discs in the future

I therefore resorted to the method recommended by my old strengths of materials instructor, the BF&I (Brute Force and Ignorance) method. I place each shoe in a vice and, noting the contact pattern on the surface and mindful that I was probably abrading an asbestos material I wetted the surface down with simple green and applied a flat bastard (note to moderator; this is an acceptable technical term related to types of files, and besides it is fun to type...) to the shoes and removed a few thousandths of an inch of material where they had been dragging.

I got the first set right in one try and had to do a test assembly and rework on the other, but both sets are now sitting on the lowest points of their snail cams and the drums slip on and off with no interference. The whole job took less than half an hour including disassembly and re-familiarization with the assembly process.

Bill Lawrence
BN1 #554
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