[TR] TR6 Brakes Update

[John Macartney]

Who knows what the main reasons may have been? Holding the drum in place immediately after assembly for later manufacture was the reason given to me as an Apprentice at Jaguar and many cars of that make were still running around with all drum or Disc/drum brakes in the 1960's. Equally, my first car, a 1927 Austin 7 had drum screws too. There's always the philosophy that "we've always done it like that, so why change?" I agree that having those screws does help hold the drum in place when changing a wheel. It's a lot easier to adjust the brake snail with the wheel off than with it on - and when you don't have the luxury of a car lift that has the wheels suspended - as per most vehicle lifts in the UK and Europe pre-war - and up to the 1970's.
As we'll all agree, there are many ways of killing a cat other than choking it on fresh butter😊

Jonmac

-----Original Message-----
From: Reihing, Randall S. [mailto:Randall.Reihing at utoledo.edu] 
Sent: 20 October 2017 11:36
To: John Macartney <john.macartney at ukpips.org.uk>; 'Randall' <TR3driver at ca.rr.com>; rolds at plausa.com; triumphs at autox.team.net
Subject: RE: [TR] TR6 Brakes Update

Those two small, flathead drum screws represent a lot of additional machining: Drilling and countersinking the drums then drilling and tapping the threads for the screws that were manufactured on a screw machine to produce those little flat head screws, and then assembling the drums to the backing plate, or hub. For transport, would not a simple metal band and tensioner, like shipping departments have used for decades, be equally effective and work much faster, with far fewer steps, involving no machinery and machining, at a fraction of the cost of those screws? I recently rebuilt the rear brake assemblies on my 1959 TR3A and found those little screws useful to hold the drum in place while the wheel was mounted. Without them the drum kept tilting at an angle that made it more difficult to mount the wheels. Would the lack of those screws make changing a tire/wheel out on the highway somewhere more difficult? Probably. From a mass manufacturing point of view, It does seem like expensive overkill but it does make mounting the wheels a little easier.  

Randall Reihing




_______________________________________
From: Triumphs [triumphs-bounces at autox.team.net] on behalf of John Macartney [john.macartney at ukpips.org.uk]
Sent: Friday, October 20, 2017 5:28 AM
To: 'Randall'; rolds at plausa.com; triumphs at autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [TR] TR6 Brakes Update

Randall wrote: While I agree with Dave that they appear to serve no real purpose; my feeling is that there had to be some reason for them to be there.

Many UK motor manufacturers bought in fully assembled front and rear suspension assemblies from outside suppliers. These were usually shipped in open stillages/racks on the beds of open-sided trucks and often uncovered by a tarp or similar. Well, they were painted anyway - so why cover them?
Given the state of British roads in those days (and today as well) an unsecured brake drum falling off an assembly and heading for wherever it wanted to go was a real possibility. Therefore the drum was secured by two or more screws. Next imponderable?

Jonmac



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