Brass Era Car Brake Lining Material Question

[AVS619]

This forum has been of great help as I return to the hobby from years of surgery so now I am down to a brake lining question. I have two cars with steel brake drums (wish they were cast iron but alas, no). The lining that is on the shoes on both cars is old and basically useless. So my question is what is a good lining material for steel drums that will actually stop the car rather than just slow it down a bit? I want to be safe driving these cars as I am rather tired of hospital visits. I heard yesterday of a lining called Green Grabber. Anyone ever use it? I guess I also have another question too. Any shops out there that can install brake lining on brake shoes as old as those on a brass-era car? Thanking you in advance for any help. Now that the cars are running and driving (well, at least these two) it would be nice to be able to stop them too! Tom.

[kings32]

I use the  Green woven shoe from McMaster . We do the the older shoes , just did a 1916 overland , 1926 Packard .   I use the same on my 1932 chevy . Kings32

[Brass is Best]

Woven natural fiber works best with steel drums. It won't last the longest. But it will stop the best. Using any hard composite shoe material will be a mistake.

[PFindlay]

There was a very positive article in the HCCA Gazette a few years ago ago Green Grabber linings.  Since then, a number of people in our HCCA group are using them and are quite satisfied.

 

Peter

Edited July 1, 2018 by PFindlay
re-word (see edit history)

[W_Higgins]

If you find that you are pressing hard on the pedal and the car still won't stop, often it is not the lining that's the problem but the brake geometry.  People instinctively think that when the car won't stop you shorten the brake rods, but in most cases the correct course of action is to take up looseness at the band-to-drum clearance and leave the rod adjustment alone.  What happens when people start messing with the rods is they get the arms at the wrong angles, lose the mechanical advantage, and it makes for a hard pedal.

 

P.S.: don't get the band on external contracting brakes too close at the drum as the drum will expand when hot and create other problems as you drive.

 

 

[jpage]

I would use a heavy duty woven lining on that setup. Yes, it may wear a little faster but should give good braking. For as much as the car is driven, we're probably talking years. 

[4Hud]

My brakes screetch when cold on the '30 Hudson, I'm thinking it's modern material on the shoes. Any opinion?

[AVS619]

Hello All. Sorry but we had to go out of town (my wife lost a college friend to cancer) and just now saw your replies. Thank you all for your information. I have all Gazettes from the last 50 years which means I need to look up the issue about green grabber. Has anyone else used green grabber? Can one install it oneself or should a professional do so? The pressure on the pedal issue is due to my new hip. Only recovered and 80% so I do not have the leg strength I used to. Thank you all for your help! Tom

[MikeC5]

I used this High Strength Brake and Clutch Lining from McMaster Carr and it works great (I can lock up the rear wheels)

https://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/124/3639/=1do89p9    (scroll to bottom of page)

[PFindlay]

9 hours ago, AVS619 said:

I have all Gazettes from the last 50 years which means I need to look up the issue about green grabber.

 

HCCA Gazette September 2013.

[Ivan Saxton]

This topic makes me think of the little lizzards we have here, which shed their tail to escape a predator, be it bird  or cat.   The lizard escapes and grows another tail.  The predator eats the small snack, but loses the main part of the menu.       You have two friction surfaces  to make your brakes work, and expend kinetic energy.   Steel is not a brilliant brake material for brake drums.   It is inefficient, and it often wears badly.   And  often when drums are badly worn they can tend to fade badly because if there is not sufficient material , they expand more due to the coefficient of linear expansion.   After Cadillac started building their  first V16s , the cars would go much better than they could stop.   So Cadillac put in special new equipment to make and machine cast iron drums.    I have rebuild brake drums for other people, and for my own cars, with a Metco sprayed steel coating called Spraysteel LS.   The "LS" stands for "low shrink".   It is a work-hardening steel, which has about 6% molybdenum content.  The structure of the surface, which is a coalescence of the stream of the molten droplets , gives braking performance very similar to spheroidal graphite cast iron.    One friend persuaded me to rebuild the drums of his 1912 English two cylinder Perry .  I was not happy that you cold see daylight through his worn drums in places;  but the way they were built integral with the hubs there was no alternative.   I did the job with no warranty.  A good few years later I saw Barry at Bendigo Swap.  He said they had the rear axle of the Perry apart,  and the drums were perfect.  He said that it was the only car in the Veteran Car club with cast iron linings that work properly.      I said "Barry,  you said you would use modern linings".   "Yes I did, he said.   Modern cast iron.".       Another local friend who had a modern Brake serve business,   got me to rebuild the front and rear brake drums of his A model Ford; and the front and rear drums of his 1926 Buick 6 which had contracting band bakes at the back.  Peter found that the best lining material to use on the coated drums was the same material he used for modern cars.   I never looked for this work because the heat thrown back when I rebuilt brake drums was unpleasant.,  , And the coating has to be machined at very slow surface speed with tungsten carbide  cutting tips so it does not work harden on you.   You will find that someone who has an  electric spray capability machine which uses an arc between two small diameter wire feeds can rebuild your worn drums much more economically than I ever could ,  using oxy-acetylene equipment to melt and spray.   If you need more details on this you can find the matter defined better in posts I have written before.   Regards, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.