Manual to Power Drums Question.....

Jmo

My mav has a 5.0 roller and AOD with the "small drum" non-power brakes. As a daily driver I have no problems stopping. I do have to press hard on the peddal but I grew up driving a non-power brake truck and am used to it. I do have one advantage over discs too.. My nice rims stay that way.. No brake dust.. I am one of the few that prefer drums I guess. Drums can't be all bad, as far as I know all semi's, grain trucks, buses still use'm. As far as the power drums, well, you just wont have to push as hard.

 

Vehicals that heavy are in a whole other ball park then Mavericks. They generally have brakes far oversized for what the vehical itself would need to stop. The reason vehicals that heavy use drums is because the far oversized drums dissipate heat better then discs, the drums are giant heat sinks. In alot of cases, there is also a greater number of drums, such as on a semi, and they are air brakes.

There is really no comparison to the small hydraulic drums on a car. It's a well accepted fact that disc brakes are better on a car. I can push my drums to the limit pretty easily and my car just has a light, wimpy little 6 cylinder. All it takes is one good quick stop or a few minutes in stop and go traffic and they start fadeing out.

 

Improving your brakes is always a good thing and never a waste of time. Although I agree you should eventually put disc on it. When I converted mine to disc, I really didnt notice any difference in the effort it took to stop the car. But, the brakes are consistant. They dont pull and they dont fade. Then I drove a car with a power booster set up. Night and day difference. Braking is effortless. I run manuals so I cant use the factory set up but I will find a way to put power on all my future projects.

 

Drums are worthless on the front of a Maverick (or any other car for that matter). They don't "dissapate heat" better, which is why they fade so much sooner when they get hot. They also don't work when they get wet (driving through a puddle in a rainstorm). You're not "improving braking" by installing a power booster, you're only decreasing pedal effort. The car itself is not going to stop in any shorter distance, nor will the brakes fade any less. If you really want power brakes, then by all means install the setup. It is a lot of work though...

 

This is very true and well put.

 

...and the setup is "ugly" ...frank...

 

the main reason all those big lovely grain etc diesel trucks use those crappy drum brakes is that
A) .. bloody well cheaper
B) pedal effort is much much less since every single one of those has a sort of power brake due to the design of the airbrake system they have more problem with not using too much and locking up than with stopping th wheels from rotating.. also look how wide those brakes are and how much brake surface area when compared to the average disc brake

any brake system is better than Fred Flintstoning it ..*shrugs* heck I'm lazy .. a power brake upgrade is on my "to-do" list .. way down but it's there.. although I do already have the front discs and kinda wish I could find a back disc kit

 

And although this is a bit off-topic, a lot of these racer guys with the radical cams that don't produce much vacuum, will prefer non-power brakes...