I have a 64 valiant convertible with 9 inch drums. I just had a full brake job, and I'm noticing that the brakes require more pressure now, especially to keep from "creeping" at an idle. (I have the torqueflite auto)

Will the friction lining eventually wear to the drums and give me a better stopping surface, and is this a common thing to happen after drum brake jobs, or could there be something else going on here?

I didn't used to have to think about holding the brakes down hard enough at a stop light, and now I do... I sometimes even put it in neutral to make it easier.

Thanks
John

Just curious about the quality of the workmanship.

It might eventually wear the lining down so it has more grab, and a bit more pedal travel. One trick I use is to check the cruve of the shoe to the drum and 'adjust' the shoe with a smart rp of a rubber mallet so the linings get more contact with the drum making for a better stop. Most mechanics should know this, but some of the 'newer' batches with japanese disc brake-itis don't know the trick, thus the drums are only utilizing about 30% of the pad for the first dozen stops.


sorry tht was long winded, I do my own so I know what goes into the repair. Brakes are something the your life depends on, especially with 9"'ers

-D.Idiot

The only question I have is did you have the drums turned? When you do that you increase the inner diameter of the drum and unfortunately they do not make over sized shoes. On the car I had it had 9 in brakes and I made the mistake of having them turned once. This caused the car to stop kinda weird for about the first 4 or 5000 miles after a brake job. Once the shoes wore to the drums all was fine. Later on I replaced all 4 drums with new ones and the only thing about braking after a brake job is it was better than before. Make sure you use good shoes not those Auto Zone or Pep Boys specials and make sure you adjust the brakes properly. Those cheezy self adjusters don't work very well if the brake adjustment is way out. As for me I prefered riveted shoes over bonded shoes.

_________________
Former bent 6 owner
Mark

Notice a definate increase in pedal effort on my non-power 9 inches after replacing, not to the point of creeping when standing on the pedal, Also have a higher pedal then before, takes about 100 miles to get that familiar feeling.
(BTW, this AM was booking down a freeway offramp at around 55mph, normally I can time where to let off the gas and apply some brake to make the curve, when lo and behold a pumper blows the intersection in front of me -laid into the brakes and to my surprise those crappy nines hauled me to a dead stop with a minium of skidding and no skewing or fade.)

drum brake cars should take a few good stops to let the pads wear to the drum then be fine, i for one like drum brake cars, their free turning (no drag like discs) dont fade untill about 6 or 7 really good hits and can even stop you better...

my boss let me drive around in his drag car, had 4wheel drums on it and runs low 10s (of course they're 11" dums)

of did i mention that drums are LIGHTER than discs i wish their was some way to convert my volare to drums LOL

Justin

Drums lighter then discs?

I can't give you raw numbers but when I went from 9" drums to my KH discs the discs, including the hub, felt lighter.

Maybe if you include the weight of the calipers and adapters with the discs ... Maybe someone with the pieces to both could give us some weights?

if someone doesnt already get them by wednesday i'll pull em out and weigh em..

Justin

Well it depends on how far you want to go, I suppose to be completely accurate youd need to include backingplate/dustplate, pads/shoes, etc.

I bet someone has all the relevant pieces and a scale ...
Enquiring minds want to know!
I want disks, by the way ... Great big ones! I have never really needed world-class 1/4-mile acceleration, but I have needed serious deceleration.