[geeks] car question (RESOLVED)

[Michael Schiller]

Kurt Mosiejczuk wrote:

> On Tue, 12 Mar 2002, Joshua D Boyd wrote:
>
> Um, you'll note I didn't say BETTER.  I just said cost more.
> Rotors are easier to make, as are pads.  Pads are just a slab of metal
> with a slab of brake material glued/riveted to it.  Shoes are a curved
> piece of metal with other pieces of metal welded to it for support
> and mounting.  Then there is a curved piece of braking material added.
> More complexity => More cost.

I don't see where a rotor is easier to make than a drum. Both are just steel (or cast
iron) casting that have the wear surface machined. In fact I would think a rotor
would be costlier to make, as both surfaces have to be 100% parallel to each other,
whereas a drum is a simple turning operation. As for shoes vs pads most of the time
when you buy shoes at a parts store they're relined, that means that the metal part
didn't cost the store anything (they got them from other customers exchanges),
whereas pads are almost always new.

>
>
> As to why they still use drums, all cars require an emergency/parking
> brake.  It is easier to rig that up with drums, because drums are
> basically mechanical, and you can just add a cable.  Disc brakes are
> hydraulic and it takes more doing.  Possible, just not as easy.

I had a Mercury Grand Marquis that had 4 wheel disc brakes, and the rear rotors had
small drums built into them, (maybe 4" total dia.) that had shoes in it for the
emergency brake, nice setup, and in 150k miles I only had to replace those shoes
once. :)

> Feh.  Drums aren't all that hard.  Of course, I have the right spring tools.
> And having done it once without them, I would never want to again. =)

I used to have a Model T Ford, and it's factory brakes were a single unlined cast
iron brake shoe (but they again were designed to be used only as an emergency brake,
the 'service' brake was built into the tranny) I added a common accessory for the
period, Rocky Mountain Brakes This was a much larger drum that bolted onto the
factory drum, and then a band went around the outside of this drum, and had
mechanical linkages to the brake pedal. Crude but effective.

>
>
> --Kurt
> _______________________________________________
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--
-Mike
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