guys i have a 70 maverick grabber that still has the 4 lug drum brakes front and back for now i would like to keep this set up because my car has a nice set of weld draglites on it and really dont wanna spend the money on disc brakes and wheels at this time .....now this car isnt running right now but does anyone still run drums and if so is there anything i could do to make the drum brakes perform better
Not the mod expert but I would say to go through them. Make sure all wheel cylinders are good, shoe surface isn't contaminated or worn, all contact points lubricated. Check them hoses and make sure the adjustments are within.
I wud agree w/ Blugene . About the only thing u can to drum brakes are to make sure all the parts are in good working order -- and keep ur distance from the car in front of you. Also, make sure grease seals are'nt leaking grease on ur brake shoes. Some cars like the 60's Riveras had large pwr 4wheel hvy finned drums stopped pretty gud. Im sure some of the guys run drum brakes, esp.; those who maintain original cars. That's fine if you don't drive much over 30-35mph -- driving freeway speeds brings along a new perspective on those drums when the you need to stop quick.
That is interesting and makes sense. I never heard of that and Im sure most who frequent here have'nt either--no matter how long they've been gearheads. I was thinking abt upgrading rr drums on my GT but will investigate this option first. Thanks for the tip.
brake drums I was linked to this site by rthomas. I am in the process of drilling my rear drums after reading this article and another one he fowarded in this thread .http://www.tffn.net/drilldrum.html You might consider this for ur setup as u don't want to change wheels. I am in the same position. I have 14" "5 Lug on all 4's" Rally Wheels and just bought new tires - so I will see how this works out. Will know more this spring when able to drive the car esp., in stop and go. If u try it keep ur drills sharp as the drum is not that hard but it will dull them after a few holes 3-4. I used a Drill Doctor to sharp drills and cutting oil - went pretty smooth. I will have some pix's later in my stuff
Hate to re-vive the dead but this brought a question and possible solution to mind. Since early Maverick brakes were based on the Mustang 2, couldn't he use Mustang 2 4 lug rotors with the early Mav disc spindles to make the swap and keep his wheels?
wow if I knew about this thread much earlier I would have went this route since I don't do racing of any kind. This sounds like a perfect setup for a daily driver car.
The 70 Maverick I have has turned the 1/4 in the 9.9's at 130+mph and still uses drums both front and rear. The drums were just rebuilt using new springs/clips/retainers and has metallic brake shoes. Ofcourse the parachute may be of some help, but doubt I will need it!
That makes sense then, I had read it somewhere but all things considered I couldn't make the connection. I knew the steering arms were opposite but I figured maybe they made it so they could use the calipers and brackets with a Maverick/Comet specific spindle.
n desperation to keep the wheels with disc brakes use your regular maverick or granada disc brakes and redrill the rotors to four bolt and when you want to use the five bolt it is there for you.
