who all is still running drum brakes up front?

my 70 has disc brakes but the 72 grabber I bought has drums all around and im in the process of replacing the wheel cylinders and other things as well.i hear horror stories about drum brakes just wonderin gif there is any tricks to making them work at their best

 

Nothing really wrong with drum brakes on a street car...if they are maintained. If you doing a lot of high speed stopping then that is another story. Drum brake do act different when wet so you need to expect this if they are wet

 

is still substandard for today's standards...unpredictable...

 

I put the V8 in my '70 and ran the original 9" drums for many years. I used to have nightmares about how crappy those brakes were. I had to really stand on them to make any kind of a quick stop. When I got rid of the 9" drums I replaced them with wider-than-normal '70 Mustang 10" ribbed drums. Made a big difference. Eventually I installed '76 discs and it made even more of an improvement.

 

Still have drums and I still hate them!

 

I drove my Comet home(exactly ¾ mi) and never took it out of the driveway again, now has a set of '69 Torino/Mustang front discs...

 

Still running drum brakes on my car, I like them better at the drag strip for holding at the start line and they have always stopped me at the end of the quarter. Maybe someday I will change them over as the car does not see the strip anymore and driving on the street is far more dangerous

On my Falcon wagon I am going with 4 wheel disc brakes using Scarebird conversion up front and Crown Vic in the back, I think I would go this route with the Maverick when it gets changed over

 

That right there proves there is something wrong with drum brakes on a street car.

They also fade much worse during a high-speed stop.

I really don't understand why some people want to cheap-out and try to justify running drum brakes on the front of their old car.

 

I still do. It is on my list to change over. Eventually......

 

As much work as you are doing to that car.....I would move that UP the list.

 

True. I would hate to not stop into something.

 

I still have my drum brakes. They're not power. The only thing I have had to do is to adjust them manually. The "self adjusters" don't work well. They will adjust the shoes unevenly. When the shoes are adjusted equally, you will stop straight!

 

I still do, with only 26,000 on the car . I use it everyday back an forth to work everyday. Still holds fine. The master cylinder had to be replaced before the brakes did. I still have two wheel cylinders for the front if anybody needs them. My car is a 1974 comet 200 cid.

 

One more thing, the shoes are still original all the way around the car. That's when parts where really made in the USA.