1970 was also the last year of drum brakes all around. I experienced total brake fade on two occasions, once on Hwy 101 and once on Topanga Canyon Road.
I know about that drum brake fade. In the early eighties, Coming down Whiteface Mountain road in my 1955 Pontiac, by the time I was 3/4 way down, standing on the brake pedal with both feet produced nothing, a shift back to second gear produced clouds of smoke due to the worn valve guides but did save me from a "30,00o lbs of bananas" type ending...
Minis (the original ones): 7" drums all round, but only 1200lbs to stop. Worked OK.
Second gen Corvair: Aged, not mine, and I'd gotten forgetful. Panic stricken pulling on the steering wheel to get enough force on the brake pedal to stop the thing. Need to check whether that actually had front discs.
1950 Ford. Stock. Just last year. Wasn't going to go fast enough to stress test anything.
The various dirt bike drums worked fine, I'm happy to say.
4 comments:
1970, if I'm not mistaken. Last year of the separate tail light and backup light.
1970 was also the last year of drum brakes all around. I experienced total brake fade on two occasions, once on Hwy 101 and once on Topanga Canyon Road.
I know about that drum brake fade. In the early eighties, Coming down Whiteface Mountain road in my 1955 Pontiac, by the time I was 3/4 way down, standing on the brake pedal with both feet produced nothing, a shift back to second gear produced clouds of smoke due to the worn valve guides but did save me from a "30,00o lbs of bananas" type ending...
Minis (the original ones): 7" drums all round, but only 1200lbs to stop. Worked OK.
Second gen Corvair: Aged, not mine, and I'd gotten forgetful. Panic stricken pulling on the steering wheel to get enough force on the brake pedal to stop the thing. Need to check whether that actually had front discs.
1950 Ford. Stock. Just last year. Wasn't going to go fast enough to stress test anything.
The various dirt bike drums worked fine, I'm happy to say.
rdguy
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