My 1983 Continental Mark VI!

[mercurygm88]

I think that bay is pretty clean. Just a bit old. Kind of like me.

It is pretty clean, just old.

[jaywish]

I think that bay is pretty clean. Just a bit old. Kind of like me.

[DerekTheGreat]

A warm air intake!

I'd powerwash that engine bay, I'm getting choked up with dust and dirt all the way over here.

[mercurygm88]

I did a thing today.

[gadget73]

my only real experience with them is the rear discs on a Towncar, and as a parking brake it kind of sucks. The stupid clampy cable caliper nonsense the other two have sucks in different ways, not the least of which is the calipers more expensive. Towncar rear caliper is like 25 bucks, Mark VII rear is 50 bucks, the Conti is NLA. If one of them ever gives me problems I will have to rebuild it myself. Last I remember seeing a listing it was like 100 bucks.

[sly]

They seemed to fix that issue in the later ones. The double shoe clamping force inside the rotors on the rear holds my expedition good enough that it takes a LOT of revs to overcome it. Do have to manually adjust those bastards though.

[gadget73]

only thing I own with drums anymore is my truck. They didn't work when I got it, shoes had been changed and never adjusted out enough for the self-adjust to work. Fixed that, good to go. One major advantage to drums, the parking brake is way better using a full size shoe vs the baby drum inside the disc thing. Maybe not a big deal on a car, but in a truck on a boat ramp thats pretty damn important.



drums are sort of annoying because of all the parts inside but not really all that hard. Best advice I can offer with drums, do one side at a time and use the other for reference.

[Mainemantom]

I remember many years ago, when a person ordered brake linings/pads the least expensive parts would be the bonded type. Great for vehicle resale or the economy minded. I had to replace all brake linings on a 59 Ford. I put bonded on for resale. $6.00 per axle if I remember right. The riveted type was more expensive and mostly top brands. Old brake linings sometimes had to be turned in as cores to be rebuilt. Our 1960 Studebaker was that way. I had a 69 Dodge pickup that had the rear bonded linings come apart when I was on the highway going from Long Beach to San Diego. I did not notice anything wrong until I arrived. Brake fade,very hot wheel and totally destroyed the brake components, plus the axle seal. That experience made me buy the riveted type whenever available. I will admit that my experiences in working with vehicles goes back 50 years or more. Lot of things have changed and parts are much cheaper quality now.

[DerekTheGreat]

I’ve only been working on cars for about 15 years now and I have never seen riveted pads before just shoes. We don’t even sell them at work nor can we order them. My manager has been in the business for 25 years and said he’s never seen them either. In fact I can’t find anyone who’s seen riveted pads except online. The internet seems to concur that at one point people at least believed they were superior to bonded pads, but I’ve yet to find a single report of bonded pads coming off the backing plate.

My '69 Plymouth had drums on all four corners. If I remember right, every pad was bonded to the shoe and each one was detached. Guess they've got a shelf life. I do get a little leery when I get handed bonded shoes, but I've installed them before. I've also installed riveted shoes, which I trust a bit more. But yeah, decreased life as you've now got a rivet eating valuable pad real estate. I'm not THAT old, but I suspect your manager hasn't put much time in with a wrench while not behind the counter.

Drums are weird and I don’t trust them. That being said they were working awfully good for being out of adjustment. That is until about 100 miles before I changed then when the internals of the passenger side drum disassembled themselves/disintegrated. When I first installed the new pads and hardware I didn’t have them adjusted right and you could certainly tell. I went back and correctly adjusted them last night and my braking has greatly improved.

Unless the starwheel suddenly rusted apart, I question how well they were working since you were able to slide the drums right off. When they're right, you should have minimal pedal travel and yeah, noticeably good brakes, or better brakes if you adjusted ones that were out of adjustment.

They're only weird because they're new to you and a better alternative exists. For decades and even still today, they are a good choice for many applications.
My first experience with drum brakes on a daily driver was with my 1994 Grand Am. Needed front brakes, so I pad slapped it. About ten thousand miles later, needed brakes again, so I ripped the rears apart. Found the problem, rears weren't doing squat- drums slid right off and were rusty where the shoes should have been making contact. Once fixed, wow that thing stopped great. Seeing as it was my first car, WTF did I know about brakes and general expectations of stopping power?

[mercurygm88]

They were out of adjustment then.

When done right and on there for awhile, the shoes tend to wear a little groove in the drum. This makes getting the drums off a bit of a challenge. Luckily, Ford gave us an access slot for adjustment, which you can also use to back the shoes off. This is of course if the stuff isn't rusted together.

Drums are weird and I don’t trust them. That being said they were working awfully good for being out of adjustment. That is until about 100 miles before I changed then when the internals of the passenger side drum disassembled themselves/disintegrated. When I first installed the new pads and hardware I didn’t have them adjusted right and you could certainly tell. I went back and correctly adjusted them last night and my braking has greatly improved.

[mercurygm88]

That is all I buy are the riveted brake linings/pads for drum or disc brakes. Maybe now bonded linings/pads have better "glue" but many years ago they didn't. If a pad or lining came loose, it would mess things up badly. More attention is needed with riveted linings/pads wear due to rivets. Don't want rivets scoring the drums or rotors.

I’ve only been working on cars for about 15 years now and I have never seen riveted pads before just shoes. We don’t even sell them at work nor can we order them. My manager has been in the business for 25 years and said he’s never seen them either. In fact I can’t find anyone who’s seen riveted pads except online. The internet seems to concur that at one point people at least believed they were superior to bonded pads, but I’ve yet to find a single report of bonded pads coming off the backing plate.

[DerekTheGreat]

Actually the drums slid right off...

They were out of adjustment then.

When done right and on there for awhile, the shoes tend to wear a little groove in the drum. This makes getting the drums off a bit of a challenge. Luckily, Ford gave us an access slot for adjustment, which you can also use to back the shoes off. This is of course if the stuff isn't rusted together.

[Mainemantom]

That is all I buy are the riveted brake linings/pads for drum or disc brakes. Maybe now bonded linings/pads have better "glue" but many years ago they didn't. If a pad or lining came loose, it would mess things up badly. More attention is needed with riveted linings/pads wear due to rivets. Don't want rivets scoring the drums or rotors.

[mercurygm88]

Actually the drums slid right off. And even though this thing is rust free even underneath the passenger side hardware and shoes basically disintegrated in my hands. The driver side held together a little too well.

I did the front pads the next day just so I would know everything was good plus it only took like an hour. The pads were like new but the pad material was riveted to the backing plates. I’ve never seen brake pads like that before.

[sly]

I do really like my all disc brake vehicles. The parking brake that's essentially a drum brake I can deal with. Those are usually less troublesome than full on drum brakes.