Hey everyone, thanks for the help, I'm wondering what I should expect from my brake setup as far as stopping performance. This is all in my model A coupe, 2500lb, bias ply skinnies. Here is my complete setup, Front drum 12x2 dendix style new from speedway. https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Bendix-Style-Brakes-for-1937-48-Ford-Spindles-12-x-2-Inch,32648.html https://www.speedwaymotors.com/12-x-2-Brake-Drum-for-Bendix-Style-1937-48-Ford-Brakes,5847.html Rears 11" brake kit from quick performance https://www.quickperformance.com/Ford-9-Inch-Drum-brake-kit_p_4031.html Rjays ansen style single reservoir M/C which they provided. (I did swap the internal residual valve with as they are backwards on the stock M/C as instructed) https://rjays.com/shop/ols/products/rjays-firewall-mounted-clutch-brake-kit 3/16ths brake line and a line lock for the front. I have about 5000 miles since finishing the car, they work ok, I can stop and slow down moderately, but I cannot get the brakes to lock up. From what I see the brakes all stop evenly, I don't have a lot of pedal travel until its rock hard and fully applied. When inspecting the shoes, the fronts may have a bit more wear on the leading edge of the one shoe, but this isn't adjustable with self aligning brake in anyway? I have adjusted them a number of times, thinking they just needed to break in, I usually go so there's drag and hard to rotate tire them back off to very slight drag. Each time I have adjusted the all seem to take about the same amount. I'm guessing all this is normal, and probably mostly due to the pedal ratio in these setups? I have not measured this, but would seem most likely? I do have line lock, if I hold the brake down hard and lock the front it will drive through them, I had hoped it would hold better for when I put slicks on and go to do a burn out. That's really the only reason I have been wondering about locking them up, and a search on the hamb has most saying that it should lock up all 4 corners. If there are any suggestion I'm all ears, Thanks.
From what your describing I would question the pedal ratio, but that would be hard to change. You might see if you could get front brake cylinders with larger diameter pistons. That should give you more pedal travel and mechanical advantage to the front brakes. Phil
Id change out the brake shoes. Alot of these "kits" use cheap ass wear parts. Alot of the front end kits use cheap ass Chinese ball joints that don't last for crap. Soo... From what I've seen come thru our shop I'd change to a good wagner thermo quiet or equivalent style quality shoe first.
Since rjays wasn't kind enough to furnish dimensions or provide a pedal ratio & you don't furnish mc or wheel cylinder sizes , its r impossible to hazard a guess. I don't recall adjusting to a " light drag" ?? You may be overheating the drums which would affect brake efficiency ..
I have the same pedal setup on my 32 pickup with MT Lincolns on all 4 corners and everything works good, stops as it should and will lock them up in a panic stop. Whose front drums did you use? I have a friend who had the Speedway Lincoln drums on the rear of his car with early backing plates and had some problems with the drums being very hard and eating up the shoes and not letting the car stop. He has Buick drums with F250 backing plates on the front. We replaced the rear drums and backing plates with MT products and it worked fine since..
Have a look at the locating pin at the top of the front backing plate. I believe you will find that it is slotted. You need to loosen the nut on the pin and have someone step hard on the brake pedal and while they are holding pressure, tighten the nut back up. This will center the shoes in the drum and should give you a better brake. HTH, D
Thanks guys, I had a message since the thread about Rjays had a known issue with pedal ratio and changed that up along with larger bore master cylinders. That may just be my issue, and something I'm going to pursue. Drums aren't overheating, I get same issue after I tried it for the first drive of the day. Sorry don't know the sizes off hand of the bores, from the links I posted the fronts wheel cylinders "are from 73-79 Ford pickup with 15/16" bore size" . Not sure what Rjays supplied for master cylinder, stock replacement 60-62 chev I believe, I tried to buy things packaged together so they would just work together... Not the way it works I have found out haha. Thanks for the suggestions.
I do know that when RJ's first started making their swing pedal kit it was a copy of the original Ansen design. I asked him if he'd make me a set with the pedals 3 inches longer and I think that's the way he's doing them today. I am using the stock style truck MC reversed with it's stock bore on the brake side. I did have to sleeve the clutch side to get it to work with my Willwood puller slave.
Just went and measured my pedal, pivot to push rod is 3", and to pedal is about 11.5", so only 3.8:1 ratio. Should be probably 15" atleast long for a 5:1 ratio so yeah 3" longs would make a huge difference. Probably whats going on there then.
The ratio is push rod to pivot vs pad to pivot. Measure the pedal arm from the pivot all the way to the pedal. Is that 14.5"? If so, that 4.8 to 1. Still not the prescribed 6 to 1 standard, but better than 3.8 to 1.
I think I will cut off the end and add as much as I can, I do understand that manual drums should be 6:1. That's almost twice the force, crazy. I thought I was getting on it pretty hard, that going to create a lot more force on the firewall as well.. Will have to look at that as well. I know I have enough 15" (5:1), or maybe try making a longer pedal and see how it feels before hacking too much.
Larger bore master cylinder? Doing that is going backwards, as a larger bore master will just exaggerate a poor pedal ratio problem.
Move the pivot point ( new side brackets) and re-drill pushrod point... I'd change to separate clutch master & dual brake master , nostalgia is great , safety is better ...
just a thought you stated you bought both mc and pedal from r-jay's and that you switched residual valves. i too bought there ansen pedals but not a mc from them in the directions it said if you buy both from us DO NOT change residual valves cause it's already been done
You need more travel with a smaller MC but it will give more pressure with less effort to feel like power. Power assist brake have 1” to 1-1/8” bore size.. non power or manual have 3/4” or 7/8”. When I installed an 8.8 rear withe F-150 11” drum brakes I removed the 1” wheel cylinders and replace them with 15/16”. 2 brake conversion suppliers said to do it if going to non power.
Made an extra long pedal today after work, locks them up in a panic stop pretty easily. Still wants to roll through with line lock but I’m sure if I dropped clutch harder it would be fine.
I will also say that Rjays told me they will ship out the new updated one tomorrow if I wanted. So good on them.
Even when Nostalgia was ‘New’-Hot Rodder’s we’re constantly looking for improved safety. Early Hot Rodder’s had no interest in being the coolest guy in the graveyard
Holy fuck, the pansification of the H.A.M.B..... move along safety police, you don’t have jurisdiction here.
I would like to say, I contacted Rjays and they are sending out new pedals on their dime! I offered to modify these or pay shipping but they wouldn't have it. Customer service at its finest!
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