I would suggest while some will say nay.........

There is an old racers trick for drilling out drum brakes similar to discs. I would suggest getting purchasing fresh drums and getting them cryogenically tempered and then sending them out to California. This shop has been doing it for decades. Article on drilled drums.

Yeah ,, its well known , you can also groove drums as well , but the costs are a lot more than normal drilling.

I was at a car show the last month, two cars in my catagory (Street Rod). Talked to the competition a while, real nice guy. Finally he was sort of braggin' about how he had a bit over $50k in the car - NICE '33 Ford Roadster. I did a thorough top to bottom of the car and finally told him I thought the car was great. Next I asked the question....."If you spend $50k+ on such a nice state of the art Rod, why didn't you spend a couple extra bucks for rear disc brakes?" He avoided me the rest of the day, I think I offended. ;) (I've got 4 wheel disc on mine but it is no where near as nice a car as his)

Absolutely right on the drilled drums, they used to do it factory on Vettes with the brake option - Pre-65. I do have a Corvette with drums all the way around, inadequate to say the least. On the other hand I've had Mustangs with a dual bail master cylinder and found them to do the job quite fine. How about the old Pontiacs with the drum/rims?

Not mine, it's about the speed. (PM me and I'll be happy to show pics and tell you all about it, it goes against a lot of the teachings on the website - but not all ;) est. 425-450hp and capable of 17mpg). Sorry to veer OT.
IMO, I prefer disc over drum for stopping power, ease of MX and reliabilty.



Most US cars in 1967 went over to a dual bail, all it was is a 2 bails for fluid - front/rear. No big deal except they seperated the front from the rear. If you had a leak in a front wheel cylinder the front bale would go low, rear leak=rear bail low. No big deal really, some felt it gave better stopping power. I don't know though.

Wazabi was mostly right about the bail.
But what it exactly refers to is the the spring-steel wire loop used to secure a cover that sits on top of the brake master cylinder reservoir.

So a twin bail master cylinder is a unit with two seperate reservoirs but covered by the one lid.

In the rest of the world this master cylinder is called a split systems m/s , tandem m/s , dual circuit m/s , twin circuit m/s and probably many other combinations meaning the same thing.

https://www.wilwood.com/Products/006-...-CRTMC/pic.jpg

The circuits can be split front to back or on diagonal brakes.

Its main purpose is to provide safety in the even one brake line fails.
Then only 2 of the 4 wheels will provide stopping power , not good , but better than nothing at all.

Yeup , and if a big hulking old log of a car like a mustang can pull up well with drums , then a little FE buzzbox with modern brake drums would do very well indeed.

yeah , i think its a 50 and 60's american term ,, you know pot heads.

Peace baby.

I didnt know that.
We never got early rabbits in australia (except for the hole digging furry type) and now that ime in northern europe all those cars are rusted away and gone.

So I doubt i will ever see one.

Yes, bale is in reference to the reservoirs but I was referencing the late 60's American cars. The reservoirs are cast into the cylinder itself. Not like we have now where you can remove the plastic reservoir that slides into the "o"-rings.

There are also adjustable proportioning valves for those who like to fine tune their brakes.

Nope, I'm not a pot head though last week 2 houses down from me (1/2 mile) the cops stumbled (literally) across 160 maryjoewanna plants in an underground greenhouse while chasing a teenager through the woods the cop fell through the trap door. :eek: I'm not growing on my land, not enough time.

..and you didnt know about it ? , a likely story :D

Henry Ford said..."Small cars, small profits ; big cars, big profits." Can we not say the same thing about brakes? Just look again at the numbers above....Drum brakes, if done right, will stop anything...from any speed.Like anything else...cut corners, make more profit. IMHO, anyhow....This is a no brainer! :cool:

They're cheap! Molds are used...for these investment castings....no sweat!

Re: Drum Brakes
 

Big judgment error!! Erase the dog next time...... On a busy freeway, braking suddenly and hard to avoid a dog could result in the fellow behind you rear ending you, and ultimately a pile up of several cars. Brake for humans........ erase dogs under these circumstances, not tires and cars!

Re: Drum Brakes
 

Wow, old bump.

Yeah I agree, sudden moves on the highway should be reserved for avoiding human death. I have seen too many people swerve around harmless debris and lose control of the car (including one time when the driver wound up dead avoiding an obviously empty Rubbermaid trash barrel).

Re: Drum Brakes
 

He never said it was a BUSY freeway. If you have situational awareness and you know there's no other traffic crawling up your tailpipe you can do something other than stupidly plow into whatever may be in front of you. :rolleyes: