Date:         Sun, 24 Nov 2002 17:41:31 -0800
Reply-To:     Mark Keller <kelphoto@HIGHSPEEDPLUS.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Mark Keller <kelphoto@HIGHSPEEDPLUS.COM>
Subject:      Re: emergency brakes
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed

Hi Brian,

I feel this post was just meant for my experience.  I feel that the
emergency brake on my van matches yours.  It just doesn't quite keep the
van from rolling, and my driveway is just 8 degrees.  The eight clicks
is just a reference point you could have the thing adjusted to be that
hard  to pull at four or twelve clicks.

A possibility of what's really going on here is the arc of the brake
shoes don't "match" the arc of the brake drum. In years past a shop had
a service called a "cam grind", where I was from. Basically the shops
had a machine that was able to  ground the new brake shoes to match the
arc of the brake drum, that way  every square inch of available brake
shoe was contacting the drum. Depending on the luck of the draw the
shoes  "can"  eventually wear to the point where they do in fact contact
every square inch possible, but there are some variables.

How durable the lining is, metallics will take longer, softer linings
will take less time and in general softer linings provide a better
friction coefficinet than metallics, but have less service life. Brake
reports are also pretty antedotal, mine included..  I suppose that soft
or hard linings is really a  local issue of what the parts houses
stockd..  Brake linings are offered in such ways at the distrubtor
level, but I'm not certain a local part guy is gonna know, but the rep
for Rabestos or Girling and etc will..  Also depending on the brake
lining manufacturing standard, lining material is cured  in a couple of
different ways thats also determines the consistency of the mfg's target.

Contrawise, when a brake drum is resurfaced, the diameter is larger and
this exacerbates this issue.  You could verify this by pulling the brake
drums and look at the wear pattern on the shoes, and have the inside
diameter of  the drums measured and compared to a new demension and the
service demenision.

So the fix would be to get new shoes and drums, Bow Wow in Victoria, and
this might help and then you may be like me with new brakes drums and
shoes and like the guy said, that's all the better they get.
Sincerely,

Mark Keller
91 Carat.
Cowichan Bay, BC