Topic: What did you do to your non-motorcycle vehicle today?

[Terry in Australia]

hopefully,show these to a young brake technician and he will #$%*?

I don't know how common it is Dave, but the rear disc rotors on my 1995 Subaru have internal drum brakes, for the handbrake? I had a total brake failure going down "Brown Mountain" (and another one in my pants) coming back from Canberra one Friday, still don't know what happened because I'd replaced all 4 rotors and used Bendix pads and changed the fluid, but basically my four wheel discs weren't slowing the car down at all, so I had to use the hand brake to reduce as much speed as possible.

Brown Mountain is 45 degrees in places, and I was flying around 10 MPH corners doing closer to 30, overtaking cars and trucks (that still had brakes and could slow down) on double white lines, and almost flew thru the Armco a couple of times. That was when I decided to retire the Subaru and leased the Ford Territory. I've got the Subaru back now, the brakes seem fine, but I'm not going near brown Mountain in it again, if it wasn't for those pissy little cable operated drum brakes inside my rear disc rotors, I might have been just another greasy mark on the road.

Brown Mountain, NSW by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

[grcamna2]

Terry,my car,the 87' Volvo 240 sedan has those same small little drum brake shoes inside the disc rotors;I need to replace both my handbrake cables as one has been snapped for a few years.

[Cougars750F0]

I have the same setup on my 94 Volvo 960.

[dave500]

yeah its a common set up,some use a crank to press the rear pads as a park brake,that dumbarse special inside mini brake shoe set up baffles me?why the complexity?

[Terry in Australia]

No idea Dave, but without that added complexity, I'd have had no brakes at all!

[Stev-o]

bout 6 or 7 years ago i fitted new rear drums shoes and cylinders on my daily driven 1973 holden

Hey Dave...you have 4 wheel drum brakes?  Never thought of upgrading the front to disc?

[Bankerdanny]

I don't know how common it is Dave, but the rear disc rotors on my 1995 Subaru have internal drum brakes, for the handbrake? I had a total brake failure going down "Brown Mountain" (and another one in my pants) coming back from Canberra one Friday, still don't know what happened because I'd replaced all 4 rotors and used Bendix pads and changed the fluid, but basically my four wheel discs weren't slowing the car down at all, so I had to use the hand brake to reduce as much speed as possible.

That is a very common form of E brake on 4 wheel disk vehicles.

[dave500]

bout 6 or 7 years ago i fitted new rear drums shoes and cylinders on my daily driven 1973 holden

Hey Dave...you have 4 wheel drum brakes?  Never thought of upgrading the front to disc?

no its front disc factory steve,11 inch ventilated and quite good,the rears only are drum.

[Stev-o]

bout 6 or 7 years ago i fitted new rear drums shoes and cylinders on my daily driven 1973 holden

Hey Dave...you have 4 wheel drum brakes?  Never thought of upgrading the front to disc?

no its front disc factory steve,11 inch ventilated and quite good,the rears only are drum.

Oh...good!  My buddy has a couple old classics with 4 wheel drum brakes and those need to be driven accordingly.

[dave500]

oh yeah,australia was like one jump ahead,we never had local V8 cars untill bout 67/68,standard issue was any V8 had front discs i think?you tick the V8 box you get front discs?i can just imagine a 390 galaxie with 4 wheel drums imported?

[Terry in Australia]

Yep, I had "Non Power assisted" drums all around on my '67 XR Falcon (6 cylinder) and it was scary at speed. A V8 with those brakes would be an accident waiting to happen.

[dave500]

#$%* yeah Terry,after years of so under powered lame arse holdens and early falcons with crap brakes that didnt matter because shopping trolleys went faster,and a souped up grey motor was as good as it got slowing down was an after thought?skate boards hadnt been invented yet and they went faster?

[dave500]

even the first V8 holdens with the imported chevy small block 307 "2 jet" rochester lame arse were a vast improvement over what us aussie buyers had ever seen,the HK got at least the 1/2 inch non ventilated front discs,it was an option through out the hk range,but who wanted to spend an extra 20 bucks on a six?the 327 chevy optioned monaro of course had the front disc brakes but still the horrible pissy easily overheated split caliper unit,that changed to the 5/8 solid disc but same caliper on the ht and hg models,this was changed with the all new HQ model that had the corvette 11 inch ventilated standard on V8s and optional across the range,ive never seen even a basic HQ holden without front disc brakes,and ive seen a lot!they were all power boosted with the big arse PBR single diaphram unit,they are a good brake unit and not easy to over heat.

[Terry in Australia]

Yep, I quite liked the old XR, it was an ex-NSW cop car and while nowhere as fast as the Mazda RX2 coupe that ate V8's for breakfast, it was a lot more reliable. I drove from Sydney to Melbourne a couple of times a month to visit my girlfriend (now wife of 40 years) and it never let me down. A year or so after I got married I gave it to my wife's little brother for his first car, and bought an XB GS Fairmont with a 302 (great car) then an XC GXL with a 351 (piece of sh1t) then my HG Monaro that someone had put a hot 327, Muncie 4 speed box and 12 bolt rear end in, it was fast, but horrible to drive, so I swapped it for an XY GS Futura with a 4 bolt 351, C6 box and 9 inch diff. Best car I ever had, wish I still had it.

[Don R]

 I had an old, locked timing race distributor with a magnetic pickup and most of an old points distributor, both for the small block chevy. I combined the parts from the two and made a mag pickup unit with vacuum and centrifugal advance for my 40 chevy. I'll never buy GM points again.
 It's running well and in storage now, but it has a nice distributor waiting for it this spring when it comes home.
 I dug out my race car left over spares box and have a nice MSD cap and rotor and a set of MSD wires cut and terminated for a small block. Hopefully they will fit around the iron manifolds.

[ofreen]

I am enjoying walking under cars instead of crawling under them more and more all the time. 

[grcamna2]

Yes indeed ofreen:the lift is the Best. 
I would love to own one.

[Alan F.]

Drove north of the 45th parallel.

[Terry in Australia]

I am enjoying walking under cars instead of crawling under them more and more all the time. 

What is that old cop car Greg, is that a Crown Vic? I want one!

[ofreen]

What is that old cop car Greg, is that a Crown Vic? I want one!

That 2000 Crown Vic police interceptor (aka CVPI or P71) belongs to my son.  It has a persistent transmission problem, no overdrive, so it has been up there a couple of times as we try remedies.  No luck yet, so I may be doing my first automatic transmission overhaul on it for fun. 

I have two others, a 2007 and 2008 that are daily drivers.  I'll have had the 2007 for 10 years this spring and the 2008 for 9 years.  I have $3000 total in both of them (bought at auction) and they have been perfectly reliable.

I wonder how many Crown Vics there are in your neck of the woods?  I know there are a few in Europe but not many, and some went to the mideast.  You want the police package, preferably 2006 and later. They handle better than the civilian models but the ride reminds you of a pickup truck compared to the cushy civilian cars.  They aren't drag racers, getting beat off the line by any number of econoboxes.  But still fun.  I have always intended to paint mine so they don't look like panda bears but haven't done it yet. 

[Shopdog]

What is that old cop car Greg, is that a Crown Vic? I want one!

That 2000 Crown Vic police interceptor (aka CVPI or P71) belongs to my son.  It has a persistent transmission problem, no overdrive, so it has been up there a couple of times as we try remedies.  No luck yet, so I may be doing my first automatic transmission overhaul on it for fun. 

I have two others, a 2007 and 2008 that are daily drivers.  I'll have had the 2007 for 10 years this spring and the 2008 for 9 years.  I have $3000 total in both of them (bought at auction) and they have been perfectly reliable.

I wonder how many Crown Vics there are in your neck of the woods?  I know there are a few in Europe but not many, and some went to the mideast.  You want the police package, preferably 2006 and later. They handle better than the civilian models but the ride reminds you of a pickup truck compared to the cushy civilian cars.  They aren't drag racers, getting beat off the line by any number of econoboxes.  But still fun.  I have always intended to paint mine so they don't look like panda bears but haven't done it yet.

Very cool collection! I'm a Ford guy too, although me and the wife both dd Toyotas lol! I do also own 5 fox mustangs (3 1979 and 2 1982). The transmission you're referring to would be a 4r70w, correct?

[ofreen]

The transmission you're referring to would be a 4r70w, correct?

Yes.

[scottly]

https://www.autosafety.org/burned-cop-brings-message-patrol-car-safety/

[Stev-o]

No offense intended but I really don't understand the appeal of owning an old cop car [other than getting good transportation for a bargain price].

Havent we all spent years trying to avoid them?!

[scottly]

There is/was one for sale on Craig's list here, and the seller talked about how everyone moved out of the left lane when he came up behind them, letting him pass.