VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1916-1922 - Model 490 Brake lining

I am rebuilding the brakes on my 1916. This of course has the internal expanding parking brake and the external contracting service brake, both operating on the same 10" steel drum on the rear wheels.

I have discovered that the brake lining material is not readily available. It is 1-1/4" wide by 5/32" (or 1/8") thick, and about 10 feet of length is required to do all the shoes.

Does anyone know of a source for this lining material? Can't seem to locate any.

(I apologize for those of you that have already seen this topic inside of a different string. I thought maybe having its own string would cause a few other people to see the need).

Thank you for any leads.

I got the brake bands relined for my 28 in Ranger, Texas by:

Greenwood, W E Auto Parts
105 S Commerce St, Ranger, TX 76470
(254) 647-3026

He got the materials in Fort Worth
it may be worth a phone call.
He does a lot of the area Model T's and Model A's and Chevrolets.

Don - I didn't hear back from my lining supplier, so maybe he doesn't do eBay anymore. Here's his address if you want to write to him:
Chuck Kuntz
RR 6 Box 307
Altoona, PA 16601-9785

A couple photos of the lining material: 490 Brake Lining Material

Thanks, Don & Mack, for your posts.

Don, that looks exactly like what I need, yes.

I have learned a few things in the past couple of days. Apparently, nowadays the way to handle this is simply to send out the brake bands (or shoes) to various businesses that provide a relining service. Back in the day, we used to be able to readily buy this lining material ourselves, but that no longer seems to be the case. I guess nowadays, brakes wear out and you throw away the shoes (or pads, more likely) and just put new ones on. There are several outfits that advertise in Hemmings etc that do this service, so that's the path I will follow.

(Now, if the darn brake cables were just the right length! Thinking about installing some turn buckles in them so they can be adjusted farther in either direction).

Don - I would guess the linings are asbestos and tightly regulated.

The asbestos use in Norway vanished many years ago, as they were banned from the authorities and illegal to use now. The modern linings we use here today are softer and better braking, without any dangerous material in them.

A company for relining the brakes will mostly glue the new ones on the old shoes. It cost only a small sum and make the linings stay firm to the shoes all the way.

If you want the cables to be adjusted more than possible or convenient, bring them to a rope factory making all kinds of wiring for sailing boats. I think they can remove a present clamp and put on a new one, where it is more suitable for adjusting the brakes.

Hi guys -

Thanks again for these postings. I don't really care if the new linings are asbestos or not, just so they are functional brake linings.

The sail boat / marina is an outstanding idea, Erling - thank you!

I finally figured out that the drivers side parking brake and service brake cables were reversed - the service brake is an inch or so shorter. Once that was figured out and corrected, the cables were the right length, and things came together.

So I then managed to get the cables sorted out and working, got all the various yokes and adjustments cleaned up and working freely. Put it all together and have a functioning system. But the car stops very poorly - and I am used to 4 cylinder Chevs, so I know how it should feel and stop. Clearly, the completely worn out brake linings will have to be replaced this winter.

You will find that modern soft brake linings are much better than the old, stiff asbestos or similar. I drove Solan on the West Coast this weekend. Lots of up and down hills, sharp bends and gravel roads. No problem to the oldest car in the rally.

Hi Chevy Guru
Where exactly are you sending your 490 brakes to be relined ?
I would like to do the same for my 490 as I am driving the car quite frequently in traffic, ...yikes ! Brandon

Hi, Brandon -

I haven't answered for a few days, because I was deciding which service to use. Talked to several outfits that advertise in Hemmings, learned a lot. It turns out the 1916 (up until what year? - don't know) has linings that are 1-1/4" wide. Although available here and there, it is not a common size. I settled on a type of lining that is called "Green Grabber" - a woven belt material (or maybe it was Green Gripper). I went with 3/16" thickness. The original was apparently 5/32", but nobody makes that. There is a lot of adjustment available, with turnbuckle yokes where the cable meets the wheel, and on the external band there is another adjustable yoke, so I think there will be plenty enough adjustment to make up the extra 1/16" thickness of the lining.

I finally chose an outfit call Antigo Auto Parts, in Antigo, Wisconsin. They talked nice to me, and understood everything I was talking about and asking about.

To save a few bucks, I cleaned and then sandblasted the brake bands, drilled out the rivets (some were steel, some were copper, and a few were brass!) tossed the old worn out linings. Sandblasted again under the linings, and painted everything with semi-gloss black engine enamel, to take the heat that will build up a little better. So I finally shipped them off today. All they need to do is cut and rivet on the new linings. Should be back next week, estimated cost about $100, including the new lining material.

Here are some photos along the way -

Kind of interesting that there is a hole right through the lining, to adjust the internal brake band.



Once I got them off, they were pretty cruddy and caked up -

Here is after the first time in the sandblast cabinet, and you can see what's left of the old linings -



And here they are all painted and ready to ship to Wisconsin. I'll let you know when they come back and how that all turns out.

Green gripper woven materials website. May be of some use to others,
http://www.scanpac.com/gemini.cfm?id=35

Thanks for posting photos Don. They'll come in handy when I get around to pulling my brakes.
I was in Antigo, WI a couple days ago on vacation. I could have checked out the shop doing your brakes. Post some photos when you get them back.
Don K, currently in Bay City, MI

Moving on now to getting the drums in condition:

(Note - I guess I was pretty lucky - I got both rear wheels off simply by raising the car, running out the big retaining castle nut, and whapping it with a big ball peen hammer a couple of times, and off came the wheels! I had my hub wheel puller ready, but did not need it)

This era drums are steel, not cast iron. The drums both had a lot of hard glazing that clearly had to be removed to get a good "bite" with the new linings. You can see how shiny they are - like polished steel - not much friction available there!



I considered removing the drums from the wheel. Six short but stout carriage bolts pass through the wood spokes and hold the drums on, semi-permanently. I tried loosening a few, and all of them turned where they shouldn't. So it would have been a matter of drilling out 12 big bolts, and then the work of replacing them and hopefully not having the wheel come apart on me. So I made the decision to clean up the drums while still attached to the wheels. Still on the wheel obviously meant I couldn't dress them down by turning them. So good hard sandblasting seemed like the best option.

Of course I did not want to damage the soft wooden portion of the wheels with the sandblaster, so I made some protective shields out of 1/8" pegboard (the kind with no holes - does that make it particle board?), four bucks for a 2 foot by 2 foot piece at Home Depot.



I cut out the 10" hole slightly smaller than the drum outside diameter: and found that the thin material could be pushed up under the drum between the drum and spokes to completely protect the spokes and still give me total access to the contact surfaces of the drum.

I also needed to protect the hub area, as the outer portion of the hub is actually the bearing inner race surface for the rear wheel bearing (the bearings stay in place in the axle housing). So I put two layers of duct tape over the race surface and center of the hub. Here it is, all degreased and ready for blasting -



The wheel and drum assembly was too big to fit inside my cabinet, so I used my old outdoor blaster. It was simply a matter of cleaning everything up, inside and outside surfaces of both drums, since both are friction surfaces for either the service or parking brakes. I now have a nice clean, slightly rough surface, perfect for the linings to grab against -



Now we wait for the newly lined brake bands (shoes) to come back, and just put it all together.

For precaution: Tell your T-F**D friends to keep distance after this operation. I know they will be in trouble if you brake heavily and they are close behind you.

I have changed to cast iron drums, but still have the originals, same as yours.