Liberty Rear Disk Brakes for A-Body
I go along with some of that but for the most part, it's all in knowing the limitations of the brakes and the car. For instance, with my 64, I don't plan on jackrabbit starts and hard stops. I plan to drive the car like it was intended and what it was intended for. Simple transportation. For that purpose, the drum brakes are just fine.
Knowing the limits of your car is very important, and if you know the limits and drive accordingly that goes a long way.
But, this isn’t the 70’s. Or the 80’s, or even the 90’s for that matter. The vast majority of cars out on the road have disk brakes and ABS at the least, and many now have computer assisted braking. They stop faster and need less driver skill to consistently pull off those short stops. Which means- no matter how well you know the limitations of your car and drive accordingly you’re still at the mercy of everyone else on the road, and they’re not going to drive according to
your cars limits. They won’t leave you the stopping distance you need, and ultimately if you hit them when they stop short it’s going to be tough to put the fault on them.
To get rid of the drum brake fade, drill the drums. Get the heat out and they then perform better.
You still have the issue of the self adjusters, they don’t necessarily work in unison and their adjustment does vary. So on that day you need to pull off a hard stop you’ll never know if one or both of your rear drums will lock up first because they just clicked over on the star wheel. Disks don’t have that issue, and they’ll give you much more consistent braking.
And drums still won’t work for crap when they’re wet. Maybe not an issue for most A-body’s anymore since they won’t be driven in anything more than minor rain, but it’s something to consider for people that don’t treat their cars like they’ll melt if they get wet.
I still run rear drums, they do get the job done. I did stop backing out of my driveway in the same direction all the time though, because my right rear would always lock up first. Remember the adjusters do their thing in reverse on the brakes, so if you always back and turn the same direction one wheel will always adjust more frequently because it’s traveling further.
