Trunnion bushes not lasting

[dougbgt6]

That's interesting NM, my view is coloured by how easy it is to change pads and how difficult to change shoes. And, the garage phoned to tell me they'd broken both bled nipples on my callipers, but they'd fixed it. Drill and tap? No new callipers, cheaper! Time is money.

Doug

[daverclasper]

Were the nipples very corroded Doug. Seems a bit ham fisted to break them maybe. Usually a little bit of time and technique gets them out.

[NonMember]

12 hours ago, dougbgt6 said:

That's interesting NM, my view is coloured by how easy it is to change pads and how difficult to change shoes. And, the garage phoned to tell me they'd broken both bled nipples on my callipers, but they'd fixed it. Drill and tap? No new callipers, cheaper! Time is money.

Doug

It takes, what, an hour to drill and re-tap a broken bleed nipple? That's £60 labour. I can believe that's more than a calliper. The total cost of a drum brake, for a production car rather than a cherished classic, is definitely less than that. And complexity of maintenance contributes exactly nothing to production costs. Given the proper tools and jigs, assembling a drum brake is just as easy as a disc.

[Colin Lindsay]

Provided you can get the shoes. Try obtaining a set of early Herald front shoes when you don't have the backplates to be relined, and you'll see how much easier pads are...!

Discs appear (and I'll qualify that with 'appear!) to take less effort to stop a car; my drum braked Heralds were always a nightmare to stop and took a serious amount of pedal pressure compared to the disc brake models. If drums were better in the day, properly set up, I can't believe most manufacturers changed just for the cost savings compared to safety.

[dougbgt6]

Dave,

Yes, more than likely. The car was in for new wings, sills, door skins and a respray. The garage specialized in MGs and mine was their first Triumph, they were hoping for more and I got a good deal. They kept it about a year (stored outside) I topped them up periodically with £s and they did a great job. At the end they wanted to do more and so I said get it MOT'd and they broke my nipples.   Beech Hill Garage, Berkshire, still going, got a nice magenta GT6 at the moment, look 'em up. 

NM,

I still believe there is somewhere a vast warehouse, embarrassingly overstocked with brake drums that no one wants to scrap and they continue to dump on gullible punters. 

Doug

[NonMember]

2 hours ago, Colin Lindsay said:

Provided you can get the shoes. Try obtaining a set of early Herald front shoes when you don't have the backplates to be relined, and you'll see how much easier pads are...!

I did point out that I was NOT referring to the costs of cherished classic parts.

2 hours ago, Colin Lindsay said:

Discs appear (and I'll qualify that with 'appear!) to take less effort to stop a car; my drum braked Heralds were always a nightmare to stop and took a serious amount of pedal pressure compared to the disc brake models.

Discs aren't that much more efficient than well-set-up drums but they are much more fade-resistant and can thus be set up with much greater braking effort. Manufacturers changed because a car with (front) disc brakes can be made to stop much better, much more reliably. Remember that the first uses of disc brakes were on sports cars. The rear brakes, however, don't need nearly so much effort, so it's not worth using discs. Plus, handbrakes on discs are a pain the the behind.

2 hours ago, Colin Lindsay said:

 If drums were better in the day, properly set up, I can't believe most manufacturers changed just for the cost savings compared to safety.

The initial claim I responded to was precisely that the change to discs was for cost. I refuted that. The change to front discs was made entirely for better braking performance. The adoption of rear discs was driven almost entirely by the needs of ABS systems.