Even if you are not that passionate about cars, but you drive regularly, you still need to know some basics about brakes. Yes, you press that pedal next to the accelerator, but what exactly happens ...

The hardest part of disassembling the brakes is usually removing the drum. Some drums and most backing plates have inspection slots near the bottom (sometimes covered with a rubber plug or a steel ...

Drum brakes, shown in Figure 14-5, are the oldest type of brakes still on the road. Their main advantage is that they require less hydraulic pressure to stop your vehicle because the brake shoes tend ...

Drum brakes are essentially extinct on new cars today—save for a few budget-minded holdouts like the Ford Focus 1.0-liter. But for nearly a century, they were the standard system of choice on nearly ...

Though a decade ago it was far from the case, nowadays, the likelihood for a technician to work on a newer truck with air disc brakes (ADBs) is about the same as one with drum brakes. “Almost half of ...

Classic Mustang drum brakes have never been big performers. Even when these cars were new, their drum brakes were problematic, noisy, and often pulled badly. Fade was terrible under hard braking, ...

Disc brakes resemble hand brakes on a bicycle, where pulling on the brake lever forces a plier-like device to squeeze rubber blocks against the rim of the wheel to stop the car. Drum brakes are a ...

Back in the ’60s, drum brakes didn’t seem that bad since most cars were hobbled with the same lack of stopping prowess. Fast forward a few decades and it matters a bit more that it takes you an ...

Most modern cars stopped using drum brakes years ago, adopting disc brakes for their improved performance and heat resistance. Those sound like pretty good reasons, so you'd think they'd be just as ...

Thanks to the huge selection of aftermarket parts that are just a phone call away, building a trick truck that is safe and fun to drive is easier than ever. A great example of aftermarket components ...

As you can see in Figure 15-3, you have to remove a bunch of stuff to get to a drum brake. The steps here explain how to do so and what to look for when you finally get to your brakes. Caution: ...