IML: Just a Little More Ranting...
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

IML: Just a Little More Ranting...



Kenyon and others rightly suggest that a properly working stock system
(brakes in particular) is acceptable and a swap to discs is not a cure all
for problems like rusty lines and swollen 40 year old flex hoses.

Rob,


I replaced everything on the '59's brake system and redid it completely stock. Had a retired Chrysler mechanic work with me as I had only serviced Bendix brakes prior to this car. New lines, hoses, cylinders, front wheel bearings, hardware, etc. Seems all I retained were the backing plates and two of the drums. The brakes worked well enough, but seemed to need constant adjustment. The car's stopping distance was adequate. It never got longer. But the metropolitan area doubled in population in a decade and a half. All those new cars stopped faster. Much faster, And many of them saw my safe stopping distance as a nice gap to fly into with their CRX, Fiero, Civic, Trans Am, Accord, etc. and jam on their brakes. I must be a lousy driver for trying to leave all that room in front of me to stop safely. And the longer distance I gave myself to avoid this, the more it seemed to happen.

What do they think? Perhaps, "Old car, therefore old driver...must accelerate just as slowly and can't see. Better get in front of him. Even if he rear-ends me." :-)

The percentage of traffic officers on the streets has dropped to critical levels.

All I know is now the '59 stops in a shorter distance and stops more controllably when my poor driving causing the wonderful, considerate, superior driver in the next lane to suddenly cut in front of me and slow down as he/she looks for a way to cut in front of the other lousy driver in the lane on the other side of me or cut off the person to the right of me who was already turning into the same driveway the superior driver is aiming at.

I see and hear truck drivers activating their exhaust brakes or desperately downshifting when their stopping distance gets invaded as they are in their "final approach" to a red light. Always because some jerk/jerkette has just cut them off to be first off the line or a couple more car lengths ahead. Geez, who let all those truck drivers on the road if they drive so poorly?

Maybe I'm not understanding the rest of you. I'm sure an older Imperial's brakes were the best Chrysler engineers could design at the time. They would have to be in 5,000 pound plus vehicles. But if newer cars are designed with increasingly shorter stopping distances and enough people fail to heed the advice to not "drive with your brakes" and depend upon their newer vehicles' vastly superior braking characteristics to get them out of the "jams" they routinely get themselves into, then perhaps it's best not to drive my Imperial daily.

But I believe it is equally foolish to install R-134a into an A/C system designed for R-12 after seeing the consequences of system hoses (including new hoses designed for R-12) explode and destroy somebody's eyesight as well as scar their helper's face and chest. If we're all supposed to be for one hundred percent original, why are some of you who are getting on my case for changing my braking system some of the same people who defend installing R-134a into a system designed for R-12 when many A/C experts recommend changing the hoses to those designed to work with R-134a? Didn't the engineers at Air Temp design our cars' air conditioning to use R-12? ;-)

Okay, I'm done ranting.

K.




----------------- http://www.imperialclub.com -----------------
This message was sent to you by the Imperial Mailing List. Please reply to mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and your response will be shared with everyone. Private messages (and attachments) for the
Administrators should be sent to webmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To UN-SUBSCRIBE, go to http://imperialclub.com/unsubscribe.htm




Home Back to the Home of the Forward Look Network


Copyright © The Forward Look Network. All rights reserved.

Opinions expressed in posts reflect the views of their respective authors.
This site contains affiliate links for which we may be compensated.