EFFICIENT BRAKES

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 20 February 1932, Page 12

EFFICIENT BRAKES

A NECESSITY W HEN TOTH INC

SI MPLIEIEB A DJUSTMENTS

Although it is a rule too frequently neglected, no driver should take his car cm to the road without the conviction that the brakes are in thorough working order and capable of promptly stopping it in any emergency.. The last few years have witnessed a remarkable improvement in the efficiency of ear brakes, mainly, no doubt, because better roacls and improved vehicles are combining to have the effect of increasing average drivingspeeds. The perfection of a simple form of front wheel brake has also done its share to increase general braking efficiency. The best brakes yet made, however, require a certain amount of care, and they cannot be expected to work properly unless they, are correctly adjusted. Brake adjust-' ment is gradually being simplified with the improvement of equalising de-

vices—fittings which automatically ensure that the pressure applied to the pedal is distributed to the whole four drums, but a great many cars are still in use in which each brake must be adjusted separately, and in such cars careful adjustment is essential for efficient working, because if one brake engages before the others it will prevent- them from operating. The wheel engaged, no doubt, will lock and slip, and the others will roll unchecked. In such circumstances the braking effect available is very small. Eor brake adjustment on such a' car all four wheels should be lifted off the ground, each being held clear by substantial blocks after being held clear by the jack. The controlling nut on each brake rod should then be adjusted until all the brakes engage evenly as the pedal is depressed. Possibly the simplest way of securing the initial adjustment is to tighten the nut on each wheel until it draws the brake shoe into contact with the drum. By slackening the nut until the wheel just spins clear a nearly uniform adjustment is secured, and any brake which then sec-ms to engage more vigorously than the others can then be adjusted by a further slight slackening of the nuts. On no account should an adjustment bo retained which allows one brake to drag, as this will rapidly wear, the brake lining and involve a loss of both speed and power and a waste of fuel.