<VV> Brake problem fixed and new brakes

[Mark Edmonds]

Thought I would throw out my 2 cents on a brake problem I had - and my new
brakes.  It is probably not profound, but I think I learned something.
 
Last summer (2007) at NECC Lime Rock time trials I had the left front brake
fade at the end of the main straight as I started my second timed lap.
After that it pulled hard to the right every time I braked.  
On the street it pulled to the right very slightly every once in a while,
and only for a fraction of a second just as braking started. 
I had put new shoes on in 2006 when I first put the car on the road, and I
replaced the wheel cylinders in spring 2007.  This past winter I decided to
replace the shoes with Kevlar shoes, replace the hardware and have the drums
turned.  
 
I found that three of the drums would be out of specs if turned again, and
the front left drum was already out of specs.  In looking at the shoes and
drum carefully it appears that because the radius of the drum was larger
than the radius of the shoe, there was not uniform pressure on the entire
shoe, thus under extreme conditions that wheel could not brake as hard as
the others, plus the portion rubbing the hardest probably got hot quickly.
My conclusion is that this is what caused my braking problem.
 
 I installed new hardware and shoes from The Source.  I was going to get
Street Kevlar but he is selling the Ultra Series Black and Gold Kevlar for
only slightly more so I decided to get them. I drove in my first official
autocross a couple of weeks ago.  The brakes were great - no pulling, and I
was surprised how quickly they slowed the car down. I locked them up a
couple of times and had to back off a bit.   This was my first official
autocross but I had tried a couple of test and tune runs when I first got my
car running.  While I don't have a lot of experience for comparison I think
these shoes made a difference.  I have pretty good tires on the car and I
don't think I ever came close to locking them up with the stock type shoes.
 
Mark E.
1966 Corsa - 140