XPost: alt.home.repair   
   From: bashley101@gmail.com   
      
   On 03/05/2022 02:20 PM, micky wrote:   
   > In alt.home.repair, on Fri, 04 Mar 2022 19:08:56 -0500, Michael Trew   
   >  wrote:   
   >>On 3/4/2022 1:57, The Real Bev wrote:   
   >>> On 03/03/2022 09:51 PM, Michael Trew wrote:   
   >>>> On 3/3/2022 17:38, The Real Bev wrote:   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> Only once -- the very first time I drove down a mountain road -- did my   
   >>>>> brakes get too hot to stop as quickly as I wanted. Lesson learned.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> That's a pretty rare occurrence these days with disc brakes; many cars   
   >>>> now have rear disc brakes also. When I first drove a car (recently)   
   >>>> with 4 wheel manual drum brakes, I quickly learned why people   
   >>>> (especially older drives) teach you to pulse the brakes on steep hills.   
   >>>   
   >>> 1950 Olds 88. Did they even have disks then? I really should have known   
   >>> better, but I'd never driven a mountain road before. I was lucky.   
   >>   
   >>I don't think disc brakes were even an option until the late 60's, but   
   >>perhaps someone else could be more certain.   
   >>   
   >>Out of curiosity, did your Olds have power or manual brakes?  I owned a   
   >   
   > I had a '50 Olds also.  I don't think they came with power brakes.  But   
   > it did stop okay.   They did have the possibility of Back-up lights.  I   
   > found some at a junk yard and installed them.  And they did have the   
   > possibility of an automatic headlight dimmer, based on the lights from   
   > the on-coming car.  I only read about that.   
      
   Mine certainly had no power brakes.  Drums all the way around.  No power   
   steering either.  8-cylinder engine which I once got up to 100 mph on   
   the long easy downhill pointing at Huntington (I think) Beach.  It felt   
   squirrelly, as I recall, and I backed off immediately.  (100 mph in a   
   Corolla is perfectly fine.)  The car ultimately developed a lot of   
   problems which I had workarounds for, but I ultimately sold it to a   
   "fine Cherman VW mechanic" who was sure he could fix it.  A friend saw   
   it at the local wrecking yard a few weeks later.   
      
   My grandma never learned to drive, but she scrubbed the whitewalls until   
   they looked brand new.  She also cleaned the chrome with steel wool.   
   You guys remember chrome, right?  Back when bumpers didn't need to have   
   their broken plastic covers replaced at $hundreds/each.   
      
   > The new or nearly new features of the '50 were a high-compression (8.5   
   > to 1, iirc) production v-8 engine, and an automatic transmission.   
      
   I learned to drive stick on a friend's 1938 (maybe) Ford.  Looked like a   
   Brit taxicab.  Later on I had my own 50 Chevy with an add-on floor stick   
   shift, apparently installed and driven by a chimp.  That's the one whose   
   freeze plugs I replaced.  Sold that one to a sailor on leave for the $50   
   I paid for it.   
      
   >>> Later on I drove a car with brake problems. I still pulse the brakes,   
   >>> mainly to make sure they still work before I NEED to use them. Some   
   >>> habits just don't die.   
   >>   
   >>I do the same thing, even in newer cars.  That's a good habit to have,   
   >>either way.   
      
   At the very least it's a warning in advance of need to the guy behind you.   
      
      
   --   
   Cheers, Bev   
      "You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your   
       informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant."   
                                                     - Harlan Ellison   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)