FLOATING SHOE BRAKES FOR BANTAMS

Q: I think that the ideal arrangement for the floating shoes would be for the cam and pin to be in a horizontal plane. I see that the altered shoe drawing B-8232 was released for production on 8-22-39, so I guess all the last Bantams were sent out this way. Have you run across any of these in cars?

A: 12 Jan 2001: All I can tell you, John, is that I've converted four American Austins and Bantams, and the brakes are very much improved on each one. John Beerkle did the same on his 40 Hollywood with good results. All of our conversions had the incremental brake lining. From my factory drawings, the brake cams for the late Bantams with the floating brakes had a different style brake cam than the early Bantams and American Austins. Measured across the flats of the part on the cam that bears on the shoe is 1-1/16" on the early Bantam and on the late Bantam it is only 5/8", which is only slightly larger than the diameter of the shank of the cam. The smaller distance across the flats of the late cam, I believe would give you considerably more leverage and a softer pedal.

Although I have some of the later cams in my stock, I have not felt it
necessary to change them out from the early type. Since your Bantam is a
1940, it just might have the late type. (5/8" accross the flats). If your car
has the early type cams, and you want to change them out to the late type, I
might be able to come up with a set. A set consists of two types of cams. One
set of two is for the right front and left rear, and the other set of two is
for left front and right rear. I have drawings for each type. (two drawings
for each type) The drawing for the later type has a release date of 8-22-39.