At 05:12 PM 1/22/2000 -0500, Chris Gkikas wrote:
>What greeted me was lots and lots of brown dust, I'm presuming worn
>metal.

Worn-off remains of the brake shoes, mostly.

>  The inside of the brake plate was grooved up, as well as the
>shoe linings.  But where there really linings at all?  I'm not sure if
>what I saw was lining or the metal of the shoe itself.  Picture:
>there's the part that's obviously the shoe, then there's one more layer,
>which is what contacts the plate.  This is pretty grooved up, too.

The layer that contacts the drum is made of a composition material like
clutch linings. If this is worn through so metal is pressing on the drum,
should be obvious -- patches of shiny metal, strange noise on braking etc.

>I priced some shoes at Pep Boys just now... $16.99.  The lining, as far
>as I could tell, was sort of blasted on like a spray.  It felt rough and
>not solid.  Could this be right?

That sounds just plain weird.  These brake shoes look pretty much like
every other brake shoes in the world.  Dunno what to say except compare
them with some others and maybe think about getting real ones from a local
importer or Bus Depot or such.

david

David Beierl - Providence, RI
  http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"