Sintered Metallic brake shoes

[Jim J.]

Hi fellas,
I was asked to verify a part number for NOS replacement brake shoes.
A set was located with the part number 03794191
The Parts plant dealer picking tag is order No. 659516
Date written- 7/20/83

Looks correct to me but I am not 100% certain. Can anyone verify one way or another?
Thanks very much!

Jim Jordan

[Jim J.]

Re: Sintered Metallic brake shoes

Well- I found it in a 79 parts catalog. Thanks anyway.

[Wayne M.]

Re: Sintered Metallic brake shoes

Here's some more pics of the '191' fronts.
-first shows ink-stamp part #s
-2nd shows special instructions
-3rd shows another view of fronts

-last is of the rears, '194's

I used to own these; traded to a friend who lives close by; he probably still has them.



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[Terry B.]

Re: Sintered Metallic brake shoes

I have 100,000 miles on my brakes and am worried about getting correct replacements, any chance you could ask your friend about selling both front and rears (assuming he still has them)? Thanks in advance.

[Gary C.]

Re: Sintered Metallic brake shoes

Terry,

Dave Ewan might have some extras. Dave's registered on the TDB, send him an email.

Gary
....

[Stuart F.]

Re: Sintered Metallic brake shoes

I'm impressed with the 100,000 mile claim. Mine were half gone (worn) at about 35,000 miles, and a number of the pads simply broke their rusted rivets and were floating in the drum. Every time I removed the drums for inspection, I had to remove the "floaters" until their operation became so erratic and unreliable that I had to make a change. Wanting to at least try to keep my car original (as the original owner), I searched for several years for NOS replacement shoes that I could find at an affordable price only to learn they were discontinued due to EPA rules (they should have been banned by the National Highway Safety Council, or what ever they call themselves). In my opinion, they should have never been so easily attainable to begin with for cars purchased for normal every day driving. Several years ago, I replaced mine with "Metrix Ceramic" shoes and am very happy with them. They provide me with near equal stopping power and fade resistance at higher speeds as the Metallics (when hot), plus much greater stopping power at slow speeds (when cold). To me, the sintered metallics are old technology. BTW, I still have my old shoes laying around to make small boat anchors, or something.

About the only further improvement I would make with mine is change to a split master cylinder system with power assist. That would make them near perfect, but I'm still hung up on the NCRS appearance of originality thing, I guess. I'm proud to say that after 10 years of searching, I found a correctly dated 63 only master cylinder (to replace mine that was stolen), and I'd hate to throw away all that effort.

Stu Fox

[Terry B.]

Re: Sintered Metallic brake shoes

Of course I don't know for absolute certain that the metallic brake shoes weren't replaced sometime in the past, but, I don't believe so. I have read other comments making similar claims of metallic brakes lasting 100,000 miles. I have another concern and that is the drums. The metallic brake drums are more finely honed than normal and thus I worry about obtaining original drums! Can one buy replacement drums and have them honed so that they are useable with metallic brakes (assuming I'm show able to obtain metallic brake shoe replacements)?

[Duke W.]

Re: Sintered Metallic brake shoes

Any brake shop that can turn drums should be able to polish the surface to the required finish, but be very careful to explain to them how and why. There are a lot of idiots out there who don't listen and will just do whatever they usually do regardless of what you say. You'll have to judge whether the person is bright enough to understand and execute what you ask.

My J-65 shoes still had plenty of material left at 115K miles, but the drums were worn .060", so they were beyond salvageable. Back in the seventies when I rebuilt the brake system with new J-65 shoes and drums from Chevrolet the prices were still pretty reasonable. Like in the photos, mine came in the same brown boxes, which made me figure they had been in the warehouse since about the time my SWC was built.

There was very little demand for J-65 shoes. Most cars go to brake shops for new brakes, and few of those shops had a clue about J-65.

I've advised many to reinstall original J-65 shoes if they have plenty of material left, and IMO if the drums aren't worn more than .060" they can be reused, too AND BE SURE to install everthing in the same position they originally occupied. Just clean everything up, rebuild the hydraulic components, and they should be good for tens of thousands more miles. If you decide to buy new drums, have the frictiion surface polished per the GM instruction in the shop manuals.

Duke

[Paul Y.]

Re: Sintered Metallic brake shoes

When I found my 63 on the spud farm in southern Idaho it had the J-65 brakes on the rear with about 30 percent left. I found some for the front (thanks Jimmy Blakely) and have put over a hundred thousand miles on them and they are still on the car. The backs were a little thinner but still had some life left so I am still running them. One of the fronts broke some of the pads off of it and I had to replace it but I have found that they have phenominal wearing ability. I have a complete NOS set in the boxes that I paid, what at the time I thought was, an outrageous price but now I realize that it was a good investment. They too have the instructions with them and I love the J-65 brakes as I am not hard on brakes and I always warm them up a bit by dragging on them a little before using.