If The Shoe Fit, It Was A Miracle
Quality control depended on how consistent Cy's foot pressure was on the pedal.
Jim Winsor
Executive Editor
When I first started working on cars and trucks as a teenager, my boss would send me across town with worn-out brake linings. I'd return from the lining shop with what appeared to be like-new shoes and we'd soon have them back on the truck. Everyone was happy — or so I thought.
I'm talking about the early '50s, and little did I know. There were no OSHA standards back then. We'd blow out brake dust with an air chuck. No face masks, no goggles and, yes, they were asbestos linings in those days. I guess I'm lucky I'm still healthy. I also think I understand why many of those brake relines didn't hold up.
I recall peeking in the back room of the lining shop one day. Old Cy was slapping new linings on old shoes as he chomped on a wad of chewing tobacco and spit the juice most anywhere. It wasn't a pretty sight. Cy's whiskers were stained brown. And the smell — let's not even go there! As I recall, Cy would bust out the old rivets with a center punch and ball-peen hammer, pry off the old linings, hit the shoes quickly with a frazzled wire brush and then reach in a box for new linings.
He'd balance the lining over the shoe's center rivet holes while he dropped in the first two rivets, then squish them flat with a foot-operated press, all the time carrying on an X-rated conversation with whoever was around. "Quality control" was how consistent Cy's foot pressure was on the pedal. There was a tattered sign behind the parts counter rudely telling people like me to stay out. As I look back close to 50 years now, I guess I know why we weren't welcome in Cy's world. The boss didn't want us to see Cy, or worse yet, to see how he was relining brake shoes.
Now, fast-forward to 2004 and, wow, what a change. And it's all for the better.
I had the recent opportunity to tour ArvinMeritor's 275,000-square-foot remanufacturing plant not far from the Indianapolis airport in Plainfield, Ind., where I learned first-hand what state-of-the-art brake relining is all about. Nearly 80% of the plant is devoted to production line remanufacturing of heavy-duty brake shoes, predominantly for 16 ½-inch brakes. The rest of the facility remanufactures Meritor transmissions, differentials and Lucas and Euclid brands of hydraulic brake cylinders and calipers.
ArvinMeritor uses production line technology to remove old linings. It "cooks" them free of grease and dirt, blasts the shoes to remove rust and corrosion, runs them through huge coining presses to bring shoe tolerances back to original, dips shoes with a rust/corrosion paint and then hand-rivets the new Meritor linings using precise jigs and hydraulically-driven presses.
About 6% of the shoes are found to be out of tolerance or visibly corroded and are rejected. Surprisingly, few are rejected due to rust jacking. Epoxy coatings are now used on many brands of brake shoes installed on vehicle assembly lines, nearly eliminating rust jacking of new shoes.
Harry Howard, vice president/general manager of ArvinMeritor's Commercial Vehicle Aftermarket business, said remanufactured components are a growth market, which is one of the reasons for the investment in this giant facility.
In addition, the plant has the capacity to gear up for "brake season" (February through May) when remanufactured shoe volume more than doubles from eight trailer loads daily up as high as 19 a day.
Here are a few eye-opening statistics about the Plainfield plant: There are 2,500 customer order lines shipped per month. There are 13,000 part numbers — 3,500 of them active. The plant recycles 93,000 pounds of steel every day from rejected brake shoes and transmission/axle cores. Lining riveters go through 5 million rivets per month.
If old Cy were still alive, his corner reline shop would be out of business — and, nostalgia aside, that's probably a good thing.
