School me on the term "juice brakes"...

I've seen the term around a lot, but never completely understood it.

According to Rodderboy.com, they are "Hydraulic brakes as opposed to mechanical brakes. Same as squirt brakes."

Ok, fine. I can deal with that. But I get the feeling there is something that seperates the normal hydraulic brakes I'm used to from what most of you guys are calling "juice brakes"...is there really a difference?

AND, what did the old mechanical brakes look like...and when did they stop being produced?

Thanks, guys and gals.

 

Cosmo is smarter than me

 

juice squirt what ever liquid,, brakes that use a fluid to apply them, same thing no matter what some one calls em,

mechanical used cables or rods, to apply them my a has the mechanicals and been drivign for years , they worked then and the ystill work just more looking after them, my model t has no brakes on the axles except for the rear parking , the ****** has a drum that is used ofr braking, it stops great, again mechanical is all in the setting up and looking after them

 

1939 was the last year for mechnical brakes on Fords, which is why the fascination for '40 brakes, they bolt right on.
Crosley used mechnical brakes (cables) until 1948. In 1949 they went to hydraulic brakes, four wheel hydraulic disc brakes. That's right, Jaguar, Corvette, et al were NOT the first cars with four wheel discs, Crosleys were.
Too much information, from a brain with too little to do.
Maybe I should hike myself to NAPA and grab the fuel line I need to fix the little Cit...
Cosmo

 

There actually is a difference in what most call "juice" brakes and normal "modern" drum brakes. The early Ford hydraulic brakes did not use a floating shoe style self-actuating mechanism, usually referred to as a "Bendix" mechanism, that most modern drum brake systems use. This means that, all else being equal, they require more pedal pressure to get the same amount of braking force as newer style drums. Early hydraulics can work okay but just as with mechanicals they need to be properly, and more frequently, adjusted to work well. Switching to juice brakes was favored back in the day not so much because they stopped a lot better but because when a car was lowered with dropped axles and whatnot it became extremely difficult if not impossible to retain the mechanical setup. The mechanical's brake actuating rods need a straight shot at the drums whereas hydraulic hoses have a lot more flexibility in their positioning. Also going hydraulic allowed 40s rodders the ability to adapt upscale Bendix actuated Lincoln brakes to their Ford spindles. These are repopped by Wilson Welding these days and are crackerjack units.

 

i'm 99% sure that 39's got juice brakes. only year w/ juice and skeleton wheels

 

Thanks for the info, guys! I am slowly but surely learning the ways of the Force...uhm, I mean Hot Rodding.

Er, whatever.

 

1939 was the first year for juicers, not '40. I've never heard Wide-5s called "skeleton wheels" before, but the term certainly fits!

 

It's just a hot rod term for the '39 and later hydraulic Ford brakes versus the mechanical brakes used on cars prior to 1939.