Girling brakes in the wet

[Howard Wright]

Hi Peter

My father died of asbestos cancer.  So DON’T use asbestos. It’s just not worth the risk!

Cheers

Howard

[Peter Naulls]

Thank you Howard for the warning, it is a terrible condition. 

I have used asbestos several times in the past when we were sadly unaware of the dangers. I even have memories of my father cutting up sheet asbestos with a hand saw on our back lawn - to make a chicken houses. These days I am fortunate enough to have a workshop with an air fed respirator ... but even so there is always an environmental risk and you are quite right to steer me away from it.

[Bob Culver]

Based on my experience with other makes the chances of powerful brakes with old style open asbestos linings is good. However the green stuff seems well proven. Asbestos is tricky. Many old timers experienced huge exposure. Garages blew out the drums with an air hose and the only masks were in westerns.Angle grinders were used for cutting. Others seem to succumb from very small exposure. Only the more exotic masks are considered effective. However if the packet is shaken out outside and the work done there with no filing, risk must be low.
Many girling shoes seem to fit poorly. I used to spend time filing the (asbestos) linings. Often the adjusters well out. An enthusiast who claimed considerable success built up the end of the shoes first and filed the metal to get uniform seatings. The shoes adjuster pistons etc then have to be kept in postion.

[Chris KC]

Having spent most of my life in the motor industry I watch the slowly developing debate about health and safety with interest and some confusion. Things are certainly better than they once were. On the other hand I still see a lot of 'lip service'; and as many have discovered in recent months, much PPE is scarcely fit for purpose. The best I can say about asbestos is that it seems to be a bit of a lottery, some seem to get away with extraordinary exposure yet others seem to suffer dire consequences from relatively little. The only conclusion I can draw is that it's better safe than sorry, all the more so at the present moment in history where a lung complaint is the very last thing one needs.

I was reading at the weekend a book written in the 1870's in which there was a paragraph detailing the untimely deaths then prevalent among the knife-grinders of Sheffield. When opened up they were found to have lungs quite solid and black. At that time the 'state of the art' was to equip workshops with tall chimneys which would set up some level of dust extraction.

[Howard Wright]

Hi All

Yes exposure to asbestos has very different outcomes and is a bit of a lottery.  My father was an apprentice at ICI in the late 40s and it is believed this is where he picked up the asbestos which was later to cause his cancer. He also “picked up” my mother who was working at ICI as a “Monkey muckers mate”, a job entailing mixing the asbestos filled Paste to lag the extensive pipe work.  My father died before his 82nd birthday, my mother continued on and died aged 92 with no asbestos related symptoms.

Cheers

Howard

[Bob Culver]

Hi Chris
The knife grinders succumbed to silicosis from the stone dust.Tthey were paid a premium for their short lives and resisted change as they preferred a short wealthy stint!
I have seen professional garages blow out back plates withinn the last few years. The linings may or may not have contained asbestos. It is reckoned to pass through vacuum cleaners and most masks. Yeras ago roadside dust must have contained a lot.

[Speedex750]

Hi all,

Before retirement I worked in the power industry and in my early days asbestos was the predominant insulant. There was so much of it about I heard stories of laggers having asbestos snowball fights. It is now illegal to fit asbestos products, that's in addition to your health hazards. The current advice in my (ex) company when removing compressed asbestos fibre (CAF) gaskets - the motor industry used them, they're recognisable as a mottled pink colour - is to spray and dampen them down with a garden squirter bottle when scraping them off. Asbestos is only dangerous if fibres become airbourne. I'd recommend you should do the same if working on asbestos brake or clutch linings. Be very wary of anything white and fibrous, unless you definitely know it isn't asbestos treat it as such, some get away without lung problems but regrettably I've known too many who haven't.

Sorry to sound sactimonious, Dave

[Nick Turley]

I would use the green gripper Peter. 
On Girling shoes they are fine bonded.
A little chamfer at each end of the shoe will help.
If you send them to Saftek and ask for this they will do as you bid.
They are very good and I would expect the performance will be better than your old shoes.

[Peter Naulls]

Thank you Nick, good to know that the safety considerations and the performance ones point to the same solution!

Peter.

[Dave Mann]

For anybody that worked in ship's engine rooms built before 1960 all the exhaust uptakes and steam pipes were lagged with asbestos and particularly older ships under certain running condition it was like working in a snow storm.