Technical Brakes

[mick_131]

Hi,
Don't know if anyone has tried this but thought that I would post anyway.
Just put the Marea through it's MOT and it failed on a few bits and peices, mainly the brakes not performing.

The N/S rear brakes had a stuck slider on the caliper, which took an age to remove and it bent in the process so my brother, who has an alfa 155, had a spare one so we used that.

While I had it jacked up he had a look underneath at the brake compensator and said it was the same as his. He had allready modified his with a stiffer spring so we had a go with mine. We didn't change the spring but merely adjusted the bracket that the spring attached to ( see pics )

Thus putting more tension on the spring itself. It was a cow to stretch the spring into it's slots, but what a difference !!.

Braking from about 50-60 to a standstill and virtually no diving, the car seems to just squat under heavyish braking and generally fells more stable as well. Anybody tried this ??.

 

[jug]

adjusting your brake bias in this way is not a good idea. it may seem better in a straight line in the dry but the next time you have to brake on a wet corner your back end could step out.

 

[the spleen]

hi all, tis a great mod ...

the rear brakes operate at a fraction of what they are capable of ( even though they are relatively small ).
the adjustment is put there by the manufacturer.
if the rear was wanting to step out abs would stop any locking up.
but more importantly this has been tried and tested

so get yer spanners out!!!!

 

[Hellcat]

If the front end isn't diving then you're not using the front brakes enough!

Go to a car park in the wet and while turning pull the handbrake hard. That's what you're doing by adjusting the bias valve to the rear, and that's what it will do in the wet on a corner.

 

[bulldog5046]

If the front end isn't diving then you're not using the front brakes enough!

Go to a car park in the wet and while turning pull the handbrake hard. That's what you're doing by adjusting the bias valve to the rear, and that's what it will do in the wet on a corner.

absolutely nothing then

 

[Hellcat]

absolutely nothing then

Fix your handbrake will ya!

 

[the spleen]

Well i can only say guys this has been done on cars with and without abs,
which have been driven hard on the road and at track days in dry and wet weather .

a more important factor in losing the rear in the wet when driven hard is suspension and tyres.....

having harder suspension at the rear and softer at the front promotes rear drift on fwd cars ...which is fun