Thread: Roadster pickup getting front disc brakes----

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Oh My God!!!! What an incredible difference. My speed bleeders come in today, so I installed them and bled the brakes this afternoon. I just come back from a test drive. The difference is unbelieveable. The pedal takes less pressure than the drum brakes required. and man, do you ever slow down in a hurry. I haven't bothered adjusting the proportioning valve yet. As I remember, the front brakes should lock up just before the back brakes, but that is a difficult thing to judge when driving the car. (if anyone has a different take on this proportioning valve setting, please let me know.) In a full balls out "Stand on the pedal" stop, the passenger side front wheel is locking up before the drivers side---at least thats what the skid marks on the highway are saying---and yet it stops arrow straight. (May be a matter of tire pressure---I haven't checked that yet). I am VERY HAPPY with this change to disc brakes. If anybody wants to buy my old 1940 Ford front brakes including backing plates, wheel cylinders (they don't leak), hubs, drums, dust caps, inner bearings, and shoes (they need new linings) you can buy it all for $200 plus shipping.

here i am sitting in the weeds trying to get an education!
any of our fine machines should be able to stop as quickly as they can
scoot down the road!
brian,now that you're a "pro" at the brake thingy, drop by my place and
convert my rear drums to disk

Donnie---the very reason that I posted this 'how to" was to take some of the mystery out of it got others who want to do the same thing. The front change over was so simple that I am sure the back must not be any more complicated. Its kind of a long jaunt from Ontario to B.C., or I would come over and help this afternoon.---Brian

To dial in the brakes you need to perform tests at varying speeds to ensure the rears don't lock up ahead of the fronts at any speed you drive; particularly highway speeds. This article explains a simple procedure to use. If you notice stock cars for example their rears always lock up first coming into the pits but not out on the track. Albeit this is an extreme example ............

http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/te...lve/index.html

Kitz

Good post, Brian. Glad you din't let the old stick-in-the-mud traditionalists get to you too much; I haven't been over there for a while - guess I'll have to go see what the ruction was about. I have been a fan of disc brakes since I first learned about them in 1960; the helicopters and other aircraft I worked on had them, and I could not understand why auto manufactureres wouldn't use them on cars. Fortunately, they saw the light, and discs started showing up on cars in the late sixties. One thing that was hammered into my head then (1960) was that disc brakes are a "floating system"; they don't work well otherwise. In the case of the ones you just installed, and indeed almost all automotive systems, the calipers float; this keeps everything sort of "self aligned and adjusted"; on the aircraft I worked on, and probably still the same today, the rotors "float" instead of the calipers - but the result is still the same. As to the residual check valves, they function in two ways; first, the residual helps to keep the pads close enough to the rotors so the appropriate amount of pedal movement is maintained; the check keeps fluid "at" the calipers and wheel cylinders - if the check valves weren't in the system, you would need a huge master cylinder and reservoir to be able to handle the amount of fluid to be moved to have a functioning sytem. O'course, you all probably already knew that.

If anybody wants the complete 1940 drum setup that I took off, I will sell it for $200 plus shipping. Drums are good, shoes need new linings.