Which is most prefered option
Balance bar or Bias Valve

Depends on what you want the car for road or circuit and what your brake set-up is -- but as generally balance bars are best left for circuit only use.

The car will only be for road use
The set up is Cortina discs on the front and Escort drums on the back

Why's that then? Just curious....

quote:

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Originally posted by britishtrident
Depends on what you want the car for road or circuit and what your brake set-up is -- but as generally balance bars are best left for circuit only use.

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Why,s what then

Why's bias bar best not for road? Worry 'bout it changing position?? Can't think of downside but let me know- got me worried

The best way (for road use at least) is to get the balance of the hydraulice system right in the first place.

Absolutely nothing wrong with a *correctly installed* balance bar. Just overkill really for road use...

[Edited on 25/1/07 by Stu16v]

With Cortina front brakes and escort rear drums you probably won't need a balance bar or bias valve - I didn't

I even increased the rear drumbrake wheel cylinders to 22.2mm diameter and still passed SVA easily, well on the brake balance anyway

Okay, I can relax then I see the point- its not like having an imperfect front:rear brake balance is going to be the limiting factor when driving on the roads...

The advantage of the balance bar is you can fine tune the balance very easily. Once mine is set I never adjust. But.......

However ideally you need a balance bar AND a brake proportioning valve.

Brake balance will be only at the optimum in one set of grip conditions. In the dry when you can brake very hard you need LESS rear brake as you have more weight transfer. In the wet or on ice you can run nearly 50 : 50 balance. So an adjustable balance bar will let you easily adjust the balance for different conditions.

But (again) if the surface is wet and then dry you will not be able to adjust the balance bar fast enough. This is where you need a proportioning valve (AP sell them). This limits pressure depending on the pressure applied. So at low pedal pressures (ice) it does not limit pressure to the rear, but at high pressures (heavy braking ) it will restrict pressure to the rear.

With one of these valves you calculate your sizes to give 50: 50 balance.

John