Printable Version | Subscribe | Add to Favourites
New Topic New Poll New Reply
Author: Subject: Brake Upgrade
ChazzyB

posted on 8/3/16 at 01:53 PM Reply With Quote
Brake Upgrade

I'm getting my locost back on the road this year and replacing the 4AGE with an ST170 engine. While it's in bits I thought it would be worthwhile to do a full brake upgrade and was wondering what levels of success people had had before.

The car currently is a live rear axle with drum brakes, (straight of a mk2 escort) and the fronts are the Cortina updrights with Cortina brakes. Very much the original locost spec!

One option is the expensive one and buy a set of wilwood/hispec front brakes, and then a 'normal' rear disc conversion from one of the many escort builders.

However, being an engineer I'm pretty sure that I could do something myself for significantly cheaper and have the same results.

What 4 pot caliper and vented disc have people had success with? Has anyone tried using Subaru Impreza/legacy 4 pot calipers and making a mounting plate to the upright?

Has anyone tried using the Peugeot 406 coupe calipers?

I already run separate master cylinders and a bias bar so am happy to swap master cylinders for larger volume units.

I was thinking of using ford focus rear discs and calipers and making a bracket to suit and welding it to the axle. Has anyone tried this combo before?

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
ian locostzx9rc2

posted on 8/3/16 at 03:53 PM Reply With Quote
If you use some mintex 1144 pads up front with the std set up and if your not on 9in drum swop to them or maybe a rear disc conversion the brakes should be upto the job then at least your not adding more unstrung weight .
View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
Ugg10

posted on 8/3/16 at 05:09 PM Reply With Quote
Caprisport (on ebay) do a couple of conversion for the Cortina/escort/capri front upright using the Fiat Coupe Brembo four pots but I think these need 15" wheels (305mm disk is used for the smallest IIRC). I think these brembos are the same as the Alfa ones. You may also need to machine the hub to get the front fitting disk to go on, depending on the disc. Rear drums are OK on a light car, if you use a disc rear then you will need biased box, rear line limiter or inertia lock to make sure you do not lock the rears first (weight transfer to the front on breaking etc.).





---------------------------------------------------------------
1968 Ford Anglia 105e, 1.7 Zetec SE, Mk2 Escort Workd Cup front end, 5 link rear
Build Blog - http://Anglia1968.weebly.com

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
David Jenkins

posted on 8/3/16 at 05:16 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by ian locostzx9rc2
If you use some mintex 1144 pads up front with the std set up and if your not on 9in drum swop to them or maybe a rear disc conversion the brakes should be upto the job then at least your not adding more unstrung weight .


I put Mintex 1144 pads on the front of my Locost - worked well, but I just couldn't get rid of the squeal that they generated when I was nearly stopped. Tried all the usual fixes, but the squeal remained. In the end I went back to the generic pads.

I might try them again though, as I would still like the braking to be a bit more assertive. The trouble is I'm used to the servo-assisted brakes on my tin-top, and not used to the extra push that I have to give when there isn't a servo!






View User's Profile Visit User's Homepage View All Posts By User U2U Member

New Topic New Poll New Reply


go to top






Website design and SEO by Studio Montage

All content © 2001-16 LocostBuilders. Reproduction prohibited
Opinions expressed in public posts are those of the author and do not necessarily represent
the views of other users or any member of the LocostBuilders team.
Running XMB 1.8 Partagium [© 2002 XMB Group] on Apache under CentOS Linux
Founded, built and operated by ChrisW.