MG Sports Cars

I would like to talk to steven ward about his brake problem



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2008 02:37AM by Moderator.

Hi Mark, and welcome to our message board!

I've deleted your e-mail address from your original message, and sent you a "private message" with Steven's info. He doesn't post here yet... and also, posting your e-mail address on message boards is pretty much guaranteed to get you a ton of spam. Instead, I highly recommend our "private message" system. It really works great!

Has any one tried to put a double set of brakes ,one inborard and a set out side to reduce the stress on the brakes when running an automatic trans?
mark

Mark,
I have never heard of that. I drive a auto trans BGT and have no problems with the stock brakes. Last year I ran it pretty hard at Nelson Ledges and the brakes did not fade at all. I have only a 3.1 engine and am not the hot shoe that Carl Floyd is, but feel I pushed it preety good.
I towed my trailer from Dansille ,VA to Jim's place in Florence,KY through the mountains and had no problems. I was carrying the 455 Buick in the trailer and other parts. No problems there either.
Duel brakes may be overkill.
Steve

Quote:

... the hot shoe that Carl Floyd is

HA! Pay no attention to that, just some old urban legend.

MGBV8 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> HA! Pay no attention to that,

At your peril!!

Dual brakes?? This is on the front? I don't understand. How would you find room for such an arrangement?

Jim

Jim, I think this might be one way to get additional braking up front. Thought of this with the tight confines of the Midget's 13" wheels. Similar thing would work on the rear with an IRS such as the Ford unit with outboard brakes, just add discs inboard like the Jag.

I'm with JIm as far as understanding the logic. Questionable braking improvements, additional unsprung weight, more complex hydraulics/proportioning front and rear - probably easier and better to purchase a "big brake kit" from Bill Guzman

I don't belive i said anything about extra breaks the front what I was suggesting is a set of inbored breaks like the jag and aset on the outer hub to give extra braking to keep the rotors cooler.
Mark

Graham, I agree, but when you have some limitations as to wheel size which dictate small diameter discs then you start looking for unusual solutions. For most of us we have much better brakes than the car actually needs anyway. If you can lock the front tires under hard braking then you have all the brake power you need, just need to work on fade resistance from there. Once the tires lock up the biggest brakes in the world won't help you stop any faster. Probably the best thing you can do for the car with an automatic trans is to reduce the pedal pressure by using a vacuum booster or a pressure multiplier valve such as the one show on this site [ecihotrodbrakes.com] which would make holding the car in gear easier on the leg.

Mark,
Since only 20-25% of total chassis braking is accomplished by the rear brakes, it doesn't make a lot of sense to add additional braking effects as you're suggesting. Most of the vehicle weight transfers to the front axle when braking so front brakes do most of the work. Bill's comments in the previous post ...."If you can lock the front tires under hard braking then you have all the brake power you need, just need to work on fade resistance from there" ....are really to the point.

If locking up front brakes was the determing factor , why would we put disic brakes on the rear. why do they put ABS systems on cars when you can look up the front brakes with out them? Well the important factor in braking is to slow the vehicle as fast as you can with out locking up the brakes and loosing steering control. If you lock up your front brakes loose control of steering and using a valve to reduce the presure on the front brakes so they don't lock up. So if you are racing and start having locking problems you ajust the front to rear bias so you don't lock up the front. but if you arn' locking up the front brakes but start having brake fade you are having an example of poor braking because of to much braking and the build up of heat in the rotors an pads. One cure is to run full metallic pads but if you are running the car on the street you don't want to use full metallic because with out heat they don't work very well.
mark

The added complexity would make a dual system on the rear a poor choice. Anyone with experience on Jag brakes will tell you that servicing inboard brakes is a job where you'd just as well bring your lunch. Considering that the stock drum brakes are adequate even for hard mountain driving with vastly upgraded front brakes, it's pretty obvious that just about any disc brake upgrade to the rear is going to be more than you'd ever need so there's absolutely no need for a dual package unless you plan to run go-kart wheels.

On the front, a dual package would require a complete redesign of the entire front suspension probably including the steering, so unless you start with that objective in mind I don't see how you could do it. Even then it's not likely that you could find enough room in there to add the second rotor and caliper. Add to that the fact that there are several upgrade packages that are more than adequate for any kind of driving and the extra complexity just doesn't make much sense.

But if you really want to do something new and different, how about attaching the rotor at it's outer edge to the rim and placing the caliper to the inside? This gets you the maximum rotor diameter possible for the greatest total area and potentially the greatest swept area and therefore maximum cooling with the least mass. So far these systems have only shown up on ultra extreme cars and bikes, but maybe you could introduce them to the MGB-V8 crowd.

Jim