Brakes! - Another holiday job.

[Peter Jones]

It's been too hot to start anything major in the driveway so I've been cleaning and painting brake parts. The sun is doing a good job of the drying process!

I thought I'd pop up a few pics, not everyone would have seen all these types of brakes. They're all going onto my MKIs.

1 Seat Codoba '97 rear drums. These are going on my Red MkI.



2 10mm Solid Discs, brand new. These are going on the front of my red Golf. ATE calipers not sure what model these are off. The
other caliper is still drying.




3 Seat rear discs, Cordoba or Toledo I think, I got these from Matt (Golf Loon) and will finally get around to putting them on my White MKI. Freshly machined, new pads on the way, I already have the Scirocco handbrake cables to suit. This car already has GTI vented rotors and matching calipers up front. Guess I'll have to pull those off and paint them too!



All at once!


Paint is VHT Drum,rotor and caliper paint. It takes a while to dry but should stand up to the job.

As well as the Drum/Disc Combo Red will be getting a 22mm master cylinder and MKIII booster upgrade (from Valver) at the same time. I'll pop up some pics of the mods I'll have to do to the booster.

[Valver.]

Oooh, nice clean up job Did everything arrive? The actual swaybar may be a day behind as I sent it separately. All the brackets and brake stuff is in the same box, though

[Peter Jones]

This is another restoration project that I finally got around to. I've had this ratty old grinder under a bench for about 10 years.

I re-wired it and repainted it and bought a wire wheel to go on it. It's been the greatest thing for cleaning up all these brake parts.

[Peter Jones]

Oooh, nice clean up job Did everything arrive? The actual swaybar may be a day behind as I sent it separately. All the brackets and brake stuff is in the same box, though

Not yet, my regular postie is on holidays and his replacement is doing weird stuff with my parcels. I expect it'll turn up on Monday.

Pete

[Peter Jones]

Another little clean up job I did at the same time. This is a GTI front anti-sway bar that's going on Red Golf. Valver is Sending me a white line bar to go on White Golf. Confusing isn't it!

The brackets were pretty rusty before I hit them with the grinder!

[Peter Jones]

Just another shot of the process - parts drying in the sun. Even after a few hours of sunbaking the paint is still a little soft and tacky. You need to wait until the following day to re-assemble the bits. The bolt is just there to keep paint out of the internals.

[Oneofthegreats]

Nice clean up & paint job Pete.

Can I suggest, if your going rear disc, definately put some rear 16V proportion valves on. They make an absolute world of difference to the braking performance on a mk1! It's like 10 fold. I've had rear disc without them & it's like day & night.

I was stomping on the brakes from 180+ & I mean stomping! No sign of brake lockup, being skiddish etc at all.

Can pick them up off ebay every now & then. Just ot to get the ones with the right number's stamped on them.
Can't think of them off the top of my head though. Can you remember Valver if your out there?

[Peter Jones]

Nice clean up & paint job Pete.

Can I suggest, if your going rear disc, definately put some rear 16V proportion valves on.

Sounds like a good idea to me!I think there's been a thread or two on the subject, I'll have a look..

The universal adjustable ones seem cheap enough on e-bay.

I've also got the self adjusting proportioning valve out of a Codoba I wrecked. I was thinking of turning it into a manually adjustable valve. It has two circuits, All I'd have to do is make up a threaded adjuster for the lever arm.

I'll see how it all works once it's hooked up and go from there.

I'll probably upgrade this car to a 22mm master cylinder too at some stage.

Pete

[Peter Jones]

Found the thread. It was yours!

http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/newforum/upload/showthread.php?t=7641&highlight=proportioning

At $89.95 ea from http://www.autotech.com/prod_brakes_rrbrakeconv.htm

A Wilwood adjustable one off e-bay might be the way to go.





Pete

[Valver.]

That price is crazy!! I have a few more sets somemore - I'll have a look in the shed

Tim's right - you have to have something controlling the rear disc pressure, otherwise it can be pretty dangerous, especially in the wet. Trying to trail brake to tuck the nose in can end up in full opposite lock

[Peter Jones]

That price is crazy!! I have a few more sets somemore - I'll have a look in the shed

Much appreciated.

Just for the sake of clarity - here's the plan.

Red Golf - This week

Front
Std new solid discs up front
ATE Single spot Calipers

Rear
1997 Seat Cordoba Drums

Master
22mm 16v master cylinder
MKIII Booster

White Golf - Sometime soon

Front
MKI GTI Vented Rotors Done
MKI GTI Calipers Done

Rear
Std rear drums at the moment
1997 Seat Toledo Solid Discs Ready to fit
1997 Seat Toledo Lucas Calipers Waiting on pads - this week.
Scirocco handbrake cables.Ready to fit

Master
Some sort of proportioning valve(s) To be sourced
Stock MK1 Master/booster for the moment - then upgrade to
-22mm 16v master cylinder To be sourced
-MKII/III Booster To be sourced


White gets the higher performance kit generally speaking. It came with a MKII GTI K-Jetronic 1800 with cam, extractors etc BUT the standard diesel brakes! (Both my Golfs were GLDs originally). White also has the tall ratio 5 speed which can make cornering difficult. I'll explain. The cam in this car is probably a bit much for this gear ratio there's not enough torque down low to pull out of the corners in second gear, you just don't have enough revs on board unless your entry speed is 60km/h or higher. I'm working on it by adding sway bars to get closer to those entry speeds and trying to see if I can regain some torque through tuning, I suspect it's there to be had. I have no idea what the cam is in the car but it's quite happy to see 90km/h in 2nd . It's still quite drivable you just can't plant the foot and pull the sort of G forces out of the bend that I'd like to and I know the car is capable of.

I was going to sell Red at one stage but changed my mind and it's aging 1600 got replaced with an 1800 '97 Cordoba (MKIII) motor. Red's brakes are on their last legs. There's no boost, and the discs are scored beyond machining. The calipers are the oldest and worst type. The drums seem OK but I've never looked in there to see.

The Cordoba motor is great and gets Red up to speed quicker than the brakes can stop it , hence the priority in sorting out the brakes before I upgrade whites system.

Once Red is sorted we can sell Blue, an aging E30 318is BMW which is an on-going unreliable money pit. With both the Red and White Golfs on the road I'll be able to spend a bit more time on the project '59 beetle (which is also blue).

Once the beetle is on the road maybe I'll get my CAMS license again and punt these things around a track or two. It's been a long time since I've had the opportunity to indulge in motorsport.

Pete

[Oneofthegreats]

If yor chasing more bottom end response, a good way to improve torque & performance is to fit a volvo 240 fuel distributor head, airflow sensor flap & an Audi throttle body (match ported to the intake)

These mod's will make a world of difference to your Golf. The bottom end response is awesome. Doesn't make a half bad induction noise either. Along the line's of a weber!

The good thing is that it's all bolt on & you can't tell any difference's by looking at it as it's all bosch component's. You don't even have to modify the airbox.

The problem with the standard proportionng valve is you can't get enough out of them in a mk1. There designed for a totally different car, weight etc.
I couldn't get bugger all out of the standard mk1 gti either.

Also, the universal ones mean you'll have to plumb both of the rear brake lines into one line for the valve to control it.

Just out of interest, you can still get the valve's from VW at a cost.
Bit over the top at $155.00 each!

With any second hand's ones you should open them up, clean them & free up the spring's, cups etc. They can jam when sitting for long periods of time.

[Water Boy]

If yor chasing more bottom end response, a good way to improve torque & performance is to fit a volvo 240 fuel distributor head, airflow sensor flap & an Audi throttle body (match ported to the intake)

Dito thats