Hi David,
That's a scarey situation when the car just keeps going as you put more
pressure on the brake pedal. BTDT on drum brakes on an American wagon some
time back.
Brake pads come in a great variety. The most common ones for street use
are pretty soft, but they have good grab at low temps. Next up is an
intermediate type, as hardness goes, but they take more effort to stop when
they are cold. Need to be pretty warm to work well. Then come the family
of racing pads! They hardly will stop a Spridget when cold or even warm,
but they sure do bite in on the job when they are really hot. These are
the "metallic" ones, not the semi metallic ones. They are dreadfully hard
on your rotors but they sure work great when you get them hot.
Unfortunately, there isn't one all around pad, anymore than there is one
pair of shoes that you put on your feet to go to work, hiking, golfing or
dancing. It's just a lot easier to change footware!
I drove my Morris to the top of Pikes Peak a couple of times and one time
there were a fleet of GM cars loaded with computers and passengers. I
asked what was going on and found they were doing testing of brake pads and
monitering the temps and driving styles as they went down hill. The
diferent types of driving ranged from expert to "consumer" driving who rode
the brakes all the way down with the car in drive! They said the pads
would get as high as 1400 degrees doing it that way. They were developing
pads that would hold up under the worst type of drivers. After each run
the car got a whole new braking system installed for the next trip.
Being aware of the limits of your car includes the braking system. You
discovered where it was on this car with the presently installed pads, and
I'm thankful that you survived the loss of braking power. Can be lethal,
don't need that. Did your rotors warp/crack and the pads glaze/crack after
this run? Check them out. New Rotors and pads are cheap, even for the "we
tight crowd"!
Best-Paul A
FROM: "David Riker", INTERNET:davidr at sunset.net
TO: "spridgets", INTERNET:spridgets@autox.team.net
"Paul A. Asgeirsson", PAsgeirsson
DATE: 7/20/00 12:12 AM
Re: Re: Copy of: RE: Big Brake kit
That was me. I had a complete brake rebuild, new fluid, rotors, pads,
drums, shoes, and master cylinder. The pedal was firm, and the rotors were
bright red.
David Riker
74 Midget
63 Falcon
70 Torino
http://personalweb.sunset.net/~davidr
----- Original Message -----
From "Paul A. Asgeirsson" <PAsgeirsson at compuserve.com>
To: "spridgets" <spridgets@autox.team.net>
Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2000 5:14 PM
Subject: Copy of: RE: Big Brake kit
>
> RE: Copy of: RE: Big Brake kit
>
> Castrol GT LMA has a minimum boiling point of 446 F and a minimum wet
> boiling point of 311 F. Certainly is a good idea to change annually to
> keep the boil point up higher.
>
> If in hard usage, such as a lister encountered recently in a mountain
drive
> and his pedal was still hard but no braking, the pads and shoes had
become
> excessivly hot and lost their grab. If his pedal had gone to the floor,
> then that would be caused by boiling fluid. The lister didn't make clear
> what had happenned to his brakes other than he "lost" them.
>
> Paul A
>
> FROM: Jackson Zimmermann, INTERNET:JZIMMERM@exch.co.albemarle.va.us
> TO: "'spridgets@Autox.Team.Net'", INTERNET:spridgets@autox.team.net
> "'Daniel1312@aol.com'", INTERNET:Daniel1312@aol.com
> DATE: 7/19/00 2:43 PM
>
> Re: RE: Big Brake kit
>
>
> >>>>snip
> <<Keep in mind that most fluids (like Castrol LMA) have relatively low
> boiling points >>
>
> NO
> >>>>snip
>
> I guess that I should revise my statement a bit. Compared to _RACING_
> brake
> fluids Castrol LMA has a relatively low boiling point. This is
> particularly
> important if you are using a pad compound that works when very hot (like
> most race pads). For most street applications, LMA works well. I use
LMA
> on my Sprite which doesn't see track use or hard mountain use. For
racing
> down mountain switchbacks, I would want something a bit more robust...
ATE
> Super Blue is fully DOT 4 compliant, it just provides an extra bit of
> leeway
> for those of you that may have experienced 'brake fade' due to boiled
> fluid.
> Keep in mind that most Sprite engine compartments are pretty doggone hot
to
> begin with and the exhaust manifold/header is less that a foot away from
> the
> master cylinders and brake lines. Heat buildup is a bit of a problem on
a
> nice hot day (I usually only take mine out in cooler weather).
>
> Jackson Zimmermann
> jzimmerm@albemarle.org
>
>
>
>
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> <C735981EB58DD111921500A0C99D798901ED68E9@cms1.co.albemarle.va.us>
> From: Jackson Zimmermann <JZIMMERM@exch.co.albemarle.va.us>
> To: "'Daniel1312@aol.com'" <Daniel1312@aol.com>,
> "'spridgets@Autox.Team.Net'" <spridgets@autox.team.net>
> Subject: RE: Big Brake kit
> Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 14:25:42 -0400
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From "David Riker" <davidr at sunset.net>
To: "Paul A. Asgeirsson" <PAsgeirsson@compuserve.com>,
"spridgets" <spridgets@autox.team.net>
References: <200007192015_MC2-ACD5-9DA8@compuserve.com>
Subject: Re: Copy of: RE: Big Brake kit
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 21:19:04 -0700
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