won again! (but now I have brake problems!)

[Racerboy]

I won again! That's two feature races in two weeks that I've won! I also won my heat race by close to a full straightaway.

I did have some major issues with my brakes in the feature, though. The front brakes were working very little, if at all, while the rear was working just fine. This caused the car to be a handfull, as the rear end would lock up and slide out and I'd have to catch it before it spun me out. Also, my pedal was as hard as a rock, but it wasn't very effective at all. I'm guessing I either glazed the front pads, or I am having brake fade. I am left foot braking and controlling the wheel spin with the brake, which is very hard on the brakes, but it's the only fast way around the track, so i have to do something to make the brakes hold up better. Can anyone help me figure this out so I can do something about it? I am currently running stock 323 brakes all around (small front discs, and rear drums), with autozone duralast gold front brake pads.

[KAinjection]

Cant you just switch to the larger front brakes that the Escorts have? Maybe your front calipers are seized?

[atomicEGT]

-upgrade front brake size
-use pads that aren't cheap ****
-add brake ducting
-profit?

[Racerboy]

I was leaving the small brakes on so I could run 13" wheels on asphalt 1/4 mile tracks, but I am not planning on running them any time soon, so I guess I could run the bigger brakes. Front calipers are new, so I'm pretty sure they aren't seized, but I'll check. And autozone gold pads have never been an issue up until now. They may be inexpensive, but they've always held up great until now. I guess I just overheated them.... Only issue is that I don't have $100+ for porterfield pads. Maybe I'll try running the autozone gold pads in the bigger size and see what happens....

[atomicEGT]

take the calipers apart and re-grease the slides anyway.

you might be able to get EBCs cheaper than the Porterfields

[Racerboy]

I was talking with sarge yesterday on the phone, and he came up with an interesting thought.

He thinks I'm running out of vacuum for my brake booster. I am almost always on the throttle. I only leave off for about a second each corner, then get right back on it. Combine that with my using my brakes most of the time around the track (left foot braking in corners to help rotate the car, and then left foot braking out of the corners and partly down the straights to control wheel spin on the very slick track),it, in theory, should drain my brake booster, causing a very hard pedal. Combine that with overheated front pads, and it should cause the problem that I'm having.

What do you guys think of this? Sound plausible?

[KAinjection]

I was actually thinking about brake vacuum issues when you first posted this yesterday. I agree with his diagnosis.

Go to the junkyard and find a vacuum pump. I think some turbo cars had them.

[jay]

It makes a difference and is certainly part of what's going on but it ain't that big. In the name of consistency I removed the vacuum boost from the equation in the rallycar. The rockhard pedal with no braking is kind of a mystery. Brakefade makes for a mushy pedal. Could be glaze, but my money's on sliders seizing up. That accounts for the pedal- if there's no pistons moving then neither will that pedal- and your um increased stopping distances. Take all 4 corners apart and give some luv.

[Racerboy]

The weird thing is that it's back to normal now. I drove it today to figure out some other stuff and it's back to a normal pedal. I took the brakes apart and while the rotors are blue from the heat, they (nor the pads) didn't looked glazed, and the caliper sliders were fine.

Edit
oops, meant they didn't look glazed.

[jay]

Calipers coulda siezed while you were blueing the rotors and slid again when they cooled off. You can try sanding the glaze off those pads but the glaze is tellin you it is time for better pad material.

[FE3-323]

i've had an internal line failure that caused my caliper to partially seize. that could be worth the change too

[Racerboy]

I made a mistake in my last post. I meant to say they were not glazed.

[jay]

Either they heatseized and you need to use hitemp lube on them sliders, or you just ain't used to brakes when you've run outta vacuum assist. Go git a vacuum pump or just remove brake booster for consistency pruposes and stand on that pedal like you mean it.

[Racerboy]

Greased the calipers before friday's race at a new (for me) track. (The track that I have been racing at for the past couple of weeks was hosting the IRA Sprint Car Series this weekend, so they weren't running 4 cyl cars this week. I decided to try another track for this week.)

Had the issue from lap one on the heat race, but they were fine during the feature race. At least until I ran out of vacuum with 2 laps to go in the feature, which I feel is to be expected for how much I was using the brakes.

I'm starting to wonder if the vacuum check valve is faulty. That would explain the loss of vacuum at times I shouldn't be losing it, such as the first lap of one race, and then it working just fine for the next race.

Anyways, I got a fourth at the new track. The cars there have WAY more power than I do. They don't enforce any of the rules except safety rules, so guys are doing whatever they want. They sound like a v8 race car when they go by me. I'm not going back to that track until I have money to build an engine so I can keep up down the straights.