Amazon: Brake System Upgrade

[Oilline]

Looking good. What pedal ratio did you go for in the end. The pedal looks like it may be a bit heavy? Dont suppose that matters though, strength is more important. I was wondering about making an aluminium version. The main body could be machined from solid and a fabricated arm welded on. Is there anything else you would of done different apart from making the arm out of wider stock? i need to make a start on my version so any tips would be useful.
Cheers. Mark

[dheming]

Originally Posted by Oilline

Looking good. What pedal ratio did you go for in the end.

Around 6.2:1

Originally Posted by Oilline

The pedal looks like it may be a bit heavy? Dont suppose that matters though, strength is more important.

Heavy it is, but you're right strength is what I'm after. I really like feedback while aggressive driving and I'm hoping such a stiff arm will give great pedal feel.

Originally Posted by Oilline

I was wondering about making an aluminium version. The main body could be machined from solid and a fabricated arm welded on.

This would be pretty nice for weight reduction. The only concern I'd have is the AL fatiguing at a weak point due to the stress cycles. I'm not a very trusting soul when it comes to a part my life depends on, when in doubt I overbuild it. A nice combo would be to make the body from AL billet and then bolt on a curved and tapered box girder made from thin chrome-moly flat stock. Or if you build a purge chamber you could fab the whole shebang from titanium.

Originally Posted by Oilline

Is there anything else you would of done different apart from making the arm out of wider stock? i need to make a start on my version so any tips would be useful.
Cheers. Mark

The wider arm stock is the only main thing right now. I'm pretty happy with the design overall so far and I don't foresee any real problems with it's function in the car. Once I have it installed I'll update you asap if I see a major issue. I'm really looking forward to completing this brake upgrade, not many cars on public roads use a balance-bar dual master cylinder setup. Should be really nice when I finally get my brick handling to my standards. Plus I'm sure it'll be a nice conversation starter when I have the hood up at shows.

Peace, Derek.

[Oilline]

Hi Dereck

Could you tell me your centre distance between the pivot and the balance bar?
I'm about to start making my version this weekend.

Thanks

Mark

[dheming]

Sure, the center to center distance on my custom arm is 2.45"(62.23mm). With the ~15.125"(384.18mm) overall arm length this gives a pedal ratio of around 6.2:1 I just organized all my drawings and notes into a 3 ring binder so let me know if you need any other dimensions.

I was thinking that it would be pretty sweet to mill the entire arm from billet aluminum. There would be quite a bit of material to remove but with large radii throughout it would be great from a fatigue perspective and would still be much lighter than mine. I just rented a real shop(with 440V 3 phase) and will be moving my tools starting this weekend. So I will be going 100% on completing this project pretty soon.

[davidw6092]

Sounds like you are doing a real job on your brakes.Dont forget that the pcd of the 1800E discs is different to your amazon.Last rally car I built,I used stainless hardline,and found it difficult to flare and bend.Great when its on and done,but I did have to really tighten up the unions to get a good seal.But when done have had no problems since.Best of luck Dave

[dheming]

Originally Posted by davidw6092

Sounds like you are doing a real job on your brakes.Dont forget that the pcd of the 1800E discs is different to your amazon.Last rally car I built,I used stainless hardline,and found it difficult to flare and bend.Great when its on and done,but I did have to really tighten up the unions to get a good seal.But when done have had no problems since.Best of luck Dave

The PCD of the 1800E rearend is what I'm after since I'm installing Volvo Hydra wheels front and back. I'm also swapping the front hubs out for later 1800 ones to make this possible.

Speaking of the rearend I've decided to convert it to coil-overs for a number of reasons, the biggest of which is to get rid of the horrible block bushings. Easily adjustable ride height and a massive range of spring rates to chose from are the two others main ones. I'm going to use four tubular control arms like what the coupe uses, but made from chrome-moly tubing. For end links I'm looking at the Spohn Del-Spheres for maximum articulation, no bind, and low noise. Plus they're rebuildable.

To flare the stainless hardline I'm going to buy this sweet Eastwood flare tool: http://www.eastwood.com/professional...ring-tool.html Even though the SS hardline is going to be tough to work with it will last indefinitely longer than aluminized steel so it's well worth it for peace of mind IMO.

[john h]

Originally Posted by dheming

The PCD of the 1800E rearend is what I'm after since I'm installing Volvo Hydra wheels front and back. I'm also swapping the front hubs out for later 1800 ones to make this possible.

Speaking of the rearend I've decided to convert it to coil-overs for a number of reasons, the biggest of which is to get rid of the horrible block bushings. Easily adjustable ride height and a massive range of spring rates to chose from are the two others main ones. I'm going to use four tubular control arms like what the coupe uses, but made from chrome-moly tubing. For end links I'm looking at the Spohn Del-Spheres for maximum articulation, no bind, and low noise. Plus they're rebuildable.

To flare the stainless hardline I'm going to buy this sweet Eastwood flare tool: http://www.eastwood.com/professional...ring-tool.html Even though the SS hardline is going to be tough to work with it will last indefinitely longer than aluminized steel so it's well worth it for peace of mind IMO.

With your engineering skills I'm really looking forward to seeing photos of all this happening!

John

[Derek UK]

"Even though the SS hardline is going to be tough to work with it will last indefinitely longer than aluminized steel so it's well worth it for peace of mind IMO. "

Kunifer copper/nickel pipes will be fine for 30+ years. How long do you want them to last? Easy to flare and form curves too. Cheap and easy to buy. Can't think of any negatives. SS pipe, put "not" in front of the above descriptions. Add, cracks in the flares, very annoying when your're doing the second end.

[john h]

Originally Posted by Derek UK

"Even though the SS hardline is going to be tough to work with it will last indefinitely longer than aluminized steel so it's well worth it for peace of mind IMO. "

Kunifer copper/nickel pipes will be fine for 30+ years. How long do you want them to last? Easy to flare and form curves too. Cheap and easy to buy. Can't think of any negatives. SS pipe, put "not" in front of the above descriptions. Add, cracks in the flares, very annoying when your're doing the second end.

+1 for kunifer

[dheming]

Originally Posted by john h

With your engineering skills I'm really looking forward to seeing photos of all this happening!

John

Thank you, I'm looking forward to it too. Once the rear is done I'll be converting the front to coil-overs as well. When I'm done with the brake and suspension conversion this should be a rather unique combination of parts for an Amazon.

Originally Posted by Derek UK

Kunifer copper/nickel pipes will be fine for 30+ years. How long do you want them to last? Easy to flare and form curves too. Cheap and easy to buy. Can't think of any negatives. SS pipe, put "not" in front of the above descriptions. Add, cracks in the flares, very annoying when your're doing the second end.

Interesting, I have some reading to do. Thanks for the suggestion.