Power brakes or Manual?
 

Hey,

New to this site, just looking for some friendly advice. I have a 68 Camaro that is currently 4 wheel drum. I'm looking to atleast upgrade the front braking system to disc. I have heard that running 4 wheel disc brakes is a bad idea when the car sits for more than 6 months at a time as the rear calipers have a tendancy to seize? Also, i would like to get rid of the brake booster for esthetic reason's but i'm not sure if manual brakes are going to be good enough. The car has a fuel injected 454 which makes very little vaccume at idle. Seems like gettting rid of the power brakes and going with a decent manual set up is the best option. Any comments or suggestions is greatly appreciated.

hydroboost runs off of the power steering pump so you don't need a lot of vacuum. It also looks nicer than a vacuum booster. They are on the top left of the screen. Hydratech braking systems :thumbsup:

Manual brakes work GREAT -- and there's no good reason to run power brakes. The key to good manual brakes is the proper master cylinder for your combination - and the pedal ratio. If I was doing disc front drum rear - I'd run a 1" wilwood master cylinder - and a 6 or 7:1 pedal ratio.

Power brakes are 4:1 pedal ratio.

Talk to the boys at KORE3 - Just google it... and see what they advise you.

Thanks for the advise, I think i'm definitely going to go with the manual set up. Just gotta find the best deal, on the best set up. Thanks again guys.

BBC with very little vacuum and running a manual Wilwood front/rear setup with a 7/8 bore master. Hit the pedal hard and if you are not paying attention and you will bury yourself into the steering wheel. We have a number of kits that we can offer you. Feel free to call, PM, or email for pricing and info.


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How well the manual brakes work depends a lot on how the system was designed. If you use a system that was designed as a power assist system, there is a delicate line in getting the volume / pressure right. A system like Wilwood will work great as a manual system because it is designed to be a manual system, but you can run power assist if you choose.

We sell more then half our Wilwood Total Car G Machine Brake packages as manual systems as many of our cars and customers cars are big HP, big cam, or blown turbo / blower cars, that make little vacuum.

It gets a little tricky with getting proper pedal feel and volume with disc / drums. The small bore / high pressure master does not work great with disc / drum set ups. A larger bore works much better for volume but makes for a fairly firm pedal. So it really becomes a one or the other situation.

I could talk for hours on the subject. But I type with 2 fingers, LOL!

pedal ratio
 

How do you change the pedal ratio on a 2nd gen TA?

its all about where the hole is located on the pedal. if you move your foot 6" and the pushrod moves 1" you have a 6:1. its just the ratio from the pivot point of the pedal to the mounting point of the pushrod and from the pivot point of the pedal to the foot pad on the pedal.

It's the length of the pedal arm and distance from the pivot point to the pushrod. If the distance from the pivot point to the pushrod hole gets to short, you sacrifice piston stroke.

I'm switching to a 1" bore master in my manual system. 7/8 is great in a street car but it's got it's drawback on the track.
I diagree Greg. There are advantages of power systems. It covers up brake pad knockback with a much larger piston. It's also better in a daily driver. How many factory cars have manual brakes?

There is a "newb" for brakes posting on here - in the brake section - that will show you "pedal ratio" and what it means etc. You'll have to search for the post -- if you don't want to do that - then just google "brake pedal ratio" and you should find all kinds of info.

Todd -- Power brakes are for pussies...

Covering up something is not the same as FIXING it. :rofl: