brakes and tracking

[ianminki]

hello rob and all
hi rob and all i havent been here for some time now been struggling for most of year with car build hopefuly got it sorted i think. got passenger door sorted now well best i can it was a nightmare in itself + electrics. what im after now is some info on brake set up as i have put in a floor pedal box i have looked thro some past info in here and found one article with some info but not sure how to start. as i will only be using my car for the road (im not a racer lol yet) what sort of setup do i need for the brakes and how do i go about the tracking setup (ie canver and toe) im not to sure which is which. as i am not very good with reading hoping for some photos to explain if its poss pls well its been hard work for me with no help from round here (i mean locally) hope to have some update photos when sprayed and that will be soon now i hope - gonna try and do that myself as well (first time for everything)ho and one more thing what is the cryteria for inside the cockpit ie do i need to panel it all out or just round the gearbox tunnel.well thanks for all info i have found on here couldnt have done it without all this thanks. hope to show it off next year thanks to all

[stylussprinter]

Well let's start with the easy bits. CAMBER is the amount , if any , that the bottom of the front tyre or top is further out than the other , when a spirit level is stood exactly perpendicular/level bubble next to the tyre/on the floor at tyre centre. What you need for a ' road ' setting is around 1 to 1.5 degrees negative camber(bottom further out than the top) If your wheels are 15 inch with 50 profile tyres then 9mm's from the perpendicular spirit level/touching the bottom tyre wall -- to the top tyre wall will be around 1 degree negative as a guide
CASTOR is the amount/distance that the top of the upright where it attaches to the rocker --- trails behind the bottom of the upright where attached to the lower wishbone. In your car or any factory standard car this amount is fixed at around 3.5 degrees. When you look down from the top of the upright it appears to lean backwards at the top with a gap of around 25mm's between top and bottom. Only way to alter it on your car would be to cut a few mm's off each end of the bottom wishbone tubes that house the poly top hats/metal tube inner.THEN move the wishbone towards the front of the car and cut tube plus poly to suit --- washering up too. I wouldn't bother at this stage though.
CAMBER allows the tyre tread to maintain it's full width at hard cornering speads.
CASTOR allows the camber to change appropriately at slow hard cornering. This is a very basic description of the purpose and effect.
Braking wise . If you've already got the pedal box plus individual master cylinders with the larger cylinder bore going to the rear and the smaller cylinder bore going to the front brakes THEN set the bias bar(if you've fitted one)with all braking pressure going to the front brakes THEN wind the bias bar back out around 4 half turns of the threaded bar ----- drive it to see how it performs and adjust to suit. I marked mine with tipex all over the part of the thread facing you when you look down the footwell --- then you can see if it moves.
Setting it up in the first place ie. rod lengths , getting them parallel , correct distance apart etc etc ----- really needs a phone call as it's a little complicated . My PC is down so I can only be contacted by phone or PM on here ok. Good luck

[stylussprinter]

Whoops :sho . forgot the tracking . Set it at straight ahead ie. both wheels parallel BUT if you find it tricky then. just a tickle toe in ie. wheels pointing towards each other. NEVER toe out unless very experienced or it'll have you off the road in some circumstances. When hill climbing toe out is helpful for cornering but makes the car very twitchy --- been there , done that

[stylussprinter]

Sorry Ian , I made a fundamental error in my advice on master cylinders. The larger bore cylinder should feed the front brakes . In my case it's a 3/4 inch bore. This gives a firm pedal due to more fluid being transferred to the callipers for a given distance than the smaller bore ie a small bore is much easier to depress ok The smaller bore on my set up is 5/8 inch. My large bore front cylinder is mounted next to the clutch and small bore next to the throttle . If they are mounted opposite to that then you'll have trouble adjusting it towards the front cylinder because your throttle will get in the way when depressed