[Spridgets] Help - Seemingly Incurable Brake Fade

[Chris Manuel]

Errrr....you REALLY want to do that??? Think of the physics behind that.  Or
at least the 5 feet behind those front brakes and little tires attached to
the light rear drive car we talk of.

Now if you just want to burn rubber with the Camaros at the light...

Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: spridgets-bounces at autox.team.net
[mailto:spridgets-bounces at autox.team.net] On Behalf Of Kirk Hargreaves
Sent: Saturday, October 03, 2009 5:41 PM
To: David Lieb
Cc: spridgets at autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Spridgets] Help - Seemingly Incurable Brake Fade

David,


Thanks for the input regarding my brake fade situation.  I also found
yesterday that the spring - return spring on the brake side of the master
cyl had broken off.  I replaced it. .  made it feel a little better.

I have some new lines coming, braided lines for the front which might make a
difference.   As far as the rear brakes go, I am tempted to not use them at
all!  Cut them off from the system and let the front brakes stop the 1400 lb
car!  The fronts do over 70% of the work anyway.  . right?  Well, I am not
so sure about taking this route, but it is tempting!

I am not sure how old the rear shoes are since they have been on the car
since I bought it.  . about 5 years ago.  I am going to pull the rear brakes
apart, fix the leak and put some new shoes in.

The shoes that I have are in a green box from Moss.  "Made in England".  The
box says ABS on the top front with a pic of the shoes on the green box in
yellow.

I would guess that these might be the poorly patterned shoes that you are
referring too . . But I have not installed them yet.

Thanks for taking the time to give me your insight on the matter. .  it is
appreciated.

Kirk

On Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 4:42 PM, David Lieb <72spridget at gmail.com> wrote:

> Kirk,
> That is typical of a Spridget with too much travel in the rear shoes.
> Seems that the new shoes being sold by most of the usual suspects were
> patterned from a worn example, so even new there is not much
> adjustment. Shoes should be slightly dragging on the drums when
> properly adjusted. If not, it takes two pumps to get the brakes to
> work. I have heard that the 1.5" wide shoes from the front of the
> early Mini Coopers with 4-wheel drums work better, but I have not had
> a chance to try.
> David L
>
>
> On Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 5:51 PM, Kirk Hargreaves <khargreaves2 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > 59 Bugeye 1275. .  disk brake conversion from a latter year Sprite.
> >
> > I have bled the master cyl, the slave cyl and all the wheels beginning
at
> > the passenger side rear wheel and working to the driver side rear, then
> to
> > the passenger side front, and the driver side front.
> >
> > All bled out. .  still get brake fade. . it still feels like I am still
> > pushing air through the brake lines when I pump the brakes to stop.
> >
> > It does improve some after I finish bleeding them. . but I still have to
> > pump them down to stop.
> >
> > Could a very small leak on the passenger side rear brake cause this much
> > loss of pressure?  I have lived with the leak for a good two years
> without
> > any brake fade until now.  When I top off the brake fluid there is only
a
> > small amount of fluid needed to top off the system suggesting that the
> leak
> > is still extremely minor.
> >
> > I am going to fix the leak this weekend.  . however, I feel like the fix
> > will not improve the problem.
> >
> > I am stumped on this one.  Feels like I am driving my old 1960 VW when I
> was
> > a kid.  I stopped that thing on air for 5 years.
> >
> > Anyone ever face this problem in a non leaking brake system?
> >
> > Any ideas are certainly appreciated!
> >
> > Kirk
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