Brakes on a Spyder...

[scooby_doo_do]

Anyone know what the standard calipers/pads are from? I've decided mine are just terrible at stopping the car (in fact, my suzuki SJ stops better) so i think it's time for me to try and do something about it. In the manual i have, all it sais is "Ford" brakes, but i don't know what "Ford" it's relating too. it's a 1998 spyder.

The calipers are all rusted and look very dated, although the discs all look fine. I'm guessing it's just as cheap/easy to change the calipers and pads to see if that fixed the awfull brakes.?

Thanks

Craig.

[Graham-P]

Hi Craig,
I think you'll find they are Granada brakes. Paul (sthotfast) has done a brake upgrade on his Spyder.

[qwick]

You could recondition them and fit better pads, that's probably the cheapest route, alternativley there's a set of GTR front brakes on the pistonheads adverts for €600. Or do a willwood conversion for about the same for both ends from Rally design. Personally I think standard calipers with good pads and disks at the back is fine and upgrade the ones at the front to something decent as these tend to do most of the work. Bear in mind you'll need pretty good rear brakes though as these cars do more rear braking than front engined cars, I guess what I'm saying is don't ignore the rear because they do more work than in other cars.

[GTWayne]

Craig, give me a call on; 07979264565, I have a host of stuff ( brakewise ) that I am looking to move on and am sure that you would benefit form some of it

[Paul.B]

GTWayne said:

Craig, give me a call on; 07979264565, I have a host of stuff ( brakewise ) that I am looking to move on and am sure that you would benefit form some of it

Be warned!!!! - Do not under any circumstances be drawn into Waynes "Garages" You will NOT come out the same person. You will also be poorer and in need of going away and purchasing many extra cars you do not need.

STAY AWAY!!!!

[GTWayne]

Paul.B said:

....extra cars you do not need....

Paul, I am shocked! EVERYBODY needs extra cars, don't they? Ah wait a minute, I see what you are doing , you don't want anyone else to get a look in

[V8Dom]

Paul.B said:

GTWayne said:

Craig, give me a call on; 07979264565, I have a host of stuff ( brakewise ) that I am looking to move on and am sure that you would benefit form some of it

Be warned!!!! - Do not under any circumstances be drawn into Waynes "Garages" You will NOT come out the same person. You will also be poorer and in need of going away and purchasing many extra cars you do not need.

STAY AWAY!!!!

hahhahahahhahaaha maybe if you turn up in an old M3 you can haggle

Edited by V8Dom on Wednesday 27th May 22:57

[shithotfast]

Graham-P said:

Hi Craig,
I think you'll find they are Granada brakes. Paul (sthotfast) has done a brake upgrade on his Spyder.

Yep Granada - Siera cosworth brakes front and rear. I changed to a hotter race pad which helps, also you may have servos fitted which may not be working. I bypassed them, I need to push the pedal harder, but they do now work. I also changed the front tyres to kuhmos and this helped with lack of lock up. The fords do work, and rememebr that a cosworth was a bit heaver than a spyder - so they should be fine, but heavy track day work will be an issue. I just was too tight to pay for the bigger brakes!

[scooby_doo_do]

thanks guys. Nice speaking to you Wayne.

I do have a servo, I found this in the passenger side compartment.

The front brakes won't lock up on a fast brake. The rears however....... They definately work... As I found out whilst breaking sideways on sat!

[shithotfast]

scooby_doo_do said:

thanks guys. Nice speaking to you Wayne.

I do have a servo, I found this in the passenger side compartment.

The front brakes won't lock up on a fast brake. The rears however....... They definitely work... As I found out whilst breaking sideways on sat!

ahhh... could be a bias setup then. It should have come up on the brake test on the mots rolling road test. Also you should have two servos (its a twin brake sett up IE if one failed say the rears, the fronts still work for safety)

I could lock up the fronts, then changed to the sticky new tyres, now the rear end almost comes off the ground under hard braking. Try to get to a rolling road - it will tell you exactly your problem.

[qwick]

Might be that the first port of call is to take a look at the front brakes, give them a good clean and a scrub, test and if not ok remove servo from the circuit and test again (I'm not a fan of servos in our kind of car), if still not ok replace with better pads/discs.

If STILL not ok.... don't drive as fast

[scooby_doo_do]

on the rolling road, whilst in the car the brakes (as far as i can remember) did as followed on the computer screen (not sure exaclty what the gauge was):

front left - 330 Front right 130
Rear left - 290 Rear right 275 ish.

Now to me, that looks quite messed up, especially the front right..

The calipers are the only thing on the car that looks old, in fact, i would say they look worse than they did on my 1963 humber sceptre hotrod. lol.

Wayne - missed your call earlier, will give you a call tommorrow.

Craig.

[GTWayne]

No problem Craig, speak to you later

[edfoxuk]

try granada cosworth front calipers and discs. direct fit no mods required.

on the rear fit the standard granada fronts (already on the front of your spider) on slightly reduced diameter late mondeo discs.

you'll need brembo spot calipers for the handbrake either from factory or zcars. There a little fetling to do on the rear lugs but no big deal.

i'm running this combo and considering the outlay its great. No bias problems at all.

My car is in midlands if you want to take a look.