Help me stop!

Ironmike said
Well, I guess this is a "revisited" post, sorta. Hope someone can finally help me sort this out.

4 years ago I did the Scarebird front conversion on my 71 Demon 340, which had the factory big drums up front. The conversion went on fine and thought I had no problems.....until a deer ran out in front of me. Just didn't stop well.

So....went through 2 master cyls, went from a disc/drum distribution block form a 73 dart, back to my drum/drum dist. block. Still the same results. Stops straight, but not very good.

My local dragstrip has a notoriously short shutdown and it's honestly a bit scary.
You couldn't lock up the brakes on this car if Hulk Hogan jammed 'em on, in his prime.

My thoughts are this: the Scarebird conversion uses discs from a Toyota minivan and calipers from a Chev Celebrity/Camaro, so they SHOULD stop this car pretty fast....I think.
I bought EBC Yellow stuff pads, all new lines, everything you could think of.

I wonder if the weak link is the dist block on these cars. I was thinking of completely eliminating it with straight couplings, but I just don't know.

This is a non powerbrake car, and the Scarebird rotors are 10", I think. Single piston caliper. Anyone see a weak link there?

I am planning on ordering the SSBC 4 piston set up, but really don't want to charge something I really cant afford.

I'm at my wits end. I don't want to have an accident from this....or are my expectations just too high? I know for a fact, in the late 70's I was driving a Dart and damn near hit a kid.........those brakes locked up and left 40 feet of rubber on the road. I remember like it was yesterday. I know this car CAN stop well without spending another grand. I just got to a brain "freeze" point now.

look into the master cylinder and proportioning valve setup. I have the scarebird stuff on a bunch of cars that I have done and only one gave me a bit of a problem. 3500 lbs car too!

it turned out that I had the incorrect master cylinder( too large a bore and I don't know how many times it was rebuilt) on it and didn't have the proportioning valve adjusted right. I did have to get a new distribution block due to age and it seemed that it just didn't flow correctly. once that was done it was good to "stop".

I changed to a 74 dart master with non-power disc/drum and adjusted the rear propoprtioning valve up a bit to work right. that car now stops better than my newer cars. I also went to non metallic pads for a better grab on the disc (just made me feel better when stopping than ceramic pads)
in effect I did this by going from 1" to 15/16" on the 73-74 model dart I chose to decrease the effort "Increasing MC bore will increase your pedal effort and decrease your pedal travel. Decreasing MC bore will decrease your pedal effort and increase your pedal travel."

I CAN lock em up(the rears) if I hit the pedal hard and the car does not try to swap ends when it happens Yeah I've had to panic stop (where I had all 4 lock up.. SCARY) a couple times due to grandmas thinking they can get out an itty - bitty gap in traffic and still go slow while everyone else is doing 50-60.

here is the link I use to determine what type of braking pressure I need/want
http://cysunnychang.tripod.com/personal/useful_information/effects.htm