Brake opinions needed

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7

71dusterdan

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71 Duster, late B cop brakes, sliders, mid 70's Lincoln discs and calipers rear. Caliper piston diameter is nearly the same and the rear discs are 1/2 in diameter smaller than fronts. Car near 3200 lbs. power or manual? Ordering the rest of my needs from Doctor Diff today. I'd like to hear from guys that have manual brakes on their cars, how it feels, how it stops, if they could do it all over again, would they? The engine is mild enough to not cause any vacuum issues. Thanks
 
6days and no responses. Thats odd.
Ok, Ill offer my opinion.
Power is better. Especially with discs, and most especially as you get older. But the oem stuff typically is/was over boosted.Sometimes/many times, fine tuning is required.
With few exceptions,I would never go back to manual. The exception might be a very light weight car, or a car with an exceptionally good pedal ratio.
I assume youre planning a P-valve install, in the rear line?
 
I would lean toward power as well. However that means you will need to watch the camshaft so you will have plenty of vacuum to operate the booster.
 
Manual on my Duster- Pedal feels great, stops when I need it to, no booster to deal with. I've got manual steering too, I just like things bare bones I guess.
 
All cars I have seen since the 1990's have a brake booster. Must be a reason (lawyers, market to women?). Maybe Smart cars get by with a manual MC (anybody know?). It is a personal preference. I put a booster on my 65 Dart for later disk brakes, thinking that was required. It stops "authoritatively" w/ drum brakes, so should be about perfect with disks. My 65 Newport (C-body, ~4000 lb), came w/ factory booster & drum brakes, and feels about right. When the booster failed (ripped diaphragm), I could barely stop it and needed 2 feet to skid the tires, and I bike and run so can push a pedal well. I recall it had a 1"D MC (no lever), but now 7/8"D which will be better if the booster fails again.
 
4 wheel disk here with Manual MC, and it stops with no issues. Cass will give you some direction too.
 
My opinion is that four-wheel discs are going to require a fair amount of pedal pressure to stop the car due to the lack of self-energizing. I once had a very light car, okay, a Fiat, that had four-wheel discs and no power assist. With semi-metallic pads on the front one would be very hard pressed to lock the wheels. I tried.

(Stop laughing at the Fiat.)

For Bill, all smart cars have power-assist, even though they only weigh about 1800 lbs. They will stop Right Now.
 
Just put disc brakes (73-up Abody) on our dart with 11 inch drums out back. Using a manual wilwood master cyl. Pedal feel is great and the car stops awesome in my opinion. And most of all the wife who is used to power brakes loves the feel and how the car stops. No need for power brakes for me and my usage of the car.
 
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