<VV> Power Brakes for Corvair

[Kent Sullivan]

On both of my '66s, I have specifically noticed that the amount of foot
effort and pedal travel is LESS than in my daily driver disc-brake car
(built in 2003). ABS and what-have-you can really affect things.

Corvair brakes, at least on a late model, can be set up to engage very
quickly and man oh man is there a lot of stopping power. Remember, they are
the same brakes as a SS 396 Chevelle of the same era, just reversed. The
Corvair is a whole lot lighter and has much better weight distribution under
braking than the Chevelle.

--Kent
-----Original Message-----
From: virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org
[mailto:virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org] On Behalf Of mhicks130 at cox.net
Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 7:27 PM
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: Re: <VV> Power Brakes for Corvair

> ********************************************
> You guys are missing the whole point here.
<snip>
> 
> I don't have any experience putting power brakes on a non power braked 
> car, so the only advice I can give Bill is, "Go for it.  How hard can it
be?"
> 
> Roger
> 
> PS:  Anybody that says there's no advantage on the Corvair to going to 
> disk brakes has never run his Corvair through deep water and gotten 
> the brakes wet.  I have, and I'd gladly make the swap if I still drove 
> it in those conditions.
> ********************************************


Just because he only asked for help on installation doesn't mean our
pointing out that the stock brakes are fine isn't helpful.  If not to him
then maybe to someone else reading this who's considering doing this.  He
doesn't have a lot of experience with Corvairs (he just took his first drive
in one) so he might not know that properly set up, the Corvair brakes are
great so he may be trying to fix a problem that doesn't actually exist.  

Yeah wet drums take longer to dry out than wet disks but I haven't had a
problem with it (yet!),  you just have to keep that in mind when it's wet
out and touch the brakes from time to time to dry them off.  I still don't
think it's worth the swap though.  Now if I was autocrossing a lot or lived
in a mountainous area, I would do it.  And I have more than once wanted to
change when working on the drums with all their bits and pieces that don't
want to go back together.

mike
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