Brake Balance - Pad choice?

[englishmaninwales]

1966 S3 Coupe. My Lockheed servo died a couple of years ago, so I removed it from the circuit (as I judged it was probably unnecessary anyway). The resulting brake balance was (unsurprisingly) the same, but I required massive leg muscles to brake!!

I had a part worn front set of Mintex 1144 pads off my Caterham (similar caliper) and these produced a nice feel to the brakes and massively improved performance, but the bias is a little too much to the front.

I have no idea what pad material is on the rear, came with the car, but these need replacing soon.

I'm after the collective knowledge on here for the front and rear pad material to give a good balance and performance on a servo-less brake circuit.

The car is road use only.

Thanks
Malcolm

[661]

I think the brake balance with the same pads front and rear is just about right. I too have the servo removed and green stuff all round, Motul 600. The braking is the best I have ever known it. (I've had the car since '86 - last 18 months unservo'd)
Personally I think there may be better than green stuff as they are a bit unresponsive cold.
May I suggest that whatever you choose, your Elan deserves a new set of the same all round and a flush of brake fluid.

[rgh0]

Brake balance depends a lot on the tyres you run and the road your running on

With modern tyres and a dry road you can get more front weight transfer than the original hard cross plys the brakes were designed for and the Elan is over braked at they rear. To balance this up unless you put in a balance bar system or rear pressure limiting system you need high coefficient pads at front and lower coefficient at rear. EBC greenstuff at front and EBC black at rear is a combination that does this. Many other options if you talk to a specialist brake place or someone like TTR.

cheers
Rohan