Brake pads

[Petter Hval]

Hi!
I'm having a bit of trouble with the brakes on my elan.
My elan is a 69 model S4 on which the previous owner removed the brake servo.
Currently the brake pedal is rock hard and it is impossible to lock the front wheels, even with old tires in the wet.
I have checked all the pistons in the calipers and they are not stuck(recently overhauled).
The discs are also new.
I have also just replaced the old rubber brake hoses with new braided hoses without any significant improvements
I'm currently running green stuff brake pads and I am wondering if they might be too hard.
Paul Matty Sportscars used to have special brakepads for cars without a brake servo, although they were specified for S3 and earlier models. Would this be a sensible approach, to try to get hold of somewhat softer brakepads. If so, what sort of brake pads should I be looking for and where can I get them?

Thanks

Petter Hval
Norway

[rgh0]

Hi Petter

Green Stuff pads have a relatively high coefficient of friction and should work fine in a non servo elan - When I used them a few years ago I could lock the fronts in the dry with sticky tyres OK in my non servo 68 S4. There are other road use performance pads with similar coefficents of friction and better life ( eg Ferodo DS2500) but none that I know off that have a signficantly higher coefficent.

These style pads have a much higher coefficent of friction than the so called "soft" pads orginally used on the Elan before it had servos fitted. It would be worthwhile talking to a competition brake supply place to see if they can recommend anything better than green stuff to try


Given that the rest of your brake system appears good and working OK it gets down to the disk and pad interface I think

Potentially the disks and pads have not bedded in properly and you have glazed their surface by treating them to gently when new. You may need to just fit new pads and bed them in following the instructions that come with new pads. Potentially you may also need to grind the disk surface or get new disks. I see a huge variation in braking performance between different disks depending on the material used - cast iron is not all the same and I am sure some of the new disks sold cheap these days are rubbish.

regards
Rohan

[ivor badger]

Having got this problem with a servo, I considered buying a new servo. I thought the one fitted might have siezed, but it looked pretty new. Car has new calipers, pads and discs etc from probably 2004. So while playing with the front suspension, glaze busted the discs. Problem solved. I have only done one side of the discs so far as I haven't taken them off, but what a difference. Had the same problem with a Renault van that stood for long periods. A layer rust forms and gets polished by the pads. Ford used to sell carborundum coated pads to fix the brakes of the "drive slowly down to the shops once a week owners". The dealer simply put in the new pads and the removed the coating on the disc.

So try glaze busting the discs with about 240 wet and dry. Easier if you take them off and do them wet with washing up liquid.

[SADLOTUS]

I also had a problem with the Green Stuff Pads, they were appalling. changed to DS 2500, bedded them in as per and am very pleased with the performance. I was told they might squeel when cold but 2000 miles in and no probs. The Green stuff pads were scarily unpredictable. The DS were twice the price.


Ps: no servo S4

bought them here: http://www.circuitsupplies.com/