86 900 Street / Track Project

[airsweden]

Good or bad, I've run many miles without them..... on the street as well as rally-x, auto-x, icreace, track and hillclimb. Havn't had a problem yet..... knock on wood.

JT

[SwedeSport]

I must be an unlucky person, Lady Godiva was riding side saddle and I was on the wrong side of the street. Well seriously now, I am unlucky,.... While limping my car home the other night, nursing a clicking (and intermittently binding) driver side CV joint. I was sitting in traffic with the car in gear, and my foot on the clutch, when the car started to creep forward. Had to brake hard and stall the car before rear ending the car in front of me. The damn slave cyl decided to let go. Managed to get the car back to my garage by running a few stop signs, and pumping the clutch to get the car in and out of gear. While its apart I'm overhauling the front brakes. New Brembo rotors, SAS stainless braided lines, and a set of Hawk HP Plus pads. I had the HPS pads on it for the last few years and they were great, HP Plus is supposed to be more agressive. I cut off the rusty backing plates too. The calipers only have about 25k on them and one was a little sticky but they seem to be moving well now.

Who likes what for rear pads? I have to do those next, and need to choose pads. The pads in there now are too much when braking hard in a turn. When the rear unloads they lock up.
I think they are Axxis or Centric ( cant find the invoice ). I'll know better after I take the rear end apart and see what they are. in the meantime, what do you guys like?

[max]

I run Hawk HPS right now all around, and I don't really notice much difference over my last set which were Mintex Redbox. Maybe my brakes just suck, but they feel dull, don't really have a good sharp stop, take a bit of pressure to work. They aren't mushy. Almost like I have weak vacuum assist.

[SwedeSport]

Trying to put together a set of CV joints with used parts. I have 4-5 from each side. Is it possible to swap the outter joints side to side like you can with the inner drivers and buy some time?

I have found replacements from Cardone that are pretty reasonably priced. I know there were different units for different years, but I found some places show an 8valve unit, and a 16valve unit??? The shafts for 87 models are 6mm longer than earlier models. I would assume that the joints are interchangeable, and the shaft was lengthened to accomodate the vented rotor hubs being different.

[SwedeSport]

Finished up installing my front brakes, new Brembo rotors, new Hawk HP plus pads, and SAS braided stainless lines. I used the existing calipers since they still work well. Still trying to break them in. They vibrate quite a bit on braking , but Im told this is normal with the Brembo disks. Something about the way they machine them at the factory. Supposedly it will clear up after a few hundred miles.

The CV joint that I cleaned up and regreased (and reversed the cups from right to left) is working well. I took apart all the joints I had lying around and picked the best stuff from the bunch. Hopefully I am good for a while. I will however do the same thing to the pass side CV when I pull the motor to do the swap.

Resealed the clutch slave cyl with a new seal kit, and bled the clutch only to have the creeping clutch problem upon test driving. Crawled under the dash and pulled apart the clutch master from inside the car, and swapped in another piston assembly. Bled the system again and got her going. I still expect to put a new seal kit in it, but the kit I had was missing one of the rubber seals.

I used ATE super blue fluid in the front brakes and clutch, and the rear will all be bled to blue once I do the rear brakes. I STILL NEED TO FIGURE OUT REAR PADS. Anyone have an opinion on what to use? I was looking into EBC but not certain what will pair well with my HP plus pads in front. I currently have too much braking in the rear, and want to find a rear pad that will not overpower the fronts.

[Hans]

When I autocrossed my 89T in Stock class, I had rear lock-up issues that were improved by replacing the rear MetalMaster pads with Deluxe, which aren't as aggressive. I was told that if that didn't work, then the next step is to cut off some of the pad material with an angle grinder. (I also found that braking too deep into a corner at times was my own damn fault, couldn't be helped by pads, and I deserved to spin the car. ) FWIW, I have read about some guys with Improved Touring cars using hi-po fronts with stock rears without issue.

[Geoff]

On the rally car I've always used stock rears and better ones on the front. The adjustable brake bias also helps.

[SwedeSport]

I don't plan on doing a bias adjuster on this car. I can't find the invoices from the pad set that is in the car now. It would be helpful to remember what is in there now to facilitate choosing a less aggressive pad.

I would expect that with better tires (Kumho Ecsta) the extra grip may reduce my lockup by a little.

[Jordan]

Is your problem straight line braking lockup or when cornering?

[SwedeSport]

Primarily cornering braking, It will always lock up the inside rear and drag that. It will lock both rears on really hard straight line braking too.

[airsweden]

I think sticky tires and less grippy pads out back could help a little but thats also just kinda what these cars do in that situation. Its pretty common to see the inside rear wheel off the ground and stopped or at least sliding for a second. It can be tuned out to some extent but at the expense of other qualities.... its hard to have your cake and eat it too.

[99Super]

I agree about stock pads in back.
When I worked at IPS I tried every flavor I could get hold off. My favorite is the stock ATE pad.

The only trade off I've found is better handling

MMMMmmmmtastycake......

[SwedeSport]

Just a quick update.

The motor is still not done or in. But I have made some other progress. Rebuilt the noisy CV joint. New brakes on the front. Rebuilt the front brakes with new rotors, pads, and braided lines. replaced the fluid with ATE super blue fluid. New seal kit in the clutch master and clutch slave.

Finally decided to go with EBC redstuff pads for the rear. They are a ceramic compound and are said to be very progressive with low initial bite but come on pretty strong as they heat up. Ill run em for a few miles after break in and see how I like them. Rear brakes getting done this coming weekend.

The SCCA scrutineer stopped by the other day to check in on my progress. He gave me the approval to proceed to weld up the door bars and harness bar. He approved my kill switch plan (on the cowl strip), and gave me the ok to mount my fire extuingisher where I planned to (parallel to the front of the pass seat on the floor). I need to determine a way to lock my seat in position for the event. The Corbeau seats have a slider track under them. I drive this car on the street so a fixed mount was not in the cards. I think I may just drill thru both halves of the seat track and bolt them together. I also need to come up with a way to fix the seat back to the harness bar. (anyone have pics of their setups?) I am also beginning to plan how to attach the harnesses to the floor. I have to install either a window net, or a set of arm restraints. Anyone have opinions on either?

[max]

I agree about stock pads in back.
When I worked at IPS I tried every flavor I could get hold off. My favorite is the stock ATE pad.

The only trade off I've found is better handling

MMMMmmmmtastycake......

I love IPS. They always have stuff I can't seem to find anywhere else. And the prices are good!

[Geoff]

Does your seat have the flip forward mechanism or adjustable backrest? That's the only reason I can think of that they'd have you affix the seat back. I've seen some seats with threaded inserts in the seat back so you can bolt a plate to it and to the harness bar. Is the seat back solid somewhere (inside, outside)?

Don't forget if you decide you don't like the pads you got and want to switch you should re-surface your rotors or get new ones. The pads and rotors react together when you bed them in and putting a new pad in on a used rotor can result in unexpected performance.