[R5CPD]

I was looking at a Passionford thread about someone who was restoring a Ka rally car which had been fitted with the original Boreham made 909 conversion kit.

As part of this, it included a master cylinder brace, which from what I could see went between the brake servo and strut brace. I guess it's purpose was to hold the brake servo / master cylinder and improve brake feel under heavy braking?







Has anyone seen anything similar to this before and might a similar brace make any sort of significant improvement on the Puma too?

[happy-kat]

I think Seang has made a brace using his upper strut brace as a pining point and commented it makes a difference to pedal/brake feel

off toget post it had pictures too

[happy-kat]

post clicky me
and it was d170sam

[R5CPD]

I take it that in both cases the bracing is to reduce either a twisting or transverse movement in the servo + MC rather then a fore / aft one?

[happy-kat]

when watching how the engine moves when it is reved with the bonnet open would it not be for/aft movement this mainly limits?
can remember seeing what way the servo moved though as I suppose it is not directly connected to the block by anything none moveable, or which way it flexs when you brake

[racepuma52]

We used to brace the servo in our XR2 Challenge cars to reduce pedal travel, when pressing the pedal hard the servo would move,because it was mounted to the bulkhead ,by bracing it,it still moved but not as much and gave a better pedal.

[d170sam]

cheers for posting up my pic happykat, yeah i noticed that when you push the brake pedal the reseviour moves quite a bit (i noticed this when me and seang were bleeding my brakes) just by adding these two straps the movement is significantly reduced and makes the brake pedal feel totaly solid, only cost me a couple of quid too

[warrenpenalver]

Ive seen similar done on fiesta and escort RS turbos to prevent bulkhead flex effecting the braking system.

[alan12666]

I've done similar on my rally car .... because I've moved my battery out of the engine bay I've done it slightly differently. I used some 15mm square tube from the brake cylinder lower mount bolt, and took it down to hte top of the main g/box to chassis mount ... I used the hole in the top of the mount that the battery box bolts into normally.

I know that's not much use for road cars, but the main point is without it the brake cylinders moved a lot - with it, zero. Well worth doing.

[R5CPD]

That is interesting. Thank you for all the responses.

[PumaJay]

if you mean the woodford rally ka thats being restored then yes i know which car your on about, was thinking the same thing aswell about bracing the MC + servo

[R5CPD]

That's the one

[PumaJay]

thought it might be, i love that little ka, been following its progress on zsoc

[Alan m]

May be a bit too much work for some but one other option is to ditch the servo complete and fit an adjustable pedal box. Gives the best pedal/feel and clears some of the junk from under the bonnet .

[PumaJay]

as much as i would want to do that i think its abit to much work for me!

any more pics of that puma tho?? id like to see more!

[R5CPD]

It's been many moons since I last drove a non-servo equipped car (Mk1 Fiesta 950cc I think), so does this set-up provide more braking force or just an improved pedal?

[Turby]

Unless the brace is to the servo is substantial it will be a waste of time fitting one. The whole point of fitting the brace is because the whole bulkhead moves when you press the pedal - the forces are quite high... The brace pictured in post #3 is probably not actually do much if anything at all...

I've done similar on my rally car .... because I've moved my battery out of the engine bay I've done it slightly differently. I used some 15mm square tube from the brake cylinder lower mount bolt, and took it down to hte top of the main g/box to chassis mount ... I used the hole in the top of the mount that the battery box bolts into normally.

Now that sounds like a good idea... I've got a few rosejoints kicking around and some 3mm wall tube, I'm sure I can do something similar for the sprint car. The engine doesn't move at all as its held in with all the competition vibratechnics mounts.

[Alan m]

as much as i would want to do that i think its abit to much work for me!

any more pics of that puma tho?? id like to see more!

Should be out on the Jim Clark, if your about come over for a look.

One of the biggest problems with UK spec FWD fords is being RHD. The servo is better suited to a LHD vehicle. Due to the additional slop and increase flex with the long linkage system with RHD.

[Alan m]

It's been many moons since I last drove a non-servo equipped car (Mk1 Fiesta 950cc I think), so does this set-up provide more braking force or just an improved pedal?

The amount of braking force will be determined by many factors, caliper size, disc diameter, master cylinder size, pivot points , etc. In general with no servo the pedal effort will increase but the feel, especially in the wet, will be improved.

[Pat_T]

I second the request for more pics of your car Alan!

Does losing the servo also lose the ABS? What is involved in removing it? I'm not worried about increasing the pedal effort, used to non-servo racecar brakes.