DRIVING

DRIVING "BIG RED"

Project Suburban: BRAKE PADS UPGRADE

Our ’96 Suburban has been our race support vehicle for a year now. It transports our crew from race to race and gets quite an abuse. Now it's time to start the maintenance game.

We first noticed that the brake pedal had too much travel. This is caused by too much clearance from shoes to drums. Also, the springs in the assembly, are so worn out that do not allow the automatic adjuster do its job properly.

Another problem with this truck was brake pulsation, this is a very annoying thing when trying to stop the truck from 65 – 0 mph. This is a syndrome of front warped rotors and is accentuated by the amount of clearance in the drums and shoes.

As any performance enthusiast, a set of monster cross drilled rotors, 4 piston calipers that can stop a Mac truck sounded like the way to go. However, looking at the budget does not allow for our dreams to come true. We decided to use our hi-performance brake pads and shoes made by Porterfield. They are fabulous pads that are used for street and mild race applications.

R-4 S: Street High-performance & Limited Competition
The high performance street pad of choice. Very high friction level even at cold temperatures.

ARE ALSO AVAILABLE HERE!

After removing the rear drums we discovered that the shoes were not badly worn. This may have been due to the lack of pressure against the drum generated by the springs.

Notice the spring on the top right bowing (no tension)

The housing is then cleaned and grease is placed on the plate where the shoes will be sliding on.

The new shoes and all new hardware is then installed. Final adjustments will be made after the front brakes are done

The front brakes are a different story. As you can see on the left picture based on the wear (thickness of the pad), our truck was using the front brakes way more than the rear.

After having our rotors turned for about $10.00 each we fully wash them with solvent in order to remove all possible grease and oils used to turn the rotors.

These rotors use inner and outer wheel bearings which need to be packed with grease prior to installation.

Also a new grease seal is installed by using a mallet lightly

Our rotor is now ready to be installed on the spindle and the new R-4S Porterfiled pads ready to be mounted on the caliper

Our race support vehicle is now capable of towing the race car and actually able to stop. The brake pedal feels firm and it now gives a better sense of confidence. It seems that the more you use the brakes the better its stops.

R-4 CARBON KEVLAR BEDDING IN PROCEDURE All disc pad materials require a period of bedding in before they are subjected to severe braking under racing conditions. Because of the special characteristics of Porterfield R-4 disc pads a very special bedding procedure is necessary to ensure that they will achieve their full potential. When a satisfactory contact has been made between pad and disc the brakes should be used progressively harder until a falling off in performance is felt (brake fade). This is best done by continually braking from medium speed until, at the end of one such stop, a substantial increase in effort is needed to reduce the speed of the car. Brake parts will be very hot by this time and it is very important to now allow the pads to cool and recover, preferably with the vehicle still on the move. If the above advice is followed, Porterfield R-4 disc brake pads will give long and fade free braking, coupled with good performance and disc condition .

For a brake pad quote for your vehicle click here or call us at (310) 497-9420