has any one had issues with your steering brakes or brakes in general using 4 piston willwood (dynalite i think) calipers? mine keep givin me fits! I know of a few other guys with the same issues, like they feel like they have air in them or they simply refuse to work all the time. Has anyone else had these problems?

_________________
Maybe you should chug on over to mamby pamby land....

I have willwood dynalite calipers on the front and back . my breaks are rock hard and the cutters work just fine

Are you sure you don't have a bent rotor or bad wheel bearing pushing the pads away? Are you using a residual valve?

_________________
Water cooled Dry Sumped Subaru Powered Turbo Charged Fuel Injected 2500CC Tank. Oh Rah! He who dies with the most Toys not only wins, He also wears them out!

New rotors, all tight and straight. This is my race buggy, and Hyde (a-arm buggy) is having similar issues, and a few other people i know are too. I have bled and re bled the brakes, changed residual pres valve, changed fluid, hung the buggy from the rear and bled, and still not better. I got one of those pressure bleeders too, and still nothing.

_________________
Maybe you should chug on over to mamby pamby land....

are you sure your master cylinder is big enough? had probs with mine at first due to that

Make sure that you are using BP-10 smart pads, they make a big difference on how your calipers work, Pipedope had the same issues you have for a while and changed the master cylinder, calipers, rebuilding the cutter brakes, new wheel bearings, tried residual valves, tried new rotors, bled the system 50 times and still no luck. He was finally relieved when he changed just the pads and the problem is fixed for good. If you are using other pads besides them, they will act like they are spongy all the time and sometimes no brake at all, you will have to pump your brakes all the time just to use them once then you lose it all and have to start over. I have the same calipers and no issues since day one when the buggy was built (November 2008) and still using the same pads today. I also am not using a residual valve and the brakes are solid on first push, the only way I see that the valve works for a purpose is that if your brake calipers is mounted higher that you pedals are causing the fluid to drain back into your master cylinder and to keep a positive pressure in your line depending on what color valve you have. Here is the part number you should be running from Jegs for your calipers....http://www.jegs.com/i/Wilwood/950/150-8 ... tId=758457

_________________
"Loud pipes saves lives"

3/4" or 7/8" bore should be plenty, I recommend 7/8" bore myself because I think that it will require less travel at the pedal due to pushing more fluid because it has a larger effective area and it will help increase the pressure to your calipers resulting in better braking overall.

_________________
"Loud pipes saves lives"

I like the idea of the pads, I am running a 3/4" bore for the rear brakes. Thanks for the ideas!

_________________
Maybe you should chug on over to mamby pamby land....

Reduce, not increase.

Small M/C = More brake Pressure, more pedal travel
Large M/C = Less brake Pressure, less pedal travel

Usually the cutters are swines for trapping air but given the extents you've gone to I'd try pads too.
Some of the Wilwood organic pads are quite soft and give a spongy pedal no matter what.

Not to rant on you Phillips but how does the small bore give you more pressure? Remember how they say not to use 5/8" bore on disc brakes but only for drum brakes I may be wrong but where I look at it, it is all about the effective area and if the area is bigger it will put out more pressure with less pedal travel then vice versa with smaller area.

_________________
"Loud pipes saves lives"

phillip is right about the master cylinder issue but i dont know enough about the pads to comment on that issue

smmaller bores produce more pressure but require more travel and larger bores produce less pressure but require less travel to move the same amount of fluid, but i cant remember how my hydraulics teacher explained it but nonetheless it is true

_________________
Just Stand On It!!!!

Chris

Pressure is force over area.

Your leg is producing the force, the size of the master cylinder obviously gives the area.
Given the leg force is going to be similar then you can see the smaller the cylinder the higher the pressure, obviously the area means it's a squared function so a small difference in MC size makes a big difference.

Look at like putting your finger on the end of your garden hose. With the hose wide open you have a large volume of water falling out of the hose if you cover most of the hose end with your thumb the amount of water leaving the hose is much less but with much more force or pressure. Master cyl works the same way. Small bore is less volume at more pressue and bigger bore is more volume at less pressure. You want to move a larger volume of brake fluid to move a larger caliper piston.

_________________
Turbocharged Ecotec,vanogon midshift,Berrien WoodsBuggy wagon.