Hey guys! I think i want front brakes, but i am on a very low cut budget. I was conteplating on putting '96 Chevy Montecarlo dual piston brakes on the rear of my buggy and taking the rear calipers and making them work on the front?
Could i use non VW rotars on the front if i were to machine down drum brakes? Just redrill the rotars?
What are the pros/cons of front brakes?
Thanks
dave

You got balljoint or k/p spindles?

The pros of front brakes on a seperate handle are numerous:
1) You can stop on just about any grade you want going down hill. It is amazing how well they hold, especially with traction front tires.

A) If they are on a seperate handle, you can "feather" them while you lock down the rear, and you can still steer.

Uno) If your back brakes spring a leak and you run out of fluid, you can still ride because its all seperate. No cutters is better than loading up and going home early.(Just dont try to stop while going uphill, fronts are useless then. )

1st) Very easy to blead out and get working well.

*) You can kinda hold your buggy back while doing a John Force and spinning mud at your drunk buddy who just ran into you and dented your header.

The cons:
A little more work to do and money to spend.

Larry

i am k/p. i am running out to the buggy shop today cuz it is my birthday, so im gonna talk to them and see what kinda deal i can get

I wouldn't even leave the garage without front brakes. I ran my old woods car for 4 or 5 years w/o front brakes, and thought it was the way to go, till i got front brakes. I have heard every b/s story about front brakes screwing you at some point, but oddly enough, have never been in that situation. I used to woods ride every weekend before I had a wife and kids, so I am speaking from experence! Thats my opinion

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

Im in the process of putting disc on the front of mine and cant decide on running braided lines from the frame to the caliper or rubber.Could someone post a pic of there front brake set up,so i can see how they ran there lines?Also sorry about hijacking your post,but maybe this will help us both.

I have front and rear disc brakes and I have "NO - NONE - NADA" steering while going down a steep hill or (even worse) trying to back down a hill climb. However, I am trying to fix the issue by adding cutting brakes on the rear to help with steering and adding a proportional valve to balance the front and rear brakes.

Since I do a lot of street driving as well as woods riding, I need to have front brakes and I think they can help off road. However, you need to be able to reduce the front brakes while driving off road or you will just lock up the front end and have no steering.

Just my experience....
Dan

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I have 4 wheel disc with proportioning valve set all the way for the road, and valving to switch to 2 + 2 disc with turning brakes for off road. I love it

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If your clutch ain't slippin,, you probably got it adjusted right!!!!!

I'm running the dual master cylender brake pedal set-up on the race car, its nice, but in the old woods car I had an adjustable perportioning valve. It didn't do much, but I thought it did... and thats what counts

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

Well, I just used the stock drum breaks(it's cheap) they stop my chaindrive going down with just single rib tractor tires. But they don't work well enough to lock up the front tires(which is a good thing when backing down a hill) and all four work off one 1" master cylinder. which then you have the problem of only one master cylinder for all your brakes, So i keep another one in the trailer.That's my set-up, not saying that'sthe right way just my way.

I can see where a prop. valve would ideal on the street, when u have to jump on the binders fast to keep from putting your front beam in someone's granny's backseat when she realizes she has almost passed up the bingo hall entrance. But in the woods, no mechanical valve in the world can decide when u want full locked fronts to stay on the high side of a bluff, or when u want to lightly apply them so u can still steer. Seperate handle makes that decision all your own.

If u run kp, the cheapest way i know is to cut off your spud (the part that sticks out, where the bearings go)flush w/ the spindle, buy some b/j spuds for $15 each (call Tim at Southern Buggies )and weld them back on, get some used ghia front rotors and your choice of calipers (ghia works well, sentra a little better, and single piston wilwoods are the shiznit) make some caliper brackets, get a $35 m/c (also available from Tim) and make a bracket to hold it and either buy or make a handle.
Should have less than $150 in the whole deal if you go for sentra boneyard calipers.

MIght also be a good time to drop the spindles a little to gain a little more clearance..The link to Blindchickenracing.com shows this method.

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If your clutch ain't slippin,, you probably got it adjusted right!!!!!

thanks. i am actually really thinkin about the raised spindle idea