Upgraded Braking: All Wheel Discs for VWs

[Brian]

For anyone interested in upgrading the performance of their

VW based MGTD replicas, arguably the best place to start is

the braking system.

Kits are available at very reasonable cost to upgrade both the

front and rear brakes to disc brakes (about $600 total). I have

done this to my own BCW and I love it. With all wheel disc

brakes, I have found that my BCW?s braking is far more

responsive, even, and predictable, as well as far less

susceptible to dangerous overheating during hard (ie. fun)

driving. Additionally, there is the immeasurable advantage of

never having to adjust the brakes again, as is constantly

necessary with stock VW drum brakes. I did the installations of

both the front and rear kits myself and found them to be fairly

easy.

One very important recommendation that I have, which actually

prompted me to write this post, is that you should only upgrade

the front and rear brakes at the same time. I had initially

converted only my front brakes to disc, leaving the rear as stock

drum. I found that this created an imbalance in the braking

system in which the front wheels would lock up – even during

moderate braking – resulting in a dangerous loss of steering.

The problem with just upgrading the front was that the VW

based MGTD kits are so light in the nose (600 lbs front vs. 1120

lbs rear) that the front disc brakes would grab much quicker

than the rear drum brakes. This problem was resolved when I

shortly thereafter upgraded the rear to disc, reestablishing the

balance in the system. Together the front and rear disc brakes

provide exceptional braking far superior to the original VW

brakes, and even this can be further fine tuned I understand

using brake proportioning valves.

I hope that other list members find this information useful. If

anyone has any experience with the use of proportioning

valves to fine tune disc brake systems I would love to hear your

ideas.

Brian

ssa84whales38289.8227430556

[Mark Hendrickson]

I converted the Pink MG (a.k.a. Angelica) to front disc brakes about a year before I did the rear. I did not have the lock-up problem due to the fact that I had already “softened” the front suspension by removing torsion leaves from the beam tubes. You are correct in the fact that the light nose weight and too much front “spring” is what is causing the lock-up. No weight transfer under braking is the biggest culprit.

I converted the rear to disc for another reason. I had a bad axle bearing in the right rear. I figured to go to all the trouble of replacing it, I might as well convert to disc. I bought an EMPI kit (w/parking brake) from http://www.peekperformance.com . The hardest part was bending new hard lines.

The front disc’s were standard on ’68 and up Kharmann-Ghia models. The front conversion kits are nothing more than these parts. It’s also important to know that the “wide-five” bolt pattern (king pin/swing axle) kits are much more expensive than the “4 bolt IRS” kits. I’ve had a few inquiries on my posted classified for VW parts and advised future builders to use a ’68 up IRS pan for their build.

The ’68 up Beetle/Kharmann-Ghia master cylinder is the same for the disc or drum. VW Trends ran an article on how to modify a later model VW bus master cylinder for use with these conversion kits. The 4 wheel disc conversion alone is a 100% better than drum, but this master cylinder mod elimates the “squishy” VW pedal feel and makes the braking even better. I’ll try to find the magazine date and post the article.

Incidentally, I’m sure we all know that VW Trends and Hot VW’s magazines are great sources for VW tech articles and vendor sources. 

[Author]

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