Spindle Mounts And Rear Brakes??

I've got a pair of 12 spoke spindle mount ARE's that I'd like to fit on my 'A' roadster.

Before I get to involved with stripping the car to fit them I clamped off the front brake hoses to get a feel of what it would be like to drive the car with no front brakes.

The pedal went rock hard and lost all "feel" on the pedal. Braking was pretty much dead.

I'm running '40 ford hydraulic brakes, single circuit system in a lightweight roadster

Is there something I can do to the rear brakes to improve matters?

There is alot of people running like this in much bigger, heavier cars. Whats the secret?

PLEASE technical help ONLY. I don't want a spindle mount ethics bust up.

 

You might try using front brake slave cylinders in your rear brakes. They have a larger piston diameter. And a smaller master cylinder would help as well. Your current master cylinder is sized to work with four slave cylinders, not two. Any upgrade to the rear brakes will help. Consider self energizing Lincoln Bendix brakes. Vaphead can sell you some repops. But no mater what you do, you can not escape the fact that you will only have two tires, not four applying brake power to the road surface. Physics is physics.

 

Thanks.

I was thinking of swapping in front cylinders for the standard rears. I pretty they do interchange as well?

 

The worst part...the remaining brakes will be easy to lock up, as they simultaneously pitch car weight forward and increase brking. When they lose traction, your rear will try to p*** your front. I think you will be really, really unhappy with rear brakes only, and you will not dare drive in traffic that does not allow you to keep a large space in front.

 

Bruce is right.

Fwiw - front brakes are 70% of your stopping power.

Not a good idea street or strip....

 

You simply CANNOT respond adequately when someone in front of you stops too quickly; you can only maintain directional control at low brake pressure. You essentially get to decide if you want the front or the rear of your car smashed...

 

I've driven later split system cars with both front and rear failures; losing rear brakes makes almost no difference except for pedal feel, while losing the fronts makes the car completely unsafe to drive. Enough braking POWER remains, I think, but you simply cannot use it.

 

I gotta be honest--I go to a lot of shows, and don't see a lot of people running rear brakes only. At race tracks, nostalgia car do, but they've also got 'chutes.

You said you don't want a spindle-mount ethics bust-up, but since you were already expecting it, you know what all of our opinions are. Chances are you've also done a search, as this topic has been covered dozens of times. And every one of those has first-hand experience of what a bad idea it is.

Spindle mounts are for dragsters, period.

As for why you got a hard pedal, etc., it's possible when you pinched off the front lines, fluid still squeezed through, but then couldn't return. That's a pretty common thing with pinched lines.

-Brad

 

I tried it for one summer in the mid 70's. Damn car kept trying to kill me.
I'll never do it again. Front brakes are your friend.