Hey all,
Whats the best upgrade of brakes?? I want to get a brake booster, are the 120y's the best?? What about master cylinders, whats the best upgrade for them?? Thanks for any help
Cheers
Damo

I've been hassled for my selection of brakes.

I swear by the LA/LB Lancer Booster/Master Cylinder. It's the same size as the 180B one. Except the bracket suits a 1200.

Get the splitter from the lancer too.

Anything bigger makes the pedal box a pain requiring mods, or your strut tower needs too much "massaging".


Chris

Anyone use brake boosters???
Hey Chris how good are the lancer master's, I have the stanza struts, is there any need for me to use a booster, or does the lancer one pull you up great???
Cheers
Damo

Yeah I want to know this too cause I installed 1200 coupe master on 1000 and if something is better It could do me a big favor for the ge sigma front brake conversion.

The booster makes your brakes work. Don't kid yourselves that having bigger disks etc makes that much difference. To give you an idea of just how good, let me explain.

I initially installed stanza arms, modified 200B struts and the lancer booster. I had 180B wagon drums on the rear. It stopped great. I put the Verada disk/commodore calipers it stops EXCELLENT. (Except under race conditions where fade would come into it). crossdrilling would help there. Possibly the use of 4 spot calipers.

My mum had a 1200 coupe with 120Y disc struts and stock "dual circuit" master cylinder. I got in that car and couldn't believe how crappy the brakes were. Totally different, dangerous even.

The booster makes a big difference.
I kid you not, I mean MASSIVE!

I cannot recommend this change any more highly. Get the booster/master cylinder as a complete unit. Get the splitter too, then integrate this into the 1200 system. Get the Lancer front brake lines while you are at it. I suspect they could be bent nicely, meaning you don't need to make up custom front brake lines.

Don't spend another day without a booster!

I think my Verada Discs/Commodore Calipers have save me about 6 times from getting into an accident (due to lack of attention/fatigue in traffic). That's at least $4000 in repair costs.
My Datsun brakes are much better than the ABS ones on my N15 SSS Pulsar.

Chris.

Boosters don't make you stop faster, the bigger brakes do. Although if the pedal effort is too difficult the booster should help ... So I think you are saying that with the big brakes, you also need a booster.

In other words, adding a booster to the stock brakes won't make your 1200 stop faster. Or will it?

That's of course correct.

But I do find with the booster, it's easier to
find the point where maximum braking effort occurs. Rather than locking up. I have experienced brake problems (couldn't lock up the brakes) with 120Y (B210) struts and discs. This problem occurred when I had overloaded my old 1200 wagon. So the size of the brakes is definitely proportional to the weight of the vehicle.

For large brakes, playing with the master cylinder bore size and booster helps a lot. I'd agree though, if you can't lock up the brakes, then a booster won't help.

Some people prefer to pass the braking pressure/stress through the pedal box.
This is not good as you can bend the standard 1200 brake pedal (it's possible) under heavy braking load. A Booster also helps protect against this.

Chris.

A booster will only affect the amount of pedal pressure required to generate the same braking force. It cannot increase the car's braking ability. Most racers prefer the increased feel of an unassited brake system.

but it is up to yourself. these days, most people are so used to power assisted systems that when they hop in an old car without it, the first time they use the brakes they feel dangerous because when you softly press the pedal as you are accustomed to, nothing happens!

having said that, I still believe standard 120Y and 1200 coupe discs are dangerous in performance or emergency situatuions, as I've said before. But not because they don't have a booster - they are simply undersized. I don't recommend fitting them as an 'upgrade' to cars that originally had drums. Road tests of the time showed that the drum braked sedans out performed the disc braked coupes in braking tests.

biggest master cylinder = urvan 15/16"

best booster = sunny (b310)

but urvan master is probably too big and i prefer the feel without booster myself

I'm running BMW 535 disc brakes/calipers front and Alfa discs (along with Alfa LSD) out back on my UTE.

She brakes really well now, better than my BMW325e36. Also running 15" wheels, the stock brakes didn't seem to have much effect on stopping the beast (they'd probably best be described as retarders, not brakes)

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