Pedal Boxes

[Bluerex]

Planning on replacing the push-me-pull-you LHD to RHD brake conversion (more levers, bearings and rods than I care to mention) with 2 non-boosted master cylinders on the fire wall located (wait for it...) IN FRONT OF THE DRIVER (gasp! what a suggestion) :D :D :D
Anyone care to share experience or suggestions?

C

[Golf Loon]

Why no booster?
Look at your cordoba. The booster is behind the pedal and sunk into the bulkhead. I reckon you`d need to do some cutting to go down this road. And not use the original MC, as it is too bulky.

[Golfwise]

I read in one of the English mags where someone makes and sells them.I'll have to go to the dunny and get out some old copies and try and find it.

[Bluerex]

Why no booster? Try this one youself ON A DESERTED, STRAIGHT bit of road... it's called Left Foot Braking. With your right hoof firmly planted, modulate you speed with the left. You will notice that in no time your booster stops boosting (no chance for the vacum to replenish) and your pedal turns to stone. So it is better to start out without a booster rather than try to guess how much boost is left in the tank. Simple huh :?

C

[Golf Loon]

Ok, if you have a strong left foot and you are on a racetrack. I prefer an easy life sometimes and golf brakes need all the help they can get!

[Bluerex]

Many thanks to all, just as a reminder I am building a competition rally car, street handling (brakes, steering, noise - just wait for the barking webber thread) are secondary considerations.

Charles.

[roccodingo]

Planning on replacing the push-me-pull-you LHD to RHD brake conversion (more levers, bearings and rods than I care to mention) with 2 non-boosted master cylinders on the fire wall located (wait for it...) IN FRONT OF THE DRIVER (gasp! what a suggestion) :D :D :D
Anyone care to share experience or suggestions?

C

Think your looking for the Autocavan pedalbox.... not seen one for many years..and from memory Autocavan is no longer operating. maybe E bay .co .uk could be a good place to start or club GTi ...

Its definately a good idea, good luck. I saw a post on PVW forums about a caddy owner who had retrofitted a whole Mk3 firewall over to his caddy, with all the RHD brake stuff etc...

[Bluerex]

WoW :o The entire firewall!!!
And I thought a floor transplant was stretching things :)

C

[Golfwise]

This is getting too difficult 8) I would keep it simple and stick with the original.Its a known formula.Mk2 booster,22 ml mc etc.I'd clean,lubricate and adjust the linkages and get the rest of the brakes working .
They ain't that bad.
Late Sth African Mk1s had a twist linkage which are the ducks they say, if you can get one.

[Golf Loon]

Saab 900s have a rolling beam arrangement, which could be modified.

How about a hydraulic pedal going over to a booster by way of a line. Late mode subarus and others have such a setup.

[20v kit car]

smart move bluerex,will suit the new driving style..start dancing the pedals..its fun cheers steve

[black betty]

i am pretty sure that a(now defunct?) uk company called autocavan used to do a biased twin master cyliner set up like described by bluerex/ golfwise

i would be interested in one too and have done some searching of the clubgti forum on this topic but with no luck

i seem to recollect that there were instructions on how to make one up/ how to adjust the brake bias were floating around the internet as i think a few people were using this set up on track day monsters

i d be interested to see if anyone has any more success getting details of this

bb

[syncro]

I think that Mark Hammond from Hammond Automotive (Brookvale) had one for sale a while back.

[finemk1]

i have just beeen to a wreker to find a shnew shock for my charade!!!! when i saw a striped laser sitting out the front not sure which model but it had the booster in front of the driver and a really short MC, had a look at the linkages,,,,, should work he wanted way to much for it so i might go back tonight and steal it, WAAAAAAAHAHAHAH or ill go back to morrow and suss it out properly, ie take my set up in and match it up. let u know how it goes

[VanKronenburg]

Planning on replacing the push-me-pull-you LHD to RHD brake conversion (more levers, bearings and rods than I care to mention) with 2 non-boosted master cylinders on the fire wall located (wait for it...) IN FRONT OF THE DRIVER (gasp! what a suggestion) :D :D :D
Anyone care to share experience or suggestions?

C

This is not a worth while modification at all and is overly priced. It offers very little performance advantage. It is more popular on show cars in Europe as it 'simplifies' the engine bay layout. We have built many Golf 1s, some with over 400ps and have used the Golf 2 G60 master cylinder setup on them all. This is the way to go and is easy to fit :P

[Bluerex]

This is not a worth while modification at all and is overly priced. It offers very little performance advantage. It is more popular on show cars in Europe as it 'simplifies' the engine bay layout. We have built many Golf 1s, some with over 400ps and have used the Golf 2 G60 master cylinder setup on them all. This is the way to go and is easy to fit :P

Very interesting!! I have seen a great many (non Golf) rally cars locally with pedal boxes, bias controls and of course hydraulic handbrakes. Are you saying that this is not so common in Europe? I ask out of total ignorance ....

Charles.

[VanKronenburg]

Very interesting!! I have seen a great many (non Golf) rally cars locally with pedal boxes, bias controls and of course hydraulic handbrakes. Are you saying that this is not so common in Europe? I ask out of total ignorance ....

Charles.

Well, yes it is quite common here but this is more from a service perspective as the parts are easy to access and replace individually whilst still on the car. The VW parts are diffucult to service, but who cares as they never fail!! I agree that the system on the RHD cars is poorly designed but I understand it's quite reliable? The aftermarket parts are not worth the money when late model master cylinders and so on are so easy to come by. At least, that is what I think. Having said that, we use the aftermarket parts very often but only on those cars working to an endless budget :D

[Golfwise]

Very true big budget race /rally cars may use this system but there is a lot of other things that should come first.
I have used this pedal box system years ago in a sports sedan and found once we got the brake set up right it was never adjusted again and I had to go to the gym to build up my leg muscles to use it.It does give better feel once you are used to it when stopping from250 klicks but lets get real with a Golf rally car.
Lee Peterson won the National 1600 Rally class in a Mirage Cyborg like ours and they run a normal factory booster and mastercylinder.
An inline brake bias adjuster would be the easiest way to get some adjustment into your braking system.
Thank our Dutch friend for his input. 8)