Thread: Do manual brakes always feel like this?

Tweet

What you describe isn't normal. It sounds dangerous.

This can sometimes be a little tough because your frame of reference may be different...........how "lot of travel" is "lot of travel". Manual brakes will take more travel than power, and will take more application force from your leg because there's no assist from the booster (I think you already get that).

Could be that you've got a power brake master cylinder rather than a manual one, that could explain the longer travel you're experiencing. Also the bore size could be too large which reduces the amount of pressure to the calipers.

Can you find out from the builder if he used a "system" from a brake system supplier, and who that would be?

Assuming you have the correct parts installed as Bob has suggested -

Is the master cylinder full of fluid?
Any fluid leakage around the master cylinder?

I would attempt to bleed brakes first.

I had all kinds of similar pb with my brakes set-up, although i do not have disks, I have old drums all around. Today my hiboy brakes nicely but it took some work and it will never brake like a power brake. Sean's Plymouth has power brake and I almost went through the windshiled when I drove it last week

So don't even THINK about comparing the two.

Having said that this is what i did to fix my brake problems:

1- I had a leaky Master Cylinder and replaced it.
2- I then had air in my lines and had to bleed them 3 times.
3- It still did not brake well. My old shop was giving me the run around so I found a new shop and had the new shop check and adjust the drum brakes for me. Before they adjusted them, I had a LOT of travel on the pedal (I mean it braked when the pedal was 1 inch from the floor) and it did not brake well at all and it took a LOT of leg pressure. A simple 30 min adjustment later (free of charge thanks to Troy of Hollywood Hotrods), my brakes were tight, with very little travel and reacted with consistency. My roadster now stopped 300% better.

For many months, as many here know, I was debating on adding a power booster to my roadster. I have now given up on this idea because i longer deem it necessary. By now I am used to the manual brakes AND I also have improved my manual brakes to the point that they do their job OK. This was very obvious when I locked all four of my wheels in 0.1 seconds to avoid the frontal crash with the SUV last month (see my previous post). They now WORK.

So if I were you I would look into adjusting brakes after you check for possible leaks / air and give myself a few thousand miles driving to get used to the Hiboy's brake system. Hope this helps