Quote Originally Posted by Dave Severson View Post
The main reason people have problems with brake balance is because they don't check the pressure at the wheels with a gauge.... Setting brake pressure by feel is like guessing at water temp by touch!!!!!!

Another reason I'm such a big 9" fan is the ease of changing gears...Just have your spare center section set up with your alternate gear choice.....

Another good item that just came out for braking systems is a junction block, proportioning valve and brake light switch all combined in one unit...Wilwood sells it, decent price, too.

Disc brakes front and rear, when sized, set up, and pressure balanced correctly offer a huge increase in stopping power over drum or drum/disc setups!!!
Dave-the pressure tests where applied and still it was a volume issue.

Here a article in part about proportioning valves:

Proportioning Valve
The proportioning valve reduces the pressure to the rear brakes. Regardless of what type of brakes a car has, the rear brakes require less force than the front brakes.

The amount of brake force that can be applied to a wheel without locking it depends on the amount of weight on the wheel. More weight means more brake force can be applied. If you have ever slammed on your brakes, you know that an abrupt stop makes your car lean forward. The front gets lower and the back gets higher. This is because a lot of weight is transferred to the front of the car when you stop. Also, most cars have more weight over the front wheels to start with because that is where the engine is located.

If equal braking force were applied at all four wheels during a stop, the rear wheels would lock up before the front wheels. The proportioning valve only lets a certain portion of the pressure through to the rear wheels so that the front wheels apply more braking force. If the proportioning valve were set to 70 percent and the brake pressure were 1,000 pounds per square inch (psi) for the front brakes, the rear brakes would get 700 psi.


The real question here is at wt of the vehicle and how to balance the system under a number of braking conditions.The wt transfer under those conditions vary so a trade-off is made with every dics/drum system.I gotta go right now,but will return to this topic later today.There is more to it than just setting pressures at wheel cylinders.