dimented24x7

iTrader: (2)

Im sure this has everything to do witht he fact that gm decided to use tiny *** poker chip sized rotors but here it goes. My drums will lock the rears up before the fronts during hard braking (more like oh, ****! braking). Could this be caused by the fact that the rear drum pads are ceramic composit rather than semi-metallic like teh fronts? I got raybestos pads and in order to get the same line of pads for each i had to get the ceramic pads rather than the crap baseline pads. I dont want to f' with an aftermarket proportioning valve because the brakes are all stock and i dont want to screw up the bias.

ANDYZ28

I would say that you are correct. This phenomenon can be attributed to the difference in front-to-rear brake compounds and friction codes.

Thanx,ANDYZ28

Parrydise7

iTrader: (1)

Hmm, I thought the rears locked up first, at least in part, because much of the vehicle's weight is thrown forward during braking, unloading the rear. I also thought that is why some pickups come with antilock only on the rear (because the rears tend to lock up first, particularly on pickups). I guess I stand corrected.

88Roc350TPI

The rears should begin braking first, but not lock first. Thats why the rear brakes are usually smaller than the fronts. I'd check to make sure the hoses are good on the front of the car. I just changed one on an Iroc that was completely PLUGGED. How is the brakes supposed to work if the hoses are plugged? On another note, some also begin to baloon when they get old as well not allowing adequate pressure. Yes the front brakes are small, but they WILL lock when all the hydraulics are working right and you have decent pads. Once you can get them to lock the only thing you can do to improve stopping power/distance is get better TRACTION.

AFrikinGoodTime

Trucks offer rear ABS only because of varying loads carried in the rear of the truck. When the truck is near full load capacity the ABS is not needed but is still there. However, when the truck is empty, look out if you don't have ABS. You beeter know how to pedal the binders.

dimented24x7

iTrader: (2)

also rear lockup is very destablizing. This is partly the reason for rear only abs. I had to really saw the wheel around to keep from exchanging ends when someone pulled out in front of me while i was going 65 some odd miles an hour. Not to mention it flatspoted the tires. The stock brakes should be biased engough to ensure front lockup first.

AFrikinGoodTime

Actually you dont want this either. Brakes should lock at the same time and most cars are engineered from the factory to do this. As Andy stated above, when you start messing with different brake compounds front to rear, you are causing yourself problems. Stick with the same type of brake compound on all four corners unless you know what compounds do what based on things like different tire size and unproportioned caliper sizes that sometime happens to frequently in poor mans racing. All brake systems should be properly proportioned ( in accordence to pad surface area and rotor size)to avoid such problems, just as you would proportion swaybar sizes front to rear, etc...

Example: take a car with balanced brakes. Add larger calipers in the rear and the rears will lock first. Now, add wider tires in the rear for more traction and they can again lock at the same time even though the rear brakes are larger. It all what you do to it, everything has its own paticular marrage point.

dimented24x7

iTrader: (2)

in teh raybestos pad line up, the premium or whatever front ones tehy had where semi-metallic while the rear of that same line was ceramic composit. They had the cheap *** baseline ones that where rivited and had crappy shoes so i dint get those. I think they charge 80 something for the ceramic ones in front so ill get those and see if it helps.

Golden Boy

Howdy, as you can see this is my first post on thirdgen.org. Anyway....

You are correct, most cars are engineered to have an equal bias and lock up but I have noticed over the years of lapping that third gens (especally 1LE cars) do have more rear brake bias and have a tendency to lock up the rears first. While this can create a little excitment on the track, it is really not that good. Using the poor mans racing technique, I run a more aggressive front pad (Hawk Blues) than the rear (Hawk HPS). Doing that has given me the perfect brake bias. From this I can infer that dimented24x7 needs to get a less aggressive rear shoe or upgrade (always prefered) his front pad, maybe to a PFC Z-pad. You can pick those up at your local Autozone. HTH