swapping standard front disks to back?

[CarMadRJ]

How do i swap standard front disks to the back?

Reason why is that I'm putting a C16XE into my nova and would like better brakes! I would like to stop! lol

I am already putting Spax coilovers on the front and GSI springs on the back ready for it, as well as wented disks and greenstuff pads on front. Any other suggestions would be nice :)

Thanks

[AlexW]

Errr the standard front discs would be far too big for the back anyway lol

Leave the drums, fronts do 99% of the work and your just asking for more problems than they are worth (locking up is one). Only reason anybody has rear discs is for looks.

New bits for the drums and they will be perfect

[comptoncj]

wouldnt bother with greenstuff pads, you need rear brakes off of a rear disc equipped vauxhall like an astra

[craig green]

Overhauling the rears & adjusting them up proper is fine.

You can use 256 (16v) or 288 (V6) fronts with the drums, out back no worries.

[Lee]

Haven't EBC changed the way they make greenstuff pads now? I know when I had them, they were about as useful as strapping some chocolate flapjacks to the callipers.

[Paul]

Obviously anyone who says discs on the rear are a waste of time hasnt driven a properly set up car.

[mowgli]

thats because most of us don't drive one with a LET in it..

[mowgli]

for a 16xe, 256mm brakes of a cav/astra will be fine, with a reconditioned rear drum setup.

[turnipheed]

off point i know but i had green stuff in a crx track car and found them good best pads ive had though were pagid rally pads in a scooby i had

[Paul]

No cause people are sayin they lock up, but they dont with a bias valve.

[craig green]

No cause people are sayin they lock up, but they dont with a bias valve.

agree.

I had Greenstuffs when the y 1st released them, thought they were far better than GM pads & a little poor from cold. Trouble is they keep 'playing' with the compounds which blatantly isnt improving them.

[Benn]

No cause people are sayin they lock up, but they dont with a bias valve.

I've never locked mine up with out one... But yeah if set up right they are ok, but i wouldn't bother doing it again.

[Lee]

Obviously anyone who says discs on the rear are a waste of time hasnt driven a properly set up car.

IMO I think they ARE a waste of time on a Nova. As far as braking force for normal road driving goes, there really is no point in fitting discs because once you've biased them down to prevent lockup you are only getting the same from them as you were with the drums.

So the only real benefit you get is a higher heat threshold, but i've never come accross anyone who has managed to overheat the rear brakes on a track nova 'in my experience'. If it has happened then I stand corrected but it always seems to be a mod made because of a 'possible' heat problem that may never happen.


agree.

I had Greenstuffs when the y 1st released them, thought they were far better than GM pads & a little poor from cold. Trouble is they keep 'playing' with the compounds which blatantly isnt improving them.

I have no idea which stage of evolution the pads I had were, but I managed to take a set of well bedded in pads to Llandow one year, set fire to them, and then they crumbled off the backing plate like choccy pudding lol

[mowgli]

the rear disk thing is all because the nova gte was homologated with them, mostly because the drums couldn't cope with handbrake turns & the fact that the fastest way to drive on the gravel stages involved a higher rear end bias on the brakes to set the car up sideways for the corner, and as with a lot of rally things, people think it will be way better on the road.........

[Mark]

thats because most of us don't drive one with a LET in it..

Mine has a 1400 and doesn't have issues.

[CarMadRJ]

Thanks for info, so slightly bigger front disks will be fine people are saying? I have the engine sorted, but the sale of the coilovers and springs fell through :( i need to get them before i can fully open the throttle on the new beast.

[simonm]

i used 1ltr front discs on the rear of one of mine with standard front calipers and they worked good with a bias valve little bit of machine work involved and a wider track but did work well but had to use a hydrolic hand brake

[Rich]

5 stud is a reason for rear discs, mine didnt lock up on my last nova using astra gte 16v bias valves. Doesnt stop any better though that i noticed

[C612DNM]

You need to wind them off soo much with the bias valve that drums (as standard) would do the same job (as Rob said), backed up with Mowgli's comments about rally cars.

I tried rear discs and found them no better in race conditions than drum, in fact Bill Blydenstein put me onto the Ferodo rear shoes that they ran in Production Saloons (a DS11 compound that was so damn hard they did f.all - but gave a good pedal feel!).

When you've got over a ton of car to stop from a hundred and lots, then bigger rear brakes balanced with equally silly front brakes are the way to go. I personally don't think you need anything more than the standard drums until you go to discs bigger than 270mm with 4 or 6 pot calipers.

The plan is that your back brakes do enough retardation to stop the rear from waggling too much, over brake the back end and you're asking for spin city as the weight transfer to the rear brings about snap oversteer.

This is why we run race cars with nose-down setups to keep the balance right at turn-in.

I still have a set of 16v Astra discs/calipers with modified Nova Stub axles on the shelf.