Brakes

[dwayne]

Hi everyone. ive just started a 1/4 scale project which will run a 29cc 2stroke motor out of a baja, as well as making a direct drive to a walk behind lawn mower transmission...What do you guys do for brakes? Do i put a rotor on the rear lawnmower axle and simple brake caliper, like a pit bike or bicycle arrangement, or do you guys put them on the front? Car will be very heavy so brakes will be important..The gearbox has an engage / disengage lever so I will hook that up to servo as well as getting a pico killer bee type setup...I know you can get proper scale brakes but out of my $$ range..If i go caliper/rotor route what would be best options? Do i go cable or do i go hydraulic? Hope somene can help and pictures would be apprecuiated...

[M.R. Ogle]

Welcome!

What kind of car are you building?

For a drag car or street car, a disc on a solid rear axle is fine, and bicycle components are used by several of us.

Some oval cars had a brake system that applied a pad to the outer surface of the clutch bell. Simple, but if you lost a drive belt, you also lost your brakes.

For a road racing car, it might be an advantage to have your brakes on the front wheels. But you'd either be looking at hydraulics or a cable setup that's tricky to set up with even braking for each front wheel.

John at Quarter Mortar has hydraulic brakes, and you might be able to adapt fifth-scale (FG brand) brakes to whatever front wheels you choose.

[dwayne]

Hi thanks for the reply. In New Zealand we race full size stockcars. These are raced on dirt ovals and are full contact (ie you can hit other cars). They have purpose built steel chassis and weigh around 1500kgs. Im building a 1/4 scale one. Because Im using a transmission out of a lawnmower i will go straight from endbell to the input shaft on the transmission via universal (no belts to worry about)...At this stage i have no idea on final weight but it would be 30+kgs Im sure so I need to stop it....At this stage its only going to be to have fun with with no racing etc...The rear axle is solid and it will have suspension etc (rather than rigid rear end). If anyone has some pics of the axle setup or the endbell setup id really appreciate it. You can email me fcslimited@xtra.co.nz. many thanks Dwayne

[K]

Hi Dwayne: Here's a picture of the brake setup on my 1/4 scale MiniMax (made in Australia). I hople this helps / gives you some ideas.

Best regards,
Kevin

[dwayne]

Hi Kevin

Couple of questions. Is that a commercial brake or something you have made yourself? What sort of universal joint do you use to connect from endbell to the gearbox, which looks pretty cool by the way..

cheers

Dwayne

[K]

Hi Dwayne:

All good questions but I'm sorry I don't have any answers for you at the moment. The car is in Toronto and I'm in Dubai so I can't take a close look at the brake or universal joint.

MiniMax Sprint Cars are made by minimax-n2 (Peter) he posts on here from time to time. Perhaps Peter could respond to your questions.

Regards,
Kevin

[merlinsteve]

My pushbike is fitted with hayes hydraulic brakes, the bike weighs about 12 KG I weigh about 110 so last time i checked, the front and rear brakes were sufficient to pull me up whilst hurtling down a hill at 80+ Km/h. The advantage of these brakes is that they take very little pressure to actuate. for me, 2 fingers is enough to lock up the fronts.
If you fitted a T piece to the line or 2 separate lines with a proportioning lever then you will get equal pressure.
hope this helps
Steve