Series 1 brake upgrade

p1vickers · Post by **p1vickers** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 9:27 pm

Guys

I want to upgrade my front brakes to vented disc's and four pot calipers - which is the best upgrade to buy Coopercraft or Zeus? Both appear to be very good, with the Zeus kit coming in at a hundred pounds cheaper.

Has anybody got any experience of these upgrades

Regards

Pete

67 2+2

daverawle · Post by **daverawle** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 11:40 pm

Pete,

I have CooperCraft vented fronts and am very happy with them - no experience of Zeus though. CooperCraft are always at Stoneleigh and give a good discount if you order there.

Dave

christopher storey · Post by **christopher storey** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 9:08 am

I have had Zeus on my fronts for 15 years and would not hesitate to recommend them. No need for vented discs - these are quite light cars and in fact the rears do more of the work than you might imagine

falcon3 · Post by **falcon3** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 9:43 am

I had Coopercraft front calipers on my car when I acquired it - not really surprising as Coopercraft carried out the restoration of the car 10 years ago. A year ago Marcus Barclay replaced the rears with Coopercraft calipers during it's annual "once over". Together they give very good braking performance, well balanced and certainly up to the job of stopping the E-Type in modern conditions.

I would probably investigate different pads if I was using it on the track regularly but otherwise I'm very happy with the Coppercraft units.

Roger

Post by **Heuer** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 10:44 am

Pete

I have Zeus calipers all round and vented discs on the front. I like the Zeus ones as they are very discrete and closer to original rather than the more 'in your face' Coopercraft gold and big logo look. Wilwood are even more 'Max Power'! As far as I can tell there is no difference in braking performance of any of these makes - they all do the same job so may as well go with the cheapest option. My car has done 22,000 miles with the Zeus calipers including the Rally des Alpes and a lot of fast alpine runs without any indication of fade (going down the Stelvio is a good test!) or squeal. I installed vented and cross drilled front discs but performance under normal braking is about the same as standard ones, probably better under stress (Stelvio). Last time I had to renew the pads I moved over to Greenstuff from the Mintex and I quite like the improved brake feel although the guys at Zeus think Mintex are better - personal preference and driving style I suppose. Last time the car was at CMC I asked Andrew Turvey what he thought of my car's braking performance and he said it was "up there with the best" so no reason to consider anything else. Rear discs are standard with Zeus calipers, Greenstuff pads.

Give Zeus a call. They are a very helpful and friendly bunch and can advise you on the merits of different caliper, disc and pad combinations.

Spot the caliper!

andyp · Post by **andyp** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 6:23 pm

Pete

I'd be slightly careful if just upgrading the fronts (like me). I've got Wilwoods on mine and the braking is a little out of balance. It's fine if you know but I wouldn't want to stamp on the brakes without thinking. Moving the old front calipers to the back is a good cheapskates solution.

Andy
66 2+2

Post by **Heuer** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 7:35 pm

Good advice Andy - the Zeus rear calipers are copies of the original E-Type fronts albeit with stainless steel pistons. On the other hand if you are going to the trouble of replacing the rears it might as well be with new items as they are a pain to get to for servicing. Care also needs to be taken to maintain front/rear balance as you have obviously found out.

p1vickers · Post by **p1vickers** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 12:27 pm

Guys

Thanks for all the very good advice, looks like I will be going with the Zeus four pot upgrade with standard disc's

Andy
Are you saying that any front upgrade will adversly affect the brake balance? If so would be best to replace te rears as well?

Regards

Pete
67 2+2

christopher storey · Post by **christopher storey** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 3:03 pm

I never found any balance problems after changing from Dunlop front to Zeus. I don't ever remember locking a wheel . What you really don't want to do is upgrade the rears without upgrading the fronts , since under heavy braking the weight transfer to the front then definitely will tend to cause rear wheel locking

Post by **Heuer** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 3:52 pm

Andy

The braking system of any car is designed to work in harmony so there is plenty of opportunity to screw things up by 'upgrading' in a non-sympathetic way. As Christopher says you should be OK with Zeus front calipers + standard discs while retaining the original rear calipers/discs. Things start to get mixed up if you put huge 6 pot calipers and cross drilled units on the front and do nothing to the rears. Given you will have the original front calipers spare you could overhaul them and put them on the rear as this has been proved to be a very well balanced option. You should, as a matter of course, replace all the pads front and rear and you may want to investigate Greenstuff - I like them as the give a very progressive brake feel without squeal. Do put anti-squeal paste on the pad backs though to be extra sure. One alternative not mentioned so far is the Volvo 240 caliper conversion. Garth Nicholson among others produced guides which may be worth reading. More info here: http://www.jcna.com/library/tech/tech0031.html Actually a Volvo conversion kit just sold on eBay - http://tinyurl.com/bgqrv5

Details of suppliers can be found in the 'Recommended Specialists' thread in Restoration/Upgrades.

andyp · Post by **andyp** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 4:39 pm

I think it has all been said above but yes upgrading the front and leaving the rear standard is going to unbalance the car.

My back end goes very light under heavy braking so be warned.

Andy

p1vickers · Post by **p1vickers** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 5:21 pm

Andy / All

Thanks very much for all the advice given, I will now upgade the front and rear brakes using Zeus calipers and greenstuff pads.

I will let you know the outcome but I quess some off you will already know.

Regards

Pete
67 2+2

S12+2 · Post by **S12+2** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 11:05 am

Just to add one more thought. I had to replace the rear calipers on my S1 2+2 as part of a rear end overhaul. The fronts were (and are) in good condition so I replaced the rears only with Coopercraft units. The braking now seems fine and well balanced. I may uprate the fronts when the existing units wear out but I am wary of creating front end bias as was the case when I bought the car. All I had was standard fronts and virtually no rears - very scary!!! Does anyone else have any experience of this set up?

p1vickers · Post by **p1vickers** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 6:55 pm

All

After taking everyone's advise, I have now upgraded my front brakes with Zeus calipers and non vented disc's. I phoned them and found them very happy to discuss all the various options open to me.

My order arrived and I duly spent a couple of hours fitting the new shiny calipers (why don't they supply the short brake pipes ?) and pads.

During the road test a major leak occured at the caliper body on the n/s after executing an emergency stop.

This soaked the new pads and ruined my new and very expensive wheel bay paint. Once the car was back in my workshop I discovered the cause of the leak was due to the 4 main body bolts not being fully tightened during assembly, causing a seal to rupture.

Zeus were contacted and the offending caliper sent back for inspection. The company handled my concerns very professionally, they sent back a fully tested caliper with pads and paid for all the repairs to the paint work and my extra costs.

My car is now fully fixed and I am very pleased with the result. The brakes are now so much better , the car is a pleasure to drive in everyday traffic conditions.

It pays to use good suppliers who will handle complaints and rectify them so very quickly.
Zeus is a company I would recommend to any body despite my initial disappointment

Regards

Pete
S1 2+2

I-Wen Foo · Post by **I-Wen Foo** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 10:15 am

Hi,
I'm planning to go for a pair of Zeus front calipers, and moving my existing fronts to the rear. I take it this mean just moving the cylinders and pistons from the front to the existing rear brake calipers, as the rear calipers have mounting points for the handbrake mechanism.
Have I got this right?
Regards, I-Wen

Post by **1954Etype** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 12:53 pm

I-Wen Foo wrote:Hi,
I'm planning to go for a pair of Zeus front calipers, and moving my existing fronts to the rear. I take it this mean just moving the cylinders and pistons from the front to the existing rear brake calipers, as the rear calipers have mounting points for the handbrake mechanism.
Have I got this right?
Regards, I-Wen

Hi I-Wen, you move the pistons only (held on by 4 mounting bolts). Straight bolt off, bolt on.

Dave K · Post by **Dave K** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 10:39 pm

Brakes have been done to death on many forums one good article I read was by a brake specialist who advised against moving the original front brakes to the rear.
Most of the bolt on calipers still only produce the same amount of force on the front disc but over a larger area so the brake force split between the front and rear works out at roughly 60% front and 40% rear.

What you have to remember is the front brakes stop the car while the rears keep it in a straight line, swap the front calipers to the rear after upgrading the fronts and you are moving to a near 50/50 balance which will make the car very light at the back should you have to stomp on the brakes hard, of course under normal braking you will hardly if ever notice.
Just a bit more info worth noting.

One more thing worth noting which may end the requirement for ever upgrading the brakes on an E-type is Rob Beere racing is about to start producing a double acting piston servo which Rob tells me transformed a 4.2 he fitted it to recently, it is very discreet so you can keep the original look of the car with whatever standard servo you have.

I have the Volvo set up on the front of my car with standard discs and Coopercraft standard calipers at the rear with Greenstuff pads all round, the servo is the old Dunlop bellows system and when I strip it grease and put it back together it works great for a short period but eventually goes back to normal under par performance, the unit was overhauled with a genuine Dunlop kit about 5 years ago however it really does let the car down so I'll be looking at the Rob Beere version as soon as it becomes available.

Dave

Post by **1954Etype** » Sat Sep 11, 2010 10:31 am

Dave K wrote:Brakes have been done to death on many forums one good article I read was by a brake specialist who advised against moving the original front brakes to the rear.
Most of the bolt on calipers still only produce the same amount of force on the front disc but over a larger area so the brake force split between the front and rear works out at roughly 60% front and 40% rear.

Dave

Dave, I moved the fronts to the rear when I fitted my Wilwoods. No problems and I have had the odd occasion to brake hard without swapping ends.

Trouble is there are so many 'experts' without the practical experience out there!

Series 1 · Post by **Series 1** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 9:27 am

I am considering upgrading my front calipers with Zeus, Coopercraft or similar. I found these:

https://www.sngbarratt.com/catalogue/pa ... s=0&back=n

They are on special offer (?30 off). Does anyone know what make they are and if they are comparable to other contenders?

Thanks

Angus

GSR 54D · Post by **GSR 54D** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 2:13 pm

Hi Angus

I have Coopercraft on my series one which I find perform great and appear to be engineered very well. However, because I like a more original look, the "Coopercraft" lettering, which can clearly be seen through the spokes, does disappoint me.
From what I've seen from pictures and read on this forum in the past, given the choice, I would probably go for Zeus because they reputably perform well and look more period.

John H.

Link:
BBcode:
HTML:
	Hide post links

Link:
BBcode:
HTML:
	Hide post links

Link:
BBcode:
HTML:
	Hide post links

Link:
BBcode:
HTML:
	Hide post links

Link:
BBcode:
HTML:
	Hide post links

The 'E' Type Forum

Series 1 brake upgrade

#1 Series 1 brake upgrade

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

#12

#13

#14

#15

#16

#17

#18

#19

#20