Re: chirping in 2nd...

[Sean Conway <Sean_Conway.PANDP@PANDP.co.uk>]

Hi Tim:

At 06:28 PM 11/26/96 -0500, you wrote:

>OH, and one more question, then I'll shut up.  With 14" wheels, what are the
>biggest brakes you can bolt on?  

Over in the UK, we're pretty hot on brakes - why ? Well, when VW put the 
steering wheel on the right side of the car (we drive on the left over here 
don't forget !), they left the brake servo on the 
left side. This means us poor sod's in the UK have our brake pedals connected 
via a transfer rod to the servo. Result - lot's of brake travel and spongy 
brake feel. 

On the plus side, there's quite a few companies who have produced conversions 
etc to address the problem. If you haven't already had a look at TSR's web 
page, they can be
found at http://www.tsr-performance.com/  They're a highly respected tuner over 
here and their page includes lot's of info about all aspects of VW performance.

Brake disk (or rotor) measurements are always quoted in millimetres over here 
so apologies for my non-conversion to inches !

All UK Sciroccos came with 239mm disks. You can upgrade to the 256mm disk off 
an A2 Golf, but as I understand it, you CANNOT use your original caliper, as 
the greater diameter of the disk will not fit without re-positioning the 
caliper. This can be done be re-drilling the mounting holes on the caliper, but 
this might weaken the metal (not good !) Instead, the calipers off post 1985, 5 
cylinder Audi (Ow-di over here too !) Coupes or Audi 90's will bolt straight on 
without clearance problems as these came with 256mm disks as standard.

Alternatively, the previously mentioned TSR can provide cut down Corrado disks 
of 270mm which will just fit behind 14" wheels. These use a spacer to 
reposition your existing calipers. As these disks are also grooved , they can 
reportedly lock your wheels up at speeds approaching 100 mph (gulp!) .

Non 16V Scirrocos (suh-rocco !) were not fitted with rear disks, and the 
general opinion is that it's probably not worth the effort as most of the 
braking is done via the front disks, and the rear ones have a tendency to 
freeze up due to lack of use. Apparently you can also use the rear drum brakes 
from the Caddy (A1 Golf Pickup - did you have these ?), which are a larger 
diameter and thus give a little bit more stopping power.

Enough rambling for now !

Cheers,

Sean Conway (1990 GT2)

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