Brake bias

[98Vandiemen]

Is there a way of telling the percentage of brake bias in the car, or at least a starting point like 50/50?

[Dale Carter]

To get in the ball park, put the car up on jack stands with someone in the car to apply the brake pedal. Rotate one of the front and rear wheels by hand until the front stops rotating slightly before the rear while brake pressure is applied. Adjust balance bar to suit. My 2cts.

[Steve Demeter]

Believe it or not, this actually gets you in a pretty good starting ballpark.

In one of Carroll Smith's books he says to put the car up on jacks. Have someone hold steadily increasing pressure on the pedal until someone turning the front tire by hand determines that they just lock.

The same guy goes to the rear tire and does the same test, while the same pressure is held on the pedal,and when he determines that he can just turn the rear wheel, the bias is pretty close to right.

[FCMechanic]

Sure, it's easy. Put wheels on the car of course. Place a bar clamp on the brake pedal and crank it down until there is enough brake pressure that will allow you to turn the wheel with a bar type torque wrench. Turn the wheels in the direction of travel and watch where the wheel breaks loose and adjust until you get the same number on both ends of the car. Shoot for about 60 ft lbs on the torque wrench.

[Purple Frog]

Everybody is right. There is an archived thread with detailed instructions hidden back a bit, or was that on FFU?

If you use FCMechanic's method, realize that you will have a slight amount of front bias if both front and rear read the same on the torque wrench (e.g. 6o lbs). Because when you set the car on the road, the rear tires are larger in diameter, thus more leverage to be applied against the same force... blah, blah.

The trick with the other methods is having someone in the car that can hold the same pressure on the pedal while the other person is running from front to back. It takes an "educated touch". With two people it can be done really fast with a fair degree of accuracy.