BIAS valve alternative ?

[schakal]

I am toying with the idea of converting the rear brakes to discs on the
Renault 9 after seeing today one of the rear wheel cylinders have started leaking quite a while a go :shock: ,Let me put it this way ; 2 brand new tyres i put on the rear 12 months ago ,one of them now is pretty much a slick where as the one on the leaking cylinder side is still pretty much brand new !!!

Having the drum brake rears ,there is no BIAS valve and i dont really want to stick a standard bias valve on there seeing the amount of grief i had with them over the years on my renault 19 etc .

What other alternatives do i have to the standard bias valve ,i am after something that will work and a bit more heavy duty . May be just a valve that i can adjust the braking power to the rear at the turn of a screw/knob etc ??

[cliokiz]

All you need is something to adjust how much braking effort goes to the rear, that's all the bias valve does.

But the bias valve decides how much braking effort is needed depending on how much weight is on the back end. I'd be surprised if they actually still work on most valver/williams clio's looking at how rusty they get, so I imagine any adjustable pressure regulator you can find that'll hook up to a brake line will allow you to fine tune it and it'll be fine.

[chip]

http://www.edsmotorsport.co.uk/wilwood-bias-valve-knob-type-220-p.asp

Set it based on the car with no weight in the back and based on sticky tyres, and it just means that at times with less front end grip (not so sticky tyres, ie road tyres) and with more rear end weight (ie full of luggage) it will not brake as hard on the back as it could with a load sensitive valve, but that is no problem anyway if you have decent front brakes.

[MAXIBOY]

thing is renault worked out the bias with either master cylinders sizes or wheel cylinder sizes so it doesn't require a bias valve..

so just repair it..

wheel cylinders are so much cheaper than calipers and if maintained and adjusted are as effective as they need to be..

[schakal]

Thanks for all replies ,
Maxiboy ; I am quite tempted to keep the drums to be honest but i just found the brand new cylinder i fitted a year ago leaking like hell inside the drum . Thats no fokkn good :?

Alternatively can you get heavy duty/racing wheel cylinders ,
brake shoes , drums ??
I remember seeing some sexy grooved drums on a pug 205 once :P

[chip]

On minis we used to run drums with fins built into them to aid cooling :)

I'd still sooner have disks though!

[chip]

http://www.minispares.com/images/products/350/MINIFINS.jpg
http://www.minispares.com/images/products/350/MINIFINS.jpg

:)

[cliokiz]

If it was my choice i'd choose discs, they look make any car look like more of a machine than having weedy drums at the back

[chip]

My preference for disks is mainly that they are less maintainance and dont require adjusting.

[schakal]

http://www.minispares.com/images/products/350/MINIFINS.jpg
http://www.minispares.com/images/products/350/MINIFINS.jpg

:)

Thats one sexy looking drum fair play :)

May be i was just unlucky with the cylinder i fitted there , i might just keep the drums and spend the money on some braided hoses and upgrading the brakes at the front now.