Drums vs Disc. Lowering etc. What to do...

[Dazecoop]

Hey guys,

Right, I'm in a bit of a pickle on trying to decide what direction to take. I have a D Turbo ph2 converted to ph1 styling, and quite simply, I want to lower it.

Knowing that the beam will be knackered (or at least, will be on my attempts to remove it). I'm fairly settled on a rebuilt beam by the friendly Stef on this forum.

Mine is a D Turbo, so a drum beam. Of which I actually have a spare which I could use to minimise "off the road" time

Options are..

1, Keep with drum beam, get spare drum beam rebuilt & lowered, swap over. Done

2, Upgrade to disc rear beam, get rebuilt, swap over. Done

The drum beam option is easiest, as I simply have to swap the entire beam over & thats it. No messing with handbrake cables, calipers, brake pipes, nothing.

My worry with disc upgrade is the brake compensator (which I don't have) and the brake lines in general. I've read that the brake compensator works based on the load on the radius arms, so if on a lowered car sometimes this may not work correctly? Therefore, under heavy braking, rear brakes work better than front = crash. That is not cool. Is this true? Also disc rear handbrake are really crap? Not even able to hold me on a hill?!

My other thoughts is that if I'm going to all the hassle of getting a rebuilt beam done, and the hassle of swapping, should I spend the extra hassle and do the disc upgrade? Would it really be worth it, or not really? I honestly find the brakes in my car at the moment completely fine. If anything, upgrading to GTI-6 front discs/calipers would be my only thought, but leaving drums rear.

I'm aiming to lower 60mm. Yes, I know some (a lot?) of you will agree that this is too much & will ruin the handling of the 306, but I honestly don't drive it fast or hard, and it'll never see a circuit. I just want the car to be low, and I think 60mm looks great

Basically, can someone help!

I know, long message. I've been reading & thinking about what to do for weeks now - lol!

[Magenta Sunset]

all I can say is my disc rear isn't the greatest for holding. (reckon they need careful/frequent cable adjustment to keep the bite).
afaik, it's just a small lever on the caliper holding the pad/slack for parking up.

[Toms306]

Sounds like your calipers need a refurb if they're stretching cables like that...

306 disc handbrakes aren't that bad tbh, I prefer discs myself, drum 'self adjusters' never adjust properly and they're an ass to keep adjusting and wrecking the wheel bearing every time you pull the drum off. Plus I had a horrible incident of a shoe separating and locking the drum solid, no fix for that at the roadside!

As for the load compensator though...that appears to work by magic or something! I'm used to EBD on the newer ones and can't work out this physical compensator at all!

[Magenta Sunset]

Sounds like your calipers need a refurb if they're stretching cables like that...  

306 disc handbrakes aren't that bad tbh, I prefer discs myself, drum 'self adjusters' never adjust properly and they're an ass to keep adjusting and wrecking the wheel bearing every time you pull the drum off.  Plus I had a horrible incident of a shoe separating and locking the drum solid, no fix for that at the roadside!

As for the load compensator though...that appears to work by magic or something!  I'm used to EBD on the newer ones and can't work out this physical compensator at all!

it's in the pipeline Tom