Another restoration thread.

Are you going to delete the ABS from the car when you put it back together again?
If I could I definitely would in your position. Will save a fair bit of weight and unnecessary complexity, especially if running larger calipers up front!

@ducie54 wrote:Short drop links are for the front and the longer ones are for the rear also from memory.

I only have 4 short ones, so they will have to do for now. I took long ones off the rear though, so you may be right.

@mike74 wrote:Are you going to delete the ABS from the car when you put it back together again?
If I could I definitely would in your position. Will save a fair bit of weight and unnecessary complexity, especially if running larger calipers up front!

Is the ABS really that bad in these cars? See I bought all new lines but they were ABS lines, so I'm not going to go buy a whole new set of Non ABS lines again. I will have to stick to the ABS!
I also have a set of Brembos for the front. What are the implications of bigger front calipers with ABS still installed?

On a side note, I was reading a thread on here about larger calipers on a GTIR, I read a comment that Peugeot 406 Brembos were a good fit

https://www.gtir-motorsport-club.com/t4106-brake-conversion-using-fiat-20vt-brembo-calipers?highlight=brembo

I went down the line of 406 V6 Brembos, they don't fit that well at all, when I dropped them to the engineering company to make me brackets, rather than inform me there were fitting issues, he had to skim the hub mounting points and also skim the mounting points on the calipers.

If I was doing this again, I would get Radial mount calipers, such as Porsche or Renault Megane sport calipers.

I seem to recall that when using larger calipers & bigger than standard wheels, the ABS goes a little out of whack as its not quick/clever enough to make the appropriate adjustments.

Its something to do with the modulation the 'brain' makes when applying the ABS being a fixed value or square wave form (for standard wheels+calipers) not being appropriate for larger aftermarket wheels+calipers.
FWIW I've got Evo twin pot calipers on the front of mine with the ABS disabled and its never been a problem...

@mike74 wrote:I seem to recall that when using larger calipers & bigger than standard wheels, the ABS goes a little out of whack as its not quick/clever enough to make the appropriate adjustments.

Its something to do with the modulation the 'brain' makes when applying the ABS being a fixed value or square wave form (for standard wheels+calipers) not being appropriate for larger aftermarket wheels+calipers.
FWIW I've got Evo twin pot calipers on the front of mine with the ABS disabled and its never been a problem...

I may have to rethink my brakes so. Could I just unplug the ABS module in the passenger side foot well to disable the ABS?

I removed the ECU altogether and they still work ok. If you've not installed it already then IMO don't fit the ABS gubbins back in the engine bay...apparently its nigh on impossible to remove once the engine's in-situ.

I looked into doing this years ago but the thought of removing the ABS stuff from the engine bay put me off. You have to remove the stuff from the rear RH side of the engine bay and also fit a proportioning valve from a non-ABS model. Bob has them in occasionally but I think another alternative is to fit something like a Wilwood brake proportioning valve instead.

See what other folk say about it as I'm only running twin pots and others out there have got much bigger set-ups that they use on track.

You're at least in the enviable position to be able to choose which set-up you go for!

Well my Brakes set up at the moment is standing me about 600 so it is unlikely I will be changing the whole system up again, but if I can make it better for a low cost I could do it. Unless I sell everything and start again.
If I could remove ABS and use the new lines I have to do this, then just replace the proportioning valve, it could be worth a shot

I've completely removed my ABS pump and all associated lines, but I kept the same proportioning valve. Doesn't seem to be an issue really. I am however running a U13 USDM Altima master cylinder, I needed something a tad bigger because of my brake upgrade.

I always remove the ABS on Pulsars of this vintage, it's a rather primitive 2 channel system and is more of a hindrance than a help. It's a very slow to react system and does nothing for safety like modern 4 channel systems do. Yes, you can just unplug the thing, you'll be just fine, but in the interest of saving weight, you'd do well to remove it all. I have seen people in the past remove the pump and just loop the lines, that's easy to do with the engine in, since it's sitting by itself in the corner, it's easy to get to.

I will probably leave everything in the car to be honest. And just unplug the control module. Its not a rally car or anything so I'm not too bothered about weight. I'm even going to re install my Aircon which weighs a lot. The bracket alone is a few KG more than it should be.

The only weight saving I may do is a carbon bonnet.

Its a good point about needing a bigger master cylinder for the 4pots.

I have to warn you though, with a bigger bore master cylinder, your pedal travel will be a bit further than you are used to, that's an unfortunate side effect, however the actual clamping force on the brakes will be much better. Just want to make sure you are aware of that.

Bit more work done to the car today

Got the front suspension and brakes on I also got the gear linkage (mostly) on, I have lost the linkage bolt!! Short shifter on, propshaft on and hand brake cables on, but didn't get a chance to take pictures from under the car.

I have removed the front of the car to get at any rust that was in there, around the bumper bars and engine mounts etc... There is not much there though (which is good), only about 1 hrs worth of work there sanding and painting.









Also here is what the exterior of the car is like at the moment, the amount of Dust!! It is not the best fixing the car up with this amount of dirt around, you have to clean and wipe everything before start working on it.

So I stripped the front of the car, the worst part about moving bolts that have not bee touched in 25 years is trying to open them without snapping them. Getting just the right amount of torque to turn it but not snap it and slowly loosening it and tightening and loosening etc... I broke only 1 bolt out of about 20, luckly it was the one for the tow hook, which has 4 other bolts to hold it in. Front of the car was ok for Rust.










Took a picture down the chassis rails. All good down along them thank god.




Need a new engine stabiliser mount for the front as the rubber has fallen out of this one.



I grinded all the old paint and few bits of surface rust off, Coated everything in bilt hamber hydrate 80 to convert any bits of rust i didn't get and then rust bulled undercoat and some black top coat. Pictures to come of that work. I also filled the chassis rails with Bilt Hamber S80 wax so should be protected from future water.

That's pretty good progress .... good news with the rails also