TheSamba.com :: View topic

Tue Jun 26, 2012 11:49 am

I'm building a street rail and am looking for opinions on turn brakes. I have a CNC turn brake that came with the rail but I'm curious if these are hard on transaxles if used on pavement?

Tue Jun 26, 2012 12:27 pm

A steering brake can be hard on a transmission on any kind of surface.
If you have a swing axle it puts an extreme amount of pressure on snap ring holding side gear in, plus using the steering brake on a hard surface such as pavement can put you on your head quick.
The steering brake idea was for using on soft surfaces such as sand and loose dirt and at slower speeds. Even though they are used at higher speeds by people that are racing such as when Pikes Peak was a dirt road.
If you are looking for gaining experience on how a steering brake works on your car, try it on loose surfaces at slow speed with the engine running and without putting all the power on and see how it handles.

Tue Jun 26, 2012 4:09 pm

I know in Oregon that turning brakes are illegal on the street, also they are very dangerous. They are great offroad in the soft and slow stuff, but are hell on spider gears. Only use them if its a offroad only setup.

Tue Jun 26, 2012 6:26 pm

I think I will leave off the turn brake and just sell it on ebay. I want to go with a center console anyway so that I can hide some of the wiring by running down the center of the floor pan. I have several ideas for that but haven't made up my mind as to which route to take yet. I sometimes contemplate too much : )

Wed Jun 27, 2012 7:42 pm

i was contemplating putting my turning brakes back on but was curious of how much harm i could cause. i dont think that little bit of fun is worth the money i just dumped into my swingaxle setup. thanks for the posts even though this isnt my thread lol.