Hummer Brakes may be of interest

[Shayne]

Hi guys i've been poking around the Hummer forums and was somewhat astonished to read many report brakes lasting over 100k miles without maintenance , and i have to say the stopping power of them beggars believe , no ABS on my H2 but not sure about the H3 . Just thought i'd mention it as someone building a custom truck might want to look into adding them into the mix .

 

[Chris]

What is it that makes them so good do you think Shayne? Are they just massive or like 6 pot calipers or something?

 

[Doodle]

You'll find there's several reasons for that.

1) Their roads are generally straighter
2) They have less traffic
3) Their road speeds are lower

I can think of better options, given the availability of Hummer parts in the UK.

Chris, they're nothing fancy, just 4 pot front and a pretty crude 2-pot sliding rear, the discs are fairly large though (circa 13")

 

[Shayne]

13" discs and as far as i can tell 7x3.5" pads and i've no doubt i could lock the wheels at any speed without much effort , maybe that has something to do with it its so easy to lock the wheels with 3 tonne to stop you tend to brake early to avoid the embarrassing screech of rubber . A large contact area has to prolong life though i guess .

 

[Beau]

Shayne, if you need better stopping power on your cruiser, I would say Ditch the ABS! It kicks in far too early when there is more available grip on the road. I believe you could actually pull the ABS fuse out and this may do the trick, you may end up with a warning light on the dash though...

 

[Shayne]

I have already considered that Beau , could you not cut the wires to sensors and connect them together so power is looped back tricking the ecu into thinking the abs is working fine ?

 

[Shayne]

Anybody ?

I have already considered that Beau , could you not cut the wires to sensors and connect them together so power is looped back tricking the ecu into thinking the abs is working fine ?

 

[cavanmick]

No Shayne, the abs works on a hall sensor so is just a magnet the the toothed ring on the cv changes the magnetic field of, the ecu reads these pulses and calculates the speed, if you loop the power back it will think the wheels are locked all the time.

 

[Shayne]

So what does that mean will the abs be a permanent feature whenever i brake ?

 

[cavanmick]

Either that or it will show a fault and bring the light on, I know with vws when the rotor gets clogged with dirt or the air gap gets too big the abs gets very oversensitive so it cuts in on very light braking....

 

[Shayne]

OK cheers Mick my abs cuts in way to easy even at very low speeds sounds like pulling the fuse and removing the bulb that lights the dash up is the best thing to do .

 

[cavanmick]

It shouldn't do that buddy, it's very easy to set the air gap on them, just take out the sensor and clean the ends of them with a wire brush and give the toothed ring on the cv joints a clean and you should notice an improvement...

 

[Chris]

Other than it will be an instant MOT failure. You can put the bulb back in once each year I suppose. But it HAS to light up and then go out for the MOT. Unless you pull all the system and the extra brake pipes etc. If you pull the fuse, it stops the ABS. Then simpler to put some tape over the warning light if it annoys you. Then you only need put the fuse back in each year.

 

[cavanmick]

If you remove the system completely you will have to fit a load sensing valve to the back axle as vehicles with abs don't have them and those without abs need them for Nct (Mot).

 

[Shayne]

Yeah i cleaned up them up on swambo's car when her light came on but i think i would prefer no abs as i only seem to ever brake heavily at slow speeds , twice i've seen a kid killed coz they ran out of a blind spot leaving the driver no chance to avoid them or stop so i tend to constantly scan well ahead and slow right down whenever i overtake a parked bus or see kids even if their on the opposite side of the road .

 

[cavanmick]

I would think you would run into difficulties with insurance if you deliberately disable the abs buddy.

 

[Shayne]

Hmm i thought it would be a reasonably simple thing to do but maybe not . I like the no nonsense suggestion from Chris might try that just to see if its an improvement it may be a pointless exercise coz its the hummer brakes that got me thinking about it but they are way bigger than the 90's .

 

[cavanmick]

Have you ever had the fluid changed etc, yours is a shortie so should have pretty good brakes.

 

[Shayne]

No truth is i bought the 90 and then passed my driving test so with nothing to compare it to i accepted the brakes as is and got used to them , its the huge weight of the hummer and its stopping power that has sort of woke me up to the fact my brakes should definitely be better .

Should add that i've been driving since i was a kid , tractors , diggers , wagons and cars but bikes is what i loved . For 10 years prior to passing my test i could hardly walk let alone drive .

 

[cavanmick]

Would be worth getting the fluid changed and get a set of good quality pads in there and once the system is well minded it should work very well, mine is a lwb with no back seats and no abs but even with the load sensing valve adjusted it's a bit giddy in the back when you stick it to the road, in fairness I would prefer if it had abs.