Carbo techs

[Neil Swanson <75377.3445@compuserve.com>]

About those pads,

I've been in touch with Larry for a while about these pads.  On the Merkur list
we now have three including me trying them.

Down in FL we have a guy with the "Mean Green" Kelatted pads and shoes on his
Xr.  He reports great stopping, low dust but sometimes some squeal.  Larry
warned of the chance of some squeal.  He loves the braking though.

In SanFran we have a guy I got the pads for and SS lines.  He put them in with
drilled rotors, something Larry warned may well be noisey.  They are.  It comes
from dust falling between the pads and rotors.  The dust is sticky, very sticky
and it leads to a grinding noise.  If you have a window open or a radio on you
don't hear it.

I have them in my Xr.  Mine though has 11.5" rotors and four pots off a Sierra
Cosworth though, not stock brakes.  I have G-Force rotors with eight gas slots
on each side.  I had Mintex 171s before the Mean Greens.  The MGs absolutly stop
better.  Grab really well when cold and get better though they remain
consistant, I know sounds contradictory, even when hot.  What is hot?  Repeated
stops hard from 80-90mph.  You know when you squirt ahead of traffic and then
have to slow fast'cause someone w/o mirrors pulls into your lane.  These are the
only pads I've run in this car that have the power to lock the front wheels.  I
run 205-55 D40 M2s.

They modulate well.  I have no squeal at all. I put a light layer of Delco brake
grease on the back side before installing. This has prevented any squeal from
any car I've ever had for 25+yrs.  A trick you must learn as a Volvo mechanic!

I do have some of the grinding sound.  I don't like it but I can live with it.

Larry is right up front about these brakes.  Superb street/Auto-X pad.  NOT for
real track use.  He will tell you that. He will tell you what to run for the
track as he did te lister who called him.

I would get some for my 5ktq but I just put drilled rotors on and don't want to
see if they are noisey or not.  I KNOW they stop like monsters though.

Carbo Tech can re-do any pad shoe you send, or he can buy new backing plates and
do it that way.  

Be sure to follow his bedding procedure to the letter.  It is important to gat
the "transfer layer" he calls to to go from the pad to the rotor.

I say try'em.

Neil
NSPS