Brake pedal modifications

BX Tech talk
Post Reply
User avatar
mat_fenwick
Moderator
Posts: 7326
Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2005 4:08 pm
Location: North Wales
x 19

Brake pedal modifications

Post by mat_fenwick »

I have read somewhere that you can remove the spring from the BX brake pedal to give a more sensitive, direct feel to the pedal.
I may just be missing a trick here, but I was looking on the spares car this evening to see how this could be done and I couldn't remove the spring!
I could see a small, spring loaded button on the reverse side of the pedal arm, but no way of seperating it from the pedal. Any ideas please?
Has anyone done this mod? I have searched but couldn't find antything relevant.
AlanS
BXpert
Posts: 841
Joined: Mon May 16, 2005 9:53 pm
Location: Queensland, Australia

Post by AlanS »

Mat,

I think you may be getting the Xantia and the BX mixed up here.
Heard of it with the Xantia (Courtesy of Shane aka Double Chevron) but only thing I ever heard about the BX is that the pedal used to crack on earlier models and was rewelded with a support bracket attached.

Alan S
By the time you're old enough to know it all, you can't remember why you were learning.
jeremy
Over 2k
Posts: 2112
Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2005 2:58 am
Location: Hampshire UK

Post by jeremy »

The spring you are thinking of is fitted to Xantias - and removal makes them work like a BX!

jeremy
User avatar
mat_fenwick
Moderator
Posts: 7326
Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2005 4:08 pm
Location: North Wales
x 19

Post by mat_fenwick »

I promise you I'm not imagining it! I have found a thread on French Car Forum
http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... sc&start=0
which explains it for Xantias; however there is one chap who seems to have it on his BX. The feel of the brake pedal seems similar to how the Xantia pedal is described, and indeed to when I last drove a Xantia. Initial light braking is sensitive, moderate braking seems to require a disproportionate amount of effort, with quite a sudden transition between moderate and heavy braking. I believe what is happening is that the pressure required to open the brake valve for light braking is less than that required to compress the spring, moderate braking I am opening the valve as well as compressing the spring (hence extra resistance) and under heavy braking the spring becomes locked.
On my BX ('93 TZD Turbo) and on my spares car ('91 same model) there is a metal cylinder welded to the brake pedal arm, about an inch long. This has a protruding button at the front end, which can be pressed in with strong finger pressure, and then springs back out again. This button contacts the brake valve coming through the bulkhead.
I wonder if some later BXs had the same arrangement as Xantias, maybe Citroen were trying it out?
Anyway, I think I just need to pull harder to get it out, if it is like the Xantia arrangement. Thanks for the replies, and I will keep you posted...
Mr B
Northern Moderator
Northern Moderator
Posts: 710
Joined: Mon May 16, 2005 12:32 pm
Location: On a sofa, up the road from Marty!

Post by Mr B »

Another thought. Does your car have ABS? One of mine does and the brakes feel different from the one without, there is what feels like almost a delay between pressing the pedal and the brakes applying on the ABS fitted car. It's was bit weird when I first drove the car.
1991 Landrover Discovery
1995 VW Golf SE
User avatar
mat_fenwick
Moderator
Posts: 7326
Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2005 4:08 pm
Location: North Wales
x 19

Post by mat_fenwick »

Yes, it does. I wouldn't describe the feeling as a delay though, but I haven't got a non ABS one to compare it too.
AlanS
BXpert
Posts: 841
Joined: Mon May 16, 2005 9:53 pm
Location: Queensland, Australia

Post by AlanS »

Non ABS definitely feel entirely different to the ABS types.
I have to drive both as well as a Xantia and I find with the ABS type that the breaking is a bit "unique" to put it mildly in that I find the way it feels best to me is to over brake and then almost instananeously control the braking by backing off to the required pressure.
To me it's no real problem, but then again, I was also a speedway driver and rally driver back in the days when it was the done thing to drive machinery on the limit that most sane people wouldn't have driven down to the shop at walking pace. :shock: :shock: :roll: Brakes that would lock intermittently, wouldn't work if driven through water, live axles and the like, so that might explain it. :lol:

Alan S
By the time you're old enough to know it all, you can't remember why you were learning.
Geoffrey Gould
BXpert
Posts: 546
Joined: Sat Jun 25, 2005 7:26 pm
Location: Bristol.UK.

Brake pedal.

Post by Geoffrey Gould »

Hi I confess it wer me! 1991 diesel auto and a "spring" loaded button on the pedal.Without going into a long winded story the brakes were always variable in feel at the pedal, large amount of free play and a hard pedal - remove face from windscreen and very little free play and soft pedal and "oh my G-d" am I going to stop??
There is a small lip which is crimped over a washer which retains a top hat shaped button so to remove requires a gentle touch with a angle grinder.the "SPRING" was a piece of rubber tube like a fat grommet. That says it all really dosnt it. Rubber replaced with a suitable sized piece of metal (nut). A touch of weld to hold everything together.
While its out strengthen pedal box and two jobs sorted.
No one had messed with it, it was original.
Cheers.
Geoff.
Post Reply