Brakes upgrade
The brakes were originally from my hard-top Mk1 Golf GTi. The Hi-Spec Billet 4 kit came with Ford Cosworth discs, redrilled with the Golf 4x100 PDC. Getting replacements was a right pain in the ass, as you needed to find someone to redrill the Cosworth discs or get your pants taken down by Geoff at Hi-Spec. Plus all these holes were confusing 😱
So, I decided to go with some G60 discs, which are the same size but 4mm forward. This meant the mounting brackets needed machining down.
I initially ran some EBC Greens Stuff pads - PADDP2143, but when the pads were cold, I could not stop the car at the junction at the bottom of my street and would end up yacking up the hand brake to stop. I changed to EBC Standard Road - PADDP143, which does not require as much heat to work and did not suffer from brake fade when used at the Harewood Hill climb event.
The rear breaks had been converted from drums to discs using some second-hand Golf Mk3 callipers that were not working 100% after years of being stood with the handbrake cable on. I swapped them out for some new Recon Mk4 ones with new pads. The brakes are now excellent. You could stop on a penny.
Back in the day, you had to hustle up the bits you needed for the rear disc conversion, but now you can buy the conversion as a kit from Heritage Parts Centre
The kit includes:
- Left and Right Mk4 Golf rear caliper
- Brake Pads
- Goodridge conversion brake lines
- 2 rear discs
- Left and right mk2 stub axles
- 2 Mk2 Golf caliper carriers
- Rear brake compensator
- Wheel bearing kits
- Left and right backing plate
- Bolts for backing
The kit also informs you that, when using Mk3/ Mk4 Callipers on the rear of a Mk1 Golf, you cannot use the Scirocco handbrake cables that people usually use when using Mk2 Golf callipers on the back of a Mk1 Golf. You will need longer versions. A company called C and R Enterprises sells a longer version for use with Mk3 and Mk4 Golf callipers.
I am using standard Scirocco cables on mine, and everything fits as it should, so I have no clue what they are referring to. The main issue is that the brake pipe is totally different on Mk3/4's, so you need some new rear brake pipes made up.
