Re-staging brake pedal on B14

Ray Sta.Juana raystajuana at hotmail.com
Tue Mar 9 15:23:56 CST 2004


When I did my AD22VF brake upgrade, I also went and replaced the MC with one
from an Altima for the batter brake proportioning and larger bore etc. and I
also installed the Crown stainless steel lines.  While braking ability was
improved immensely I wasn't too impressed with the pedal feel as it wasn't
the "firm" feel that I was expecting. It felt like I had no brakes the first
third of the pedal travel before the brakes started working. When they did
start working, it made heel and toeing difficult since the pedal was so much
lower than the gas pedal. Note also that this is with aftermarket Razo
pedals so it would be much worse with stock pedals.

So I lived with this lousy pedal feel until I read somewhere that I can
re-stage my pedal to take up some of that slack. It's pretty simple on the
B14 really, all you need is a 17mm open end wrench and a pair of
small/medium pliers. There's a nut that you loosen where the brake pedal
attaches to a threaded shaft that leads to the firewall. To adjust the pedal
travel, use the pliers and turn the threaded shaft in either direction
depending on desired result. In my case, I turned it clockwise to take up
some of the pedal slack and make the brake pedal actuate the brakes earlier
in it's travel. After you're done with adjusting all you do is tighten the
nut back up.

CAUTION! Be careful with how much slack you take up as you can easily overdo
it and have the brakes drag on the rotor surface. Mine did not drag but
after using the brakes on the street, the heat expanded the materials and
that's when they started dragging so I had to turn the threaded shaft
counter-clockwise and induce more slack to make room for material expansion.
Don't think that just because they don't drag when cold doesn't mean they
won't drag once warmed up.

The benefits are that the pedal doesn't have to travel as far down to
actuate the brakes and the feel is vastly improved as it got rid of the
sponginess in the beginning of the pedal travel. Heel and toeing is also
easier as the pedal doesn't go as low as before in relation to the gas
pedal. Now the pedal is as firm as I was hoping it was when I did the brake
upgrade. Hope this helps some of you who did the upgrade and wasn't
impressed with the pedal feel. I'm not sure if this applies to the stock MC
so maybe someone else with that experience can chime in.

Ray S
98 Sentra SE w/mods


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