No brake power - 1982 GLI

Mt friend is working on my 1982 GLI. It passed its MoT but the brakes are poor.

He just did the Mk2 master cylinder and servo upgrade for me and while the feel has improved the power is still poor.

Is there an easy way to get more brake power (i.e pads with more bite) without changine the calipers and discs? Has anyone here had any success with grippier pads, if so which brand and model?

What else have you done to the brakes, have they been stripped and checked, the pads can bind onto the carriers if they have been in a long time, calliper sliders can stick if they are dry of lubricant, rear wheel cylinders can seize
Rear drums are actually ok on a car of this weight, but do need to be adjusted correctly
The brakes will never be as good as in a modern car, and some will say they are cr*p just due to the set up when they were converted from the LHD set up to RHD for us.
Lower cost upgrades could be replacing the rubber flexi hoses with steel braided, this will firm up the brake pedal, new brake fluid, (a complete flush) replacing the brake pads and brake shoes~ don't buy a cheap brand, I like Meyle as they are very close to oem spec, replace brake discs and drums
You can change the master cylinder for one from a T4 and I think this brings it up to 24mm
There are rear disc conversion kits, but again I don't think they are really required  on a car of this weight, but I am fitting them on mine during its rebuild!

The rear self adjusters never self adjust and take up half the pedal movement before anything happens. Use the pointy screwdriver thru a bolt hole to pull the adjuster down trick.

Also make sure any slack is taken out of the bulkhead bell crank abortion of a setup from pedal to master cylinder

When I rebuilt my 92's front calipers, after about 6 years of ownership  (Bought new ones when it was a new to me car as the bleeders  were broken.)  I couldn't believe how much different the feel of the pedal was.  With new SS jacketed telfon hoses and rear wheel cylinders the pedal was very firm.  The cost of the kit was like 5 USD each, the Brake Hone was about 30.  If you wrap the bleeder port with Teflon Tape then Poke a hole for the fluid to pass on the end, they will never rust seize to your caliper, and the teflon tape will not allow them to pass air with a mighty vac bleeder.

Building a home made power bleeder, was the best thing you can do, I switched over from regular fluid to Synth, and after the bleeding it was a totally different car. bleeding took about 15 minutes to totally replace all the fluid and flush the system.

If you replace the MC, only go with new, I have had a rebuilt that was ca-ca from the get go.

For pads I chose Hawk Ceramic pads, and I got a hell of a deal on them, as the Parts supplier I was using was discontinuing the hawk line I cot them for 5.00USD per box, So I bought all they had left 8 boxes. Also get the proper pads for your rotors, the single or solid rotor is thinner than the Vented, and the pads from a solid rotor will not fit a vented, they are toooooooo thick.

On the rear adjuster, I would lock the pedal with the barking brake, then stomp the pedal, and re-apply the e-brake about 5 or six times.  New Cables when you change the shoes greatly increase the rear braking force of the ebrake. I had one side break on me after replacing the rear shoes. So on a new to you car replacing the cables is a good thing, and they aren't that expensive

I never thought that the design of the rear adjuster could of been done better as with new shoes drums wheel cylinders, and cables, I never had a issue with the rears.
 

As Early1800 said, I think the biggest issue is likely the rear is not adjusted correctly, and once you find the technique it's quick and easy to do, keeping the rear adjusted correctly is #1 for brakes on this drum set up
You can upgrade the rear drum set up to Audi 80 for bigger braking surface area

Do the front wheels lock up if you press the pedal hard enough?

Modern cars have ABS which is why they have brakes that take little effort to lock the wheels because the ABS kicks in and enables you to steer and stop.

Without ABS you don’t want a pedal you can easily lock up the front wheels because it takes longer to stop and you lose steering with the wheels not turning.

I drove the car before the master cyl and servo upgrade. The brakes did work a bit but it was really a wooden feel and you had to push hard to stop. Braking was leisurely.

I've not driven since the upgrade but Ricky tells me the feel is much better but the power and stopping distance isn't.

I'm used to old vehicles as I ride old scooters and convert them to hydraulic dics from drum brakes at both ends. What I appreciate from that is that pad mfr makes a massive difference. A good drum brake with decent pads can stop acceptably for anything other than sporty riding. Equally a disc brake with sintered pads can be snatchy and too powerful but organic pads fixes that and offers control.

To me the feel of the car was like it had poor quality pads that had been glazed. It feels like its crying for a sintered or ceramic pad to simply offer more bite. I just wondered if such a pad existed and anyone had recommendations. It's not a case of expecting it to be like a modern car, but scraping the MoT proves it isn't much cop.

 

I've got totally standard brakes, everything renewed on the rear and Pagid discs and pads on the front, the pedal feel is good and the brakes are nicely progressive.
There's nothing worse than having a brake set up where you nearly go through the screen at the slightest touch.

I've got an old Triumph T140 with discs and the brakes were awful, I put EBC HH pads on the front and they transformed it so I got some for the rear, they were too much. it would lock up in the dry so you have to be careful.

Thanks Cedar, yes that's what I'm talking about.

I appreciate the need for control but you need to have some power. I'll see about Pagid pads if no better options are suggested.

Brembo discs and pads up front for me and Pagid rear shoes in the drums. I did have Pagid front pads until I changed them last year, both set offer a good feel when driving.
Braided brake hoses can also help firm up the pedal.
I guess you have changed the brake fluid when swooping out the master cylinder as brake fluid is often forgotten about, I change mine every 3 years and use dot 4.