My Rides

[DerekTheGreat]

LoL, I love how she told you it would prove you're at fault. Even with the truth right in front of her she was still convinced she did nothing wrong. Basically calling you an asshole and a liar in the process. Great that they reviewed it and made a decision in your favor on the spot. Good luck with the repair.

[BigMerc96]

I've been in exactly that situation a few times. I was always able to stop/slow down enough to avoid it tho. It appears you were hard on the brakes but it just wasn't enough, box brakes sure do leave a lot to be desired.

I had a situation fairly recently (towards the end of summer) on I94 north of the city. I was doing probably 75, a Jetta in front of me, and a pickup in front of that all going the same speed. A gust of wind comes up and lifts a foam cooler out of the back of the truck, and instead of just hitting it, the idiot in the Jetta slams on her brakes. Of course, I follow suit, but, my Town Car's brakes are far from modern and the car is far from lightweight. I was 100% convinced I was going to hit that Jetta and just mashed the pedal and hoped for the best since there was nowhere to go. If I had been following that VW any closer (I was at the appropriate following distance) my Town Car would have had a new hood ornament. I came within inches of her bumper. I flat spotted all 4 tires, but that was the extent of the damages. It still REALLY pissed me off, a piece of foam wouldn't have done any damage had she just hit it, instead she almost caused a multi car pileup as the cars behind me all came equally close to hitting each other and me. I was sure glad I've done as much work to my brakes as I have, I know I wouldn't have been able to stop had my brakes been like they used to be before replacing all of the everything.

[kishy]

That stop went beyond just warping the rotors, I think at this point it qualifies as an all-out bend.

Not sure if you listened with audio or not but that was a 4-wheel-lock slide. If I had been on 225s or maybe even 215s I think things would have gone differently, lockup could have been avoided and I might have even missed her entirely. But nope, stock 205s...

[HiFiMerc]

Stock 205's?

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Stock 205's?

205/75R15 were an optional stock size for early Boxes.

[HiFiMerc]

Interesting.

[gadget73]

My door sticker says 205/75-15 or 215/70-15 as the two available tire sizes in 86. Possible other brands had different tire sizing but thats what Lincoln was up to. Honestly not sure a 215 or a 225 would have done a whole lot more for you. Its not that much wider, and the stock brakes have little trouble locking up wider tires. Once it locks the stop distance increases considerably.

[kishy]

I've definitely found the stock box brakes are lock-happy. Night and day difference between my big-brake-swapped 91 and the 83/84. But I've also found that when wearing my HPPs the stock brakes won't lock as readily as when wearing the lacy spokes. This probably comes down to contact area. More friction between rubber and road means more of the stopping effort between the pads and rotors is used to stop the vehicle rather than just stop the wheel turning. Not a physicist but it stands to reason, anyway.

Since I really like the lacy spokes I'm conflicted on big brake swapping the Lincoln. I don't want to lose the ability to use the 15s...

[BigMerc96]

Just do like I suggested you do when you had the same conundrum on your '91 a year or 2 ago.. Use '95-'97 brakes. They are noticeably bigger than box brakes and still fit in 15" wheels. Not a true big brake upgrade, but a "bigger" brake upgrade. Box front brakes are smaller than Aero rear brakes.

[DerekTheGreat]

I like the lacy/turbine wheels too, I will not give them up!
I think rubber quality also has a lot to do with lock up resistance too, stickier the better. Not sure if they changed anything by '88 but I've never had a problem with lock-up, yet. I gradually roll into the brakes though, I imagine if I stabbed the pedal I'd get the lock up knocking on my door.

[HiFiMerc]

Thought it was 96-97 brakes. Great if 95 works too. Box needs better brakes. But also needs Turbines.

[BigMerc96]

Thought it was 96-97 brakes. Great if 95 works too. Box needs better brakes. But also needs Turbines.

Its kind of both. '95 is a weird transition year. Most have the same front end and brakes as a '96-'97, but real early ones use the '92-'94 setup. Easily identifiable as to which is on the car by looking at the upper control arms as they look quite different. I've only actually seen one '95 with the early setup.

FWIW, if you want to use '96-'97 brakes but want to use '98-'02 hubs making a future upgrade to bigger brakes easier, you can. My '97 has '98-'02 hubs on it, they fit fine. The only issue I ran into is that '98-'02 hub flanges are a bit thicker, so I had to put a spacer between the spindle and caliper bracket. When I say spacer, I mean a fender washer, that maybe 1/16" was enough to keep everything centered. Its been like that for probably 60k miles. '96-'97 and '98-'02 brakes are plumbed the same, so changing between them is just a matter of changing the pads/rotors, calipers/brackets, and hoses, and either changing the hubs or modifying accordingly. I never got around to doing the full big brake upgrade on my '97, when the parts needed replacing, I just didn't have time to do the whole conversion. Over time its basically a completely brand new '96-'97 brake system since I've changed both calipers and I changed the hoses when I redid the brake lines.

[knucklehead0202]

Should be legal to just shoot people that are that fucking stupid. You were clearly in process of a lane change, with turn signal a-blinking when that stupid twit pulled out. Any argument about changing lanes back or evasive maneuvers is moot. Given a literal split-second you may or may not always make the supposed "best" decision but sometimes there just isn't one. I encountered a similar situation when not one, but 2 assholes turned left in front of me. I slowed for the first and was about to honk when I saw the second idiot just go for it and had enough time to lock the brakes up and smack him. Ruined my front end and that cocksucker got off easy. That was 6 months ago and I still want to find him and set him on fire. Had it with rude, self-important idiot fucks.

Don't mean to thread jack, you reacted almost exactly as I would, and did.

[DerekTheGreat]

...I encountered a similar situation when not one, but 2 assholes turned left in front of me. I slowed for the first and was about to honk when I saw the second idiot just go for it and had enough time to lock the brakes up and smack him. Ruined my front end and that cocksucker got off easy. That was 6 months ago and I still want to find him and set him on fire. Had it with rude, self-important idiot fucks...

Special emphasis on that last part. Just never seems to fail that they never take responsibility for their actions and it was something you did, not them. What did that guy have to say after you trashed your front end with his car? Wasn't he an illegal?

[knucklehead0202]

Yup! All he said was "wah happun?" I said, "You turned right in front of me" only to receive a blank look. He sure to hell had his expensive smart phone out in a hurry to take pictures though. I'll bet I probably paid for that too. Ugh.