My T500RS "Even Stiffer" Brake Mod

  • Thread starter mrbasher
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I ordered some Venom 78s. In the meantime , I have fitted the tapered 90 that I already had in place of the parallel one and its better. Far from an ideal setup but it got me through a couple of races the other night. :D
 
spinner
I ordered some Venom 78s. In the meantime , I have fitted the tapered 90 that I already had in place of the parallel one and its better. Far from an ideal setup but it got me through a couple of races the other night. :D
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Hi Spiner would you mind sharing which brand or a picture of the box you got them pls
Thx
M
 
Did you put the tapered one in with the hole facing the pedal back? I was thinking of trying that with one of mine. The one I have is soft though. I was curious about trying it as it would add even more of a "progressive" nature to it. I was using this on my prototype brake pedal with quite a bit of success. (not the T500 brake)
 
mrbasher
Did you put the tapered one in with the hole facing the pedal back? I was thinking of trying that with one of mine. The one I have is soft though. I was curious about trying it as it would add even more of a "progressive" nature to it. I was using this on my prototype brake pedal with quite a bit of success. (not the T500 brake)
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No , its placed in the same direction as your parallel bushings. When I made my retainer plate , I made it with a small channel section that would keep a single bushing centered under the pedal arm. It's still working okay surprisingly and with this orientation , it allows for a lot of progression as the hole can close up under pressure.
 
Gotcha. I was thinking it might be a little stiff the other way. Now I don't have to try it. :)

That squishing of the center hole is key. The squish of the center hole seems to be about half the pedal travel, the second half is the whole bushing squishing. (wow, i'm a poet lol)

I should video mine so I can see what's actually happening...
 
I received my Venom 78 bushing today. There doesn't seem to be any noticeable difference in the hardness just squashing them by hand compared to the Penny 90 I already have. I fitted the tapered Venom in place of the tapered Penny and sure enough , the pedal feels pretty much the same.

The Venom is a bit wider that the Penny so maybe the extra material is a factor. Anyway , no biggie. I've gotten used to the feel now and can consistently hit that sweet spot before lock up so it's all good :D
(Summer here so I race bare foot and just socks in winter)
 
Are you using 1 or 2 78's? I use only one. I was wondering earlier what is the significance of the number. Are they just arbitrary numbers assigned by each company or does it represent a value of density or resistance to compression. This would seem to say there is no correlation between then numbers across brands but at the same time the foot and leg are more for strength and endurance rather than fine motor skills so it's possible that it is hard to sense the difference between densities that close together.
 
mcfizzle
I was wondering earlier what is the significance of the number. Are they just arbitrary numbers assigned by each company or does it represent a value of density or resistance to compression. This would seem to say there is no correlation between then numbers across brands but at the same time the foot and leg are more for strength and endurance rather than fine motor skills so it's possible that it is hard to sense the difference between densities that close together.
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They SHOULD be accurate as the number represents the durometer of the material used. Durometer is the hardness of a material and is used for softer materials. There are different scales, skate bushings are usual in "A" which is the type of tip used to take the measurement. You'll have to look it up to get a better understanding, but it's essentially how far the tip moves "into" the material for a given amount of sustained pressure.

That said, the reason they should be accurate across brands is that skaters use this as a measurement of how the bushings will react as they ride. Soft ones make turning easy, but more sluggish. Hard ones are the opposite. It doesn't exactly equate to how squishy they are, but basically that's the result. A 70 or low 70's durometer bushing is going to be pretty soft. They will quickly become pretty hard above that though for the purposes of this, in my opinion...
 
mcfizzle
Are you using 1 or 2 78's?
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Im using one. Now that I have a few to play with , Im thinking I might trim some material from them in places to make them easier to compress. Something to play with :)

mcfizzle
.............. it's possible that it is hard to sense the difference between densities that close together.
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Yeah , I was thinking the same thing. Squashing them by hand on a bench isn't very high tech :D But after seeing Bashers original pic with two parallel bushings installed in his pedals , I kinda expected that just one wasn't going to be as firm as mine turned out to be. 60 must be quite a bit softer than 78.
All good anyway , this is the best my brake pedal has ever felt. It's still a great mod Basher 👍
 
For those that did this mod, how much better does breaking feel? Are your lap times better? more consistent? Any details if its worth doing?
 
I did a similar thing with my G27 pedals, but I used hose pipe. My brake pedal was rubbing so I did it to try to fix my issue, result was a stiffer and better feeling brake pedal with no more rubbing in game.

Same concept as you have used!
 
rekki
For those that did this mod, how much better does breaking feel? Are your lap times better? more consistent? Any details if its worth doing?
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My laptimes are more consistent , for sure. I used to have the real feel pad in my T500 pedals , which is good but the pedal doesn't hit the pad until the later part of the travel. So you only have the resistance from the spring then a nice progressive feel at the end as you push into the pad.

With the skate bushing , you're up against the urethane from the start to finish and the resistance ramps up nicely. If you are using the T500 pedals , its a really easy and cheap mod. Well worth it IMO.

I race mostly in iRacing. The calibration and sensitivity settings in game allow for fine tuning with this mod.
In Pcars , I cant get the brake pedal to register properly in the calibration screen. I'm not sure what the problem is there , might be because I'm not using all of the pedals stroke ?

I dont know how it goes in GT or any other sims........
 
Spinner you can use diview to calibrate your pedals on PC. you can set saturation and add deadzone if you want and set the center of it. Really handy.

Double barrel bushings or singular? Anybody know the swedish term for it so I can ask in stores what I want.

That spring eerk is what bothers me more then lack of feel. I think it´s partly due to the rubber not wanting to stay in place may superglue it or something.
 
I've been using a solid piece of rubber I got from Ace Hardware for the past 6 months and its been great. I just picked up some yellow 83 Venom's. I'll give them a try after my race tonight.

Very psyched, thanks or the idea!
 
rekki
Question about calibration with this mod, do you have to calibrate the breaks every time you play GT5?
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You have to calibrate the T500 pedals every time you fire up the pc/console. It is required to do this in all sims. It's just the nature of the beast.
 
Is anyone else not having trouble with the bushings pushing right out from behind the brake? I don't have a machine shop, so I can't make a bracket and I doubt tape will hold.

Any other thoughts or suggestions?

BTW, I'm using Venom's like many others here.

Thanks for any tips or advice.

***Found a solution. I zip tied the two bushings together and wrapped duct tape around them and they are holding tight.

Sweet!
 
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The retainer plate wouldn't have to be made from metal. I think even plastic would work. It's just a rectangle with 2 holes in it.

* in case you want to upgrade from the zip ties and tape :)
 
If anyone wants a plate, I can make one easily enough and send it to you. I'll buy a strip of aluminum tomorrow and then I can tell you what it'd cost. If you're in the US, were probably talking $2 including shipping ;) It's simply a matter of cutting it to length and drilling holes in it. I need to get one sent to a friend along with some bushings anyhow.

Just shoot me a PM.
 
Yesterday spring from the stiff brake mod broke. Now i have too much travel and the pedal is to light to me.

Please tell: bushings are wheels from skateboard or longboards?
Are they all the same size? Can someone measure it (in centimeters).
When bushings are installed, when braking, do they damage the spring beneath the brake pedal?

Thanks in advance.
 
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They are not wheels , they are the bushing from the centre of the skateboard truck. I'm guessing they are the same on longboards ?

I don't know if they are all the same size. Mine are 2.5cm in diameter.

They don't damage the torsion spring on the brake pedal pivot as far as I can tell. (they break quite easily on their own haha)
 
VINCE__
You have to calibrate the T500 pedals every time you fire up the pc/console. It is required to do this in all sims. It's just the nature of the beast.
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Vince you shouldn´t have to calibrate on PC if you recalibrate it with diview with your preferred settings. So on PC it should be as much plug and play as before the mod.
 
oqvist
Vince you shouldn´t have to calibrate on PC if you recalibrate it with diview with your preferred settings. So on PC it should be as much plug and play as before the mod.
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I really didn't mean calibrate as in resetting the pedals/wheel and shifter. I meant it as pumping the brake a few times to get them to work properly. This is required every time you start the pc.
 
For the best consistency, I do the following regardless of platform, after the wheel has done it's rotational calibration:

Press the brake to what I think is a nice "full pressure" and hold it for a few seconds.

Doing that seems to work pretty well so far. You can SEE it happen when you are in a race in GT5.

Also, I apologize to everyone for not really providing better details about what these bushings are :( Part of this process is experimentation, which is why I posted it for you all to play with. :) Some He-Man out there will want to use 85 durometer bushings or something. haha

I'm going to order some different ones to experiment and maybe a few extras in case people want them. They weigh next to nothing so shipping them places would be quite cheap.
 

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