rec.autos.simulators

You'll need a couple of items... a half round file, a single edge razor
blade, some double stick tape (I like 3M brand 1/16 thick, but it's
probably not critical) and one of those little 25 cent super-balls you
see in the vending machines at the supermarket... the ones that are
around an inch in diameter.

Start by cutting the super ball in half with the razor. Look for the
mold line on the ball and cut right on the line. BE CAREFUL with razor
blades, PLEASE!

Once you've got the ball cut in half, make a little notch in one of the
halves. Look at the back of the brake pedal upright, and you'll see a
little reinforcement gusset there. The notch in the ball is so it can
sit down in the crook of the pedal upright and the little reinforcement
won't try to lift it. Put a piece of the double stick tape on the flast
face of the ball, and stick it down against the back of the brake pedal
upright.

Now take the file (or razor blade, if you can be very careful) and take
the sharp edge off of the pedal case where the ball makes contact. If
you don't do this, the edge of the case will cut the ball up after a few
laps of racing. No need to get real fancy here, just knock the sharp
edge off.

Once that's all done, fire up GPL and go to the calibration screen.
Calibrate the steering and throttle in the normal fashion, then
calibrate hte brake pedal by pressing to what feels like a reasonable
pressure to you for hard braking, and then press a bit harder.

Once that's done, you should find that the brake pedal is MUCH easier to
modulate than before... you'll press the pedal and feel the resistance
of the ball get firmer as the brakes come in harder. PRessing even
harder against the ball will start to lock the nreakes. If you find the
brakes still lock too easily, go back and recalibrate, but press even
harder during calibration. The harder you press in calibration, the
harder you can press on the track before locking up the brakes.

This mod was worth nearly 5 seconds off my best previous lap time at
Kyalami... I went from a 1:28:45 to a 1:23:62 thanks to the better
braking feel.

Hope this comes in handy for someone... if this description isn't clear
enough, let me know... I can put a webpage up with pictures if anyone
wants it.

Happy racing!
Trips

Needed:

1 ft. bungee cord (smaller than the ones that come in the wheel,
mine was 1/4" dia., the stuff in the wheel was approx. 3/8" dia.)

Lok - Tite thread locking liquid.

(1) 5mm x 0.8 (pitch) Allen head cap screw, about 20mm long.

(1) #10 internally toothed lockwasher.

(2) Nylon "Zip ties"

 Remove the pedal pads and cover, and I removed the springs from
both the gas and brake pedals. If you check the nuts on the pedal
pivot shafts, you may find they are way too tight and are binding
the pedals up. I loosened the nuts up so that the pedals were
free to "flop", and then put Lok - Tite on the nuts and just
snugged them down to where they started to drag the pedals, then
backed off 1/4 turn. I then re-installed *one* spring per pedal.
This makes the pedals much "softer" feeling ...it takes a bit of
getting used to, but pressing the pedals no longer tries to tilt
the pedal base backwards. Much easier to drive!

 If you look at the back side of the brake pedal (below where the
spring mounts), you'll see a *** pad that serves as the travel
stop for the brake pedal. Remove this pad, and cut the width of
this pad down a bit. This will be the trial and error part. I
ended up with a pad only 1/4 of the width of the original one.
The pads have adhesive on them, so if you're careful, you can
stick it right back on with no problem.

 Next, cut out the hole in the cover for the brake pedal to allow
you to use the extra travel. I cut mine out an extra 3/8" (just
enough so the pedal no longer hits the cover cutout).

Screw everything back together and give it a try. Calibrate and
see how it feels, much the same way you have done. if the brakes
can still be locked up, add a small piece of the cut off portion
of the *** pad back on the stop and try again. You want to end
up with a nice, soft pedal that allows you maximum braking w/o
lockups. The pedal should just start to stiffen up on the pad
right before you get to wheel lockup.

 Next, I went and disassembled the wheel portion of the
controller. I cut the zip ties holding the factory bungee in
place and removed it. Using the smaller diameter bungee cord, I
made a new piece and fastened it into place exactly like TM did
originally. From the factory, my Nascar pro only gave me about
210 deg. of wheel travel, as the bungee cord was very taut and
was at it limit of stretch long before the wheel ran out of
travel. it was also very stiff past 60 deg. off center, making
"sawing" on the wheel (Zandvoort?) very tiring. With the new,
smaller bungee, the wheel gives me a full 270 deg. of travel and
is much easier on the arms, taking much less effort to pitch the
car around. Finally, I removed the Phillips head***holding
the wheel to the steering shaft and replaced it with the Allen
head***and lockwasher...also with a dab of Lok - Tite. The
Allen***allowed me to really torque it down, lessening the
chance that the***will work it's way loose mid-race and start
the wheel to wobbling...a problem I've had with this wheel since
it was a month old. It seems that when the wheel is loose on the
shaft I also have move play in the shaft itself, so this cures
both of my problems at one time.

 Hope these "fixes" help some of you as much as they have
me...and thanks to Trips for the inspiration to finally get off
my a** and fix this thing that's been driving me nuts for a month
or more now.

 See you on course!

Doc
phRed '95 - CSP #25
Team Monster Miata Stereo
--
Never a late apex, never a dull moment.