Enhancing The Stock Brakes

The brakes on the Savage work very well overall. However there's still some improvement that can be made. This is in regards to the fact the pads can still contact the brake disk when the brakes are not applied, causing premature pad wear.

To alleviate this, use a spring from a ballpoint pen. You won't need to use the whole spring, as usually just a few coils will suffice. One spring will easily handle both brake pad screws. This modification keeps the pads pushed back away from the brake disk when the brakes are not applied, helping to prevent premature wear.

Place the spring in between the pads as shown below. After the installation is complete, be sure to test the brake operation to ensure that the springs don't bottom out before the pad clamps the disk. Also keep in mind that as the pad wears, the spring will need to be allowed to compress even farther.

The picture below demonstrates this with the braking setup on a Traxxas Revo. However the procedure is still the same for an HPI Savage.

As a side note, many springs intended for use with the throttle or braking linkage will work well also. The springs I used for the picture above were actually from the linkage for a Cen Genesis. You should be able to find a suitable spring by going through some of the miscellaneous items as your local hobby store, if you prefer something a little stiffer than a ballpoint pen spring.