How to :Creating caliper mounts

[30psi 4agte]

I have been making caliper mounts up to make my wilwood calipers fit onto my falcon (borg warner) diff backing plates.

After having a few questions as to how i made my front caliper mounts up i have decided to take pics of the process and post them for all to see and mabe pic up some tips.

Now i know not everyone will be mounting the same calipers to the same diff but you can get a good idea of how to start and what to do in general for mounting calipers.

This is the caliper in question


Well this is how i started.......
The first thing is to sit the caliper onto the disc and work out the center spacing /offset.. You need to make sure that the caliper sits in the middle off the disc.
In my case with this setup i was about 2.5mm out of center meaning i needed to make a change to something.

I decided to take the material off of the backing plate as the was sufficent meat on the backing plate for me to do so.
Taking the 2.5mm off of the backing plate would mean that my caliper would be aligned perfectly centered.


Once the caliper was centered i could now turn my attention to actually creating the mounting bracket to adapt from the ford 71mm bolt spacing to the wilwood caliper 95mm bolt spacing.

What i did was put the pads in the caliper and also put a piece of card board behind each pad ( to take up the pad slack as the piston was pushed all the way backin the caliper)so that when i slid the caliper onto the disc it would be a tight fit and hold the caliper centered onto the disc and not let it move around too much while i marked / measured stuff out for the brackets.


At this stage i now had the caliper centraly mounted on the disc and now started to make some spacers up so that i could use a flat piece of 10mm steel to create the caliper mounting bracket.

The wilwood caliper mounting plate is 11mm thick . so i needed to make up some 11mm spacers to go on the ford backing plate so that in the end the caliper would sit flush with the spacers.
I found some 20mm pipe with a 4mm wall and the perfect 12mm ID for the caliper bolts ........ Lucky me !! So all i had to do was part them off on the lathe. ( could use a hack saw or grinder if a lathe is not accessable )




The next challenge i faced was getting the caliper to sit far enough on the disc so that i could use the spacers and still access the mounting holes in the backing plate.
( hard to understand ?? hopefully the pics help )


Here is a pic of the spacers in the mill and what the came out like when finished.

I know not everyone has access to a mill also so a simple grinder would do the trick here.

Now with this done it is time for the next step in the process. Making a template for the actual mounting bracket.
For this I just simply start with a piece of carboard. I traced out the piston shape of the caliper and cut it out so that i could align the mounting holes.

[30psi 4agte]

I then traced out the mounting holes onto the cardboard and also checked them for accuracy with the vernier calipers. Once i had established they were 95mm apart i used a hole punch to punch the holes in the cardboard.





once i had checked everything over and was happy with it ( you can never check too much)
I then drilled the holes in the plate and started cutting the shape out.



With the shape cut outnow i could bolt the caliper on using both the caliper mounting plate and the spacers to check everything out.




This is a photo of the finished product ready for a coat of paint..-----I sand blasted the mount so it was clean and could be painted.


This is the finished product all bolted up and brake line installed.




Thats basicly it!!

[jezza323]

good writeup - does that hub have an internal drum for the handbrake?

[30psi 4agte]

Yeah it does.
Im going to use my factory dash mounted cable hand brake to operate the internal drum and also eventually put in a floor mounted hydraulic handbrake for skids

[The Real Roadrunner]

I found some 18mm pipe with a 4mm wall and the prefect 12mm ID

need lessons on calculater usage?

pos rep for post

miscalculation is that stupid blonde that stops in on occasion.

cheers
linden

[30psi 4agte]

lol
ok smart arse........ --------- By the looks of it i also need some spelling lessons "prefect" <--- WTF

Im surprised you didnt pick me on that one too.. or good engli dont you speak?

It is actually 20mm OD pipe.... Ill fix that!

+ rep for being a smart arse linden

EDIT: As soon as i spread some

[infotechplus]

Love these sorts of writeups!

Plus rep to you (irregardless of spelling and math prowess )

Makes you wonder why you see Jap spacers selling for $200 plus. Probably the time and labour.

Cheers,

Peter

[LeeRoy]

How do the calipers bolt up? Do the calipers have threaded holes in them or were you planning on tapping a thread into the mounting plate you are designing and then if so will a bolt have clearance to the back side of the disc?

Awesome thread though. Kudos to you (in rep form )

[30psi 4agte]

/\/\/\/\ Youre a thinker!!

Yeah im gonna tap a thread in the caliper. Either 12x1.25 or 12x1.5 havent decided yet.

Im gonna run the bolt through the mounting plate and thread it into the caliper

[The Real Roadrunner]

Plus rep to you (irregardless of spelling and math prowess )
Cheers,

Peter

you guys must be brothers

me no speaka de englis, irregardless im prefect.


back on a serious note, i cant believe the calipers arent threaded, thats Fn weird.

what about a S/S or moly boss, and have that pressed into the back of the caliper.

cheers
linden

[byteme]

none of the wilwood calipers are threaded.

i think it has spomething to do with the bodies being ally.

[30psi 4agte]

you guys must be brothers

me no speaka de englis, irregardless im prefect.


back on a serious note, i cant believe the calipers arent threaded, thats Fn weird.

what about a S/S or moly boss, and have that pressed into the back of the caliper.

cheers
linden

Bahahahaha....You fuckin clown!

Not a bad idea about the s/s boss......... I have had it in the back of my mind about tapping alloy..... Not %100 keen on it. (Hence my uncertain mind as to what thread to tap----- Im thinking go with a course thread?)


It has nothin to do with the strength of the clamping force ( there wont be any prob there) but more with the wear factor of the thread over time.

Having to pull the calipers off and on over time will flog the alloy thread out quick smart...
I have thought i wont need to do that though as if i need to pull the caliper off i will just undo the the bolts to the backing plate not the mounting bracket-caliper + there is enough room to fit a nut behind the caliper also should the thread turn bad.

All in all if the thread does flog out i will drill out the thread and go for a boss -

[Talasas]

This is excellent, I've been trying to work all this out in my head for the last couple of months. I was doing well by the looks of it too

*Fantastic work as always 30, +rep for this.

I also thought about how you bolt it all together and one idea I had was where you mentioned using a nut, you place a bolt instead that runs towards the inside of the car. This helps install/removal and the downside is that you have to find access to it which with this style of caliper might not be helpful... hmm <keeps thinking>

[smitty1]

Bahahahaha....You fuckin clown!

Not a bad idea about the s/s boss......... I have had it in the back of my mind about tapping alloy..... Not %100 keen on it. (Hence my uncertain mind as to what thread to tap----- Im thinking go with a course thread?)


It has nothin to do with the strength of the clamping force ( there wont be any prob there) but more with the wear factor of the thread over time.

Having to pull the calipers off and on over time will flog the alloy thread out quick smart...
I have thought i wont need to do that though as if i need to pull the caliper off i will just undo the the bolts to the backing plate not the mounting bracket-caliper + there is enough room to fit a nut behind the caliper also should the thread turn bad.

All in all if the thread does flog out i will drill out the thread and go for a boss -

Have you thought of Helicoiling them when you tap them? It would make them more durable over time.

[30psi 4agte]

nah .. i hate helicoils. esp when they are in alloy ... The only good helicoil thread repair i think is those plug style inserts..