nitram38
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 posted on 7/12/07 at 11:11 PM |
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Wilwwod brake caliper question
I bought a set of 4 pot front calipers to fit a 262mm Rover vented disc from Matt Lewis Racing.
I have to make adapter blocks to attach them to the uprights, but I have a couple of questions.
The pads do not cover the entire surface of the disc. They only reach from the outer edge to about 2/3 of the surface.
This can't be right?
I have emailed Matt Lewis racing but no reply.
Before I go in guns blazing, has he sold me the wrong calipers/pads? (the calipers appear to fit the radius of the disc perfectly.)
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cloudy
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| posted on 7/12/07 at 11:15 PM |
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On my willwood 265mm discs, you still have the same width braking surface as the 245's, but there's an inner area which is a few mm
thinner, if it was flat back to the hub I would imagine it would only scrub about 2/3's of the disc, yes....
James
[Edited on 7/12/07 by cloudy]
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nitram38
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| posted on 7/12/07 at 11:20 PM |
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I don't quite understand why that after fitting big discs, that you would not want to grip all of the available surface area.
Otherwise, why not opt for a smaller disc?
My discs look the same as yours with the thinner section, but my pads do not cover all of the available surface area outside of that.
[Edited on 7/12/2007 by nitram38]
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cloudy
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| posted on 7/12/07 at 11:22 PM |
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Well you are getting better mechanical advantage the further away from the rotational point you get...
James
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nitram38
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| posted on 7/12/07 at 11:25 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by cloudy
Well you are getting better mechanical advantage the further away from the rotational point you get...
James
That may be so, but is it normal to cover less of the disc surface?
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cloudy
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| posted on 7/12/07 at 11:28 PM |
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I'm sure it's far from ideal - but the caliper is built to take a size of pad, and it's the same across the range AFAIK (they only
sell one pad size for the calipers)
James
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nitram38
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| posted on 7/12/07 at 11:33 PM |
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As long as they stop the car, I don't really care, but it just seams like bad engineering.
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Peteff
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| posted on 7/12/07 at 11:47 PM |
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Someone once explained all this to me in relation to motorbike front brakes but it went over my head. It was more to do with the swept area increase
from pads now being longer but narrower and operating further from the centre of the wheel.
yours, Pete
I went into the RSPCA office the other day. It was so small you could hardly swing a cat in there.
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RazMan
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| posted on 7/12/07 at 11:52 PM |
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Not really bad engineering, but its simply down to availability. Cheap brake kits tend to use what is available off the shelf and you will probably
find that your discs are designed for a range of tin tops and are therefore much cheaper.
If you want brakes that look really good then you can make up your own with custom bells and rotors .... but at a price. However they probably
won't stop any better as the distance from the hub and the swept area are still the same. A larger caliper will make more use of the disc .....
but again at a cost.
My Wilwood kit is exactly the same with a small inner area of unswept disc - I just painted it with silver caliper paint to stop it rusting and it
looks much better.
[Edited on 7-12-07 by RazMan]
Cheers,
Raz
When thinking outside the box doesn't work any more, it's time to build a new box
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nitram38
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| posted on 7/12/07 at 11:56 PM |
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Cheers Razman, I was more concerned that I had been sold the wrong caliper.
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SeaBass
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| posted on 8/12/07 at 09:46 AM |
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Which wilwood calipers did you buy?
Powerlite, Dynalite, Superlite?
I believe the Powerlite are designed for smaller disc diameters in order to fit behind 13" wheels on single seaters.
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nitram38
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| posted on 8/12/07 at 09:53 AM |
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I think that they are powerlites.
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Dangle_kt
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| posted on 8/12/07 at 10:25 AM |
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another benefit of the larger disc is that there is more surface area to disapate the heat.
Not massive difference, but hopefully the more silver linings you see, the less important the cloud becomes 
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