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Brake caliper adapting
rontyler - 19/3/04 at 04:58 PM

Guy's,

Been pretty quiet lately, so.....

I am considering a caliper option thats a little off the beaten track. I'm unable to find a caliper that fits my specific needs so I was thinking about using a caliper that was designed for a little thicker rotor and then increasing the pad "backing plate" thickness on one side with a shim. The purpose is to obtain the right offset for the mounts. My question is... do any of you see any cause for disaster (or any other smaller problems)? BTW, this is a non-floating caliper.

Thanks


GO - 19/3/04 at 05:40 PM

depending on how think the shim needs to be, and how the caliper is designed, you might get into problems with the pad being securely retained in the caliper, but I guess thats fairly obvious.


ray.h. - 19/3/04 at 06:37 PM

I would fix the shim to the back of the pad in some way so that if the pad was pushed too near the edge of its safe travel the shim would hold it in.The shim would only need to be the difference between the two types of disc.
Either that or two shims,one behind each pad but only needing to be half as thick.
Or split the calipers and have the faces machined to make them narrower.
Unless someone can think of something else..
Ray...


Spyderman - 19/3/04 at 08:42 PM

It would depend on what the difference is really.
If it is fairly small then it would be like using part worn pads if used without spacer.
If it is quite substantial then as suggested by GO the danger would be the pad falling out when it became part worn.
Using two shims would be preferential to using just the one if it is absolutely nessesary.

Is it not possible to get thicker discs/rotors to match the caliper?

Terry


rontyler - 20/3/04 at 04:52 PM

quote:
Originally posted by ray.h.
I would fix the shim to the back of the pad in some way so that if the pad was pushed too near the edge of its safe travel the shim would hold it in.
Ray...


Can do.


rontyler - 20/3/04 at 04:58 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Spyderman
It would depend on what the difference is really.
If it is fairly small then it would be like using part worn pads if used without spacer.

Is it not possible to get thicker discs/rotors to match the caliper?

Terry



The caliper I'm leaning towards would require a .338" spacer on one side. Not an option to space both sides... puts caliper into the wheel.

Regarding a thicker rotor... I must appologize, the question is a bit misleading. The car is a fellow autocrooser that asked me to help him with this. He has already spent bucks on heavily modified rotors and does't wan't to "start over".

Thanks for the help guys.