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Willwood hand brake calipers
John G - 13/10/15 at 12:39 PM

I purchased an Aeon gt3 that has some Willwood mechanical callipers fitted for the Iva /mot. The owner then changed the hubs to alloy billets removing the handbrake callipers leaving the cables tied up as the car was to be used for the track. I intend to put the car on the road so need to mount the callipers. I have designed a mounting plate for the Willwoods , but have the following thoughts; Are these callipers up to the job for the mot? Does anyone have any photos of them being mounted on a car? Would a simple hydraulic system work using a handbrake mounted to a master cylinder then to my existing callipers or to a pair of bike callipers?
Any recommendations?
Regards, John


Ben_Copeland - 13/10/15 at 01:06 PM

Seem to remember wilwood handbrake calipers not being very good.

You can't have hydraulic handbrake on iva/mot I think as it needs to be fail safe.

The calipers themselves are very good tho


adithorp - 13/10/15 at 01:30 PM

Hydralic handbrake isn't permitted for either IVA or MOT.

The Wilwood caliper doesn't have a lot of leverage; Add the modded Fury lever that has less leverage than standard and it wasn't much use. I overcame this by putting a secondary lever in the tunnel between the single cable from the handle and the twin cables to the calipers, that multiplies the leverage. Result is a strong handbrake with good feel. I'll add photos later but you should find then in previous threads if you search "wilwood handbrake"


peter030371 - 13/10/15 at 02:55 PM

I am mid-way through fitting the hi-spec Ultralite SVA calipers. The handbrake seems to work better on my Striker handbrake lever than the sierra calipers I took off but I am still 12 months away from an MOT so no idea if its good enough! I do need to sort out the return spring but other than that I can lock the back wheels up very easily with the car in the air which I couldn’t do before.

Certainly the idea of the Hi-spec handbrake lever mechanism is sound so it should work but only time will tell From what I have seen of the Willwood calipers that include the handbrake part they have little leverage on them but I know some have got them to work OK.


John G - 14/10/15 at 07:38 AM

Just to add that my willwood handbrake callipers are the single mechanical ones. I have a separate calliper for normal braking.
It should be ok with some setting up, I was just wondering if anyone had any pictures of their set up.
Regards, John.


Fant - 14/10/15 at 01:34 PM

I had the wilwood handbrake calipers on my car. After lubricating and adjusting all moving parts it worked ok - for about 2 weeks. Finally I got rid of them and designed my own handbrake which is a band brake acting directly onto the diff input.