Well...I've finally got it done. My big brake project to adapt Nascar Style brakes to a 3rd Gen. This project utilises 12" x 1.375" Nascar type rotors with Superlite II calipers. Build details, parts used and prices as follows. All prices in Canadian Dollars.

1) Used 1LE rotors to modify into rotor hubs. Price : Freebie!!

2) Used spindles from Pick-A-Part
$12 CDN each

3) Used 12" x 1.375" Coleman Rotors
$25 CDN each ( Thanks Dave!!!)

4) New Superlite II Calipers
$200 CDN each.

5) New WilWood aluminium rotor hats. Part #Wil170-0176
$158 CDN each. From Bicknell Racing, Ontario, Canada.

6) New Bridgebolt kits. Two Required. Part# Wil230-3052
$22.80 CDN each. Bicknell Racing

7) New WilWood Cold Stopper Pads. Part # WIL15T-5915K
$91.65 CDN. Bicknell Racing.

8) Miscellaneous machine work and TIG welding....price varies. This was originally suppossed to cost me around $250, but my friend who is a machinest got very, very busy and could not do it in his own shop. He ended up farming the work out and the machine shop screwed us on price. Lesson learned...GET WRITTEN QUOTE FIRST!!

Build details will be added to each picture....but I'm off to install these now!!

 

Front Hub:

After looking through catalogs by Stock Car Products and others, I realised that the hubs were going to be one of the most expensive parts. Added to that was the problem of getting the correct offsets and bearing sizes.

The solution was relatively easy. Cut down a set of used 1LE rotors on a lathe. I chose 1LE rotors because I wanted to get the larger outer bearing, but standard 10.5" rotors would work as well.

Choosing the right rotor hat is critical. For our applications the WilWood #170-0176 hats are just about perfect. 5 x 4.75" bolt pattern, 1\2" thick face and designed for an 8 bolt x 7.625" dia rotor flange mounting. The 7.625" rotor flange mounting is a Standard size used on a lot of Nascar, Busch and SCCA GT cars.

The only slight problem is that the center hole with these hats is a bit too large for the 3rd gen hubs. This is easily solved with the addition of a thick walled sleeve ( 1\4" ) that is pressed over the bearing snout.

Look carefully in the photo and you can see the machined sleeve that has been pressed on. The hub center is 2.750" OD. The hat center is 2.850" ID for a difference of .100". No way are you going to press a .100" sleeve on...so machine the center hub snout down so the thick walled bushing can be pressed on with an interference fit. Then machine the sleeve down to be hub-centric with the hat.

You have to machine the sleeve with a step. From the hub face upwards to 1\2" the first step has to be hub-centric to the hat..that is 2.850". The rest of the sleeve ( the part that extends into the wheel ) should be machined down to the hub-centric size of the wheel.

 

nice job, if they dont stop i dont think nothing will

 

Rear View Assembly

 

Front View caliper Mounting

Originally this was not the method that I wanted to use for mounting. Originally I wanted to have custom steel brackets machines to bolt on just like what we do for upgrading standard brakes to 1LE. The other option was to purchase ready made brackets from Stock Car Products or other vendors. Afco make some simply steel brackets. You can get them with bolt spacing for Superlites, Dynalites, and even 6 piston Calipers if you want.

My machinest friend though decide to go with a different way of doing it. He had the spindles machined to accept some High Carbon slugs wich were aligned in a jig and then TIG weldee to the spindles.

This is not the way I wanted it done...although it is perfectly satisfactory. Much more complex with alignment than the pre-made weld on brackets...and the machine company that he farmed them out to ended up costing me an arm and a leg.

Go with the pre-made weld on brackets or custom make some from billet steel ( not aluminium !! Flexes too much ) and attach them as per 1LE style.

 

Brakes in Stock IROC front wheel. Plenty of Room for 13" rotors!!

 

Airline setup to center calipers before welding caliper mounts.

This was the setup I came up with to easily get the correct alignment before welding on the pre-made steel brackets. Dead simple and provides perfect alignment.

Unfortunately my friend had other ideas. DA machine shop spent two days jigging up spindles to align metal slugs. Five minutes with this airline setup would have worked just as well....or better.

 

Overall Component view.

 

Very nice! No worries on the air - I did the same thing when I was mocking mine up for the brackets! Worked great .

 

And the magic number..... How much did it cost? Looks nice!

 

Cost: Before or after the machine shop screwed us?

These prices are all in CDN dollars remember. The new pieces will be lower in the US of course. Used pieces...well I did pretty good on that

Parts: $927.25 CDN Total

Labor ( Original estimate ) $250

Total : $1177.25 CDN

add $500 for Machine shop " Screw Job " = $1677.25 CDN



Not at all happy with the Machine shop as you can tell. Machine work did include all Machining of 1LE rotors to turn them into hubs, machining of bushing to make things hub centric, milling of spindles and suppossed jigging of spindles to align the slugs. I believe the jigging was never done and they simply used the airline trick and pocketed $500 As I was the third party in this I ended up biting my tongue rather than risk damaging a friendship.

All of the machine work can easily be done on a large lathe. Machining of spindles can be duplicated with a cut off wheel and some hand grinders. I would use the AFCO brackets ( Part # AFC40124F ) as I suggested. The only critical part would be the TIG welding of the brackets. That I would leave to a professional.

With good contacts the machine work could be done for a case of beer

 

awsome man so can you translate that $1177.25 CDN in American money

 

http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi says that 1177 CDN = 873 USD

 

thats awsome but i hate to be behind you if you slam on your breaks

 

Interesting, I just came across this thread. Your compressed air trick reminds me of my project I did back in 2001. I'm going to start the process of moving my Wilwood Superlite's to the front.



Tom

 

Actually...I just added SuperliteII's ( with smaller piston diameter )to the rear of the car...exactly as you did. Works great

Only problem I have is a bit too much endplay in the axles ( 10 bolt with C-clips ) which is causing pad knock off.

Axle endplay is .050" , which is considerable. Currently machining some end caps to go over the axle ends to reduce this to about .002".

 

That's great. Do you have any pictures of the project?
Did you mount the caliper to the axle tube the same way I did? Did you use my CAD drawing below?



Going back to the fronts... What was your technique for machining the stock rotor to make a hub?

Tom

 

Yep...I've got pic's . I'll post some soon. We just bought Afco barckets for the Superlites then Mig welded them to the original mount. As you well know...it's almost as if GM designed these rear ends fo take WilWood calipers. The flanges on the axle line up exactly with the caliper brackets. We couldn't believe are luck. Very simple conversion.

 

this has been bothering me for awhile now. what makes this setup a nascar style brake? i didnt know that nascar brakes where diffrent

 

Different than what? Don't understand your question. It's really just a catch phrase... The front rotors I am using are readily available items that you could by for any oval track car. 12.19" x 1.375. This is a common size used in Nascar. The Superlites were a common brake caliper used in lower series such as Cascar and ASA, Arca etc. Still are a very popular oval track caliper.

Of course these days proper Winston cup cars ( sorry...Nextel Cup cars ) run much more sophisticated setups. Usually Six Piston AP or Alcon calipers. They still are restricted to a maximum rotor size of 12.19" x 1.250" or 12.19" x 1.375" ( Short Track, Road Racing and Super Speedway ) both by rim size and by rules.

The rear brake postings are just a continuation of an earlier post.

 

Chickenman35,

Above in this thread you made this statement..
What pre-made brackets are you refering to? I searched an couldn't find any.


Tom

 

Are you referring to the front brackets or rear brackets Tom?

For rear brackets it's dead easy. Many mfg's make them. Weld on as mentioned. AllStar, UMB, Afco..etc,etc

Rear Weld on brkts for Superlites

Afco Part# is AFC40124-1

Front brackets require a bit more cutting to spindle:

Lefthander Chassis carries them under their Part # 050-075A

http://www.lefthanderchassis.com/pdf/Ch5.pdf

Scroll down to the nearly the bottom of Page 5.

Also available in AFCO. Afco Part# is AFC40124F

UMB Part" here:

Left front Bracket for Superlites

Here's the Main page:

http://www.pitstopusa.com/searchresu...CategoryID=523