Brake upgrade HELP!!

[mmasse]

I started this morning my project of upgrading the brakes on my ;76 S.

I am instaaling Brembo F40 calipers in the front (and 993tt on the rear). I bought the brake kit from a fellow pelican member. The kit already included the spacers, but I am having a problem with fitting.

As you can see in the pic below, when I install the caliper and rotor the interior of the caliper touches the rotor. My question is: Can I use any type of spacer between the adapter and the brake caliper mount on the strut? Regular washers, maybe? I only need to gain 1-2 mm.

Thanks

[Huh]

I don't see why you can't use a proper sized high grade steel washer.

[Wil Ferch]

also get rid of the "wavey" washer I see here and replace with a belleville or Schnorr washer....if a "locking washer" is what you're after.

- Wil

[Steve@Rennsport]

Those caliper adpaters were likely made wrong for that application so you will need to add a thin steel shim to move the caliper away from the rotor.

Do NOT use washers; make a rectangular steel shim and insert that,.....

Wavy washers are fine for the caliper mounting bolts; Porsche used the same things on the '78-'89 Turbos. Just clean the bolts very well and add a dab of blue Loctite.

[BertBeagle]

You can get good shims from McMaster Carr and others. Make sure that someone has not machined the caliper mounts for an earlier application. If you find they have been machined then you need to make sure the two mounting faces of the bracket are perpendicular. Make sure you have good locknuts for the caliper mount stud.

I see you also have Brembo rotors and, possibly, Brembo hats. If you don't know the full history of these parts, I would suggest taking a good look at the rotor mounting hardware and hats, checking for wear. To do this you need to disassembly them. For a few $'s and a few minutes time you could disassemble the rotors, replace all the screws and, if needed, the bobbins. Hopefully the bobbin holes in the hats are good, Torque the screws to 60 in.# with a small drop of blue loctite (keep the loctite in the bobbin threads and not on the stainless washer and outside of the bobbin) and then make sure they are free to float in the hat and rotor. Screws from a Brembo dealer are around 10 cents each – so this is not an expensive job.

There is nothing wrong with the wavy washers. Use a drop of blue loctite on clean bolts and clean threaded holes.

For real peace of mind I would suggest going through the calipers also. Seals and other parts are cheep insurance.

When you mount the caliper for good make sure the bleed screws are at the top. Probably it was for mock up purposes only and for that purpose it is fine, but the one in your picture is wrong. Just in case, remember that the small piston is the leading piston – if the car is rolling forward with a spot on the rotor, the small piston would see the spot on the rotor first, before the big piston. You can make a caliper work leading or trailing on the same side by changing the bleed screws and bridge pipe but you cannot make a left caliper work on the right side or vise versa.