Budget Brake Upgrade!

[JuiceMan]

Ok my brakes on my 1969 are almost gone. It needs new rotors front and rear as well as new pads. I was looking at the price of rear rotors for a 912 and they are insane!

For the price of rear 912 rotors I could almost get four Cross-Drilled 911 rotors! What I want is cross-drilled rotors on all fours and some decent pads (that don't dust like crazy).

Now I don't have a ton to spend so what can i do to be able to use 911 rotors on the front and rear of my car? What calipers are the cheapest and easiest to find that will allow this? What other parts will I need?

Thanks!

[Efrain68912]

For pads I use the Repco Metal-Master pads. No dust and I've heard them squeal maybe once or twice in a year. While your at it, go for some SS lines and good fluid.

In order to use 911 rotors you must use 911 calipers with a 3 inch spacing (off of a 911T). 911Es and 911S with the aluminum calipers had 3.5 inch spacing; to use those you'd need to change your struts, or fabricate some adapters.

Efrain
68 912 Coupe

[JuiceMan]

So basically I can just get some front and rear calipers from any year 911T and bolt them right up (with 911 brake rotors and pads as well? It's that easy?

[JuiceMan]

Ok I'm a little confused. Is the 1969 Rear 912 calipers the only ones that are different? I noticed in a few books that it has listed the same caliper for the rear of a 65-68 911 or 912 but then it says 69 912. So is the 69 912 a one year only type caliper?

Are the front calipers the same as 911T Calipers?

[Efrain68912]

Now I'm confused. Roland, where are you?

Efrain
68 912 Coupe

[JuiceMan]

Help Roland!

[Roland Kunz]

Hello

Hmmm you can focus on all 1969 to 1977 standard 911 brake systems

pre 68 will not work on rear.
Big calipers from the S SC will not fit in front.

Grüsse

[ClayMcguill]

Here ya go:

http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/914_five_lug_conversion/911_front_suspensions.htm

[Roland Kunz]

Hello

Ah mised the point on the fly:

Are the front calipers the same as 911T Calipers?

OK the 911T and the 912 Calipers where similar untill the 69 MY when the 911 T got ventet discs while the 912 keept solid ones.
The calipers are basically the same the 911T are spaced to accept the wider discs. Same can be said to the rears yet the 911 T had solids on the rerar as well only the Sportomatic T´s had ventet. AFIK in 1972 all 911 had ventet discs on each corner.

Pre 69 cars are a bit more complicatet.

Your emergency brake setup will fit ventet and unventet.

Grüsse

[Green 912]

Moving up to vented rotors and the correct calipers is the most bang for buck. Vented rotors are a lot less expensive and the wide “M” calipers are common, easy to find and rebuild. Rebuild kits are about $18 each unit. (You need 4 kits for a car)

You want to find the “M” calipers with the spacers in them that will allow you to use the ventilated disks. The calipers look like the ones you see on the non-vented rotors but have a wafer sandwiched in between the 2 cast halves to add the space for the added thickness of the vented rotors. (BTW don’t attempt to dissemble the halves of a caliper as the internal the “O” rings are not reusable and almost imposable to find.) New German vented front disks are running about $35.00 each the vented rears and for 69 will run about $70.00 not the $220.00 for nonvented (if you can still find them, non vented rears are hard to find hence the big $$$)

You don’t need cross-drilled rotors and they will give you no performance enhancement on your 912. Waste of $ on your car unless you just want the look. I see and reject more cracked cross-drilled rotors during Tech inspections. The Porsche, cast hole, rotors are better but they crack as well after some track time. If you want to enhance the total peak burst braking power, change the pads. If you want to add trick looking rotors that also add braking power then install slotted rotors. For the most part the higher the pad performance the more dust generated. Stock pads work well on street cars but there are many pad compounds to chose from.

You can use any “M” caliper on the stock Boge strut but if you want to move up to the bigger “S” or “A” caliper in front then you will have to change front struts to the Koni ($$$ and hard to find a good unbent set) or the later 911 struts with the bigger ears. “S” and “A” are same size bolt up pattern and use the same pads but “S” are light weight AL and $$$ and “A” are iron, heavy but cheap. If you go to the later year struts you must check the method that the ball joints are attached to the bottom of the strut as the ball joint changed over the years. As you have a 69 you should have the pinch type and if you get 72 or later struts you will have to change the ball joints as well. (About $50.00 each)

The easiest thing to do is install vented rotors and the correct “M” calipers, anything more on a stock street 912 is just overkill. If you don’t have a problem overheating the brakes and you can lock up the tires then bigger brakes will do nothing for you. In this case it isn’t the brakes that limit you it is the little contact patch of the tires that set the total braking power.

If you want to get real freaky you can get a kit and install early Boxster brakes on your 912 that will fit inside a 15-inch rim. Now that’s overkill!