Pics Of My Brake Rebuild (w/ Boxster Fronts)

[jyl]

I'm most of the way through installing Boxster front calipers on my '89 Carrera as part of a general brake overhaul.

The project includes: rebuilding the Boxster front calipers and Carrera rear calipers with new piston seals and satin black powder coating, new drilled Zimmerman rotors front and rear, replacing a bad e-brake shoe and adjusting the e-brake, checking the front wheel bearings and repacking the front hubs, new OEM rubber hoses, ditching the dust shields, re-greasing the polybronze bushings, flushing the old brake fluid and replacing with ATE, and general cleaning. I need to find some "Porsche" hi-temp brake decals too.

I'm not totally done, but anyway it's good enough for pictures. The work was pretty easy, although quite messy (cleaning the old grease from the hubs). I ended up buying an air compressor.

Lessons learned so far: plating holds up way better than painting (my A-arms, repainted 18 months ago, have lots of stone chips, while the replated spring plates look brand new), Lubemaster grease is really something else (thanks Mike!), and powder coating looks great and is reasonably cheap.

By the way, there's no "left" or "right" to the rotors, right? One side has the vents facing in the rotation direction, the other side has the vents facing in the opposite direction. I hope this is okay - but someone please tell me if it is not, before I start with the brake fluid!

(Edit: By the way, I realize the Boxster fronts are a debatable performance upgrade since they use the stock Carrera rotor. But when you need to service your brakes anyway, and happen to run across the calipers, adapters, and pads for $500 on the Used Parts forum, well, I'm as vain as the next guy.)

"Before" pics:





After cleaning up the calipers:



After powder coating:



"After" pics:

[JonT]

Looks like a very very nice upgrade--good job

[racergt3]

I like your attention to detail. Looks great and meticulous! Thanks again for the carrera calipers.

George

[450knotOffice]

John, kudos to you. They look great!

[jyl]

Just a quick follow-up, in case it helps anyone doing this project later.

For the new front brake hard lines, go to the autoparts store and buy 8" or 10" long steel brake lines with the flares and flare nuts already installed. It is cheap, buy an extra one just in case.

You want "3/16" line, also called "metric" line, and the flares should be "bubble flares". (US cars will often use a different line and flare type, the stuff you want will usually be in the import or European car section). Bring the old lines and check that the threads of the flare nuts match.

Don't bother buying a tubing bender. The line bends easily with bare hands. Clamp a socket in a vise and bend the line around it - the socket prevents the line from "folding" and collapsing.

If the dull gray look of the new line bothers you, shine it up with fine sandpaper/emery cloth, then spray some clear coat for rust protection.

After having to cut one of the old lines off (flare nut frozen in hose end), I put a very small amount of anti-seize on the new flare nut threads before installing.

[Glasgow 911SC]

Originally posted by jyl
Just a quick follow-up, in case it helps anyone doing this project later.

For the new front brake hard lines, go to the autoparts store and buy 8" or 10" long steel brake lines with the flares and flare nuts already installed. It is cheap, buy an extra one just in case.

You want "3/16" line, also called "metric" line, and the flares should be "bubble flares". (US cars will often use a different line and flare type, the stuff you want will usually be in the import or European car section). Bring the old lines and check that the threads of the flare nuts match.

Don't bother buying a tubing bender. The line bends easily with bare hands. Clamp a socket in a vise and bend the line around it - the socket prevents the line from "folding" and collapsing.

If the dull gray look of the new line bothers you, shine it up with fine sandpaper/emery cloth, then spray some clear coat for rust protection.

After having to cut one of the old lines off (flare nut frozen in hose end), I put a very small amount of anti-seize on the new flare nut threads before installing.

Excellent John. You just answered everything I think I needed to ask.

[efhughes3]

Where does one buy the adaptors for this conversion?

[s_wilwerding]

http://www.xenonmods.com for caliper decals.

Edit: Also, how tough was it to find a Boxster caliper rebuild kit?

[Jeff Alton]

Racers edge makes them as does TRE.

Jeff

[CarreraS2]

Excellent write up!

Those calipers look great. I didn't think there was a person left in the world other than myself, however, that could resist the apparently irresistable urge to coat the calipers red or yellow!

[jyl]

The rebuild kits are a little hard to find. PP didn't have them. I found them at a mail order place called "Einmalig" in L.A.

The adapters are available in many places. TRE sells them, for instance.

I liked the understated black, thought they'd hide dirt and grease better than a bright color, and could if needed be touched up with a bit of black paint.

I'm happy with the outcome, except that my front calipers squeal. I'm eventually going to put some of the anti-squeal pads between the pad and piston, but will let the pads wear a bit first - the Carrera rotor is a bit thicker than the Boxster rotor (I think) and I could barely fit the caliper over the rotor. The brakes certainly haul the car down, limited by front tire traction. I haven't been on the track with this setup but I'm assuming that it is not really a track performance enhancement since the rotors are still the stock Carreras.

[Jeff Alton]

You have discovered the problem with the boxster upgrade. NOISE. They are very sensitive to run out in the rotor/hub. Are they only noisy just as you come to a stop under light pressure? Try clocking the rotor on the hub and trying to get the runout under 5 thou. This will help. I tried 4 different types of pads (anyone need pagid orange, pagid street, or PBR ultimates?? less than 100 miles on each set) trying to get it to stop. Factory anti-squeal shims, caliper grease and anti-sieze all to no avail. Dave at TRE said to me that the only pad they had any luck with was the Porterfield R4-S. I was not about to try another pad and ended up selling them and getting Brembo GTP's!!!!

Cheers, Jeff

The above pads are available for 1/2 price to anyone who wants them!

[jyl]

George (racergt3) worked on a Boxster brake upgrade and found the pads that don't squeal. I haven't asked him which ones they are, but anyway there is a solution. My calipers came with pads (brand unknown) so I decided just to use them, and live with any squeal.

[JeremyD]

Only pad that stopped my 993 brakes from squealing was the porterfield r4s

[racergt3]

I think the pads that didn't squeal were by Mintex or Pagid.

George

[rlh930]

Pagid street pads squeal in spite of everything I've done so far. Time to try the Porterfields. Argh.

[89911]

Originally posted by jyl

By the way, there's no "left" or "right" to the rotors, right? One side has the vents facing in the rotation direction, the other side has the vents facing in the opposite direction. I hope this is okay - but someone please tell me if it is not, before I start with the brake fluid!

Yes there are a left and a right!!! The vanes of the rotors should look like this:

(
Front Rear
)

Generally, the crossdrilling follows the lines of the vanes leaving the same arc:



Yours may not be crossdrilled but the same orientation holds true. I've been told this helps to pull air through the rotor and aid in cooling. Might not sound too important, but important enought the Porsche has 4 part numbers for the front and rear rotors.

[JeremyD]

Except on the plain carrera rotors - zimmerman only makes one rotor for the front that's interchangeable. For the turbo rotors they made them directional for all four wheels.

[89911]

Originally posted by Jeremy964
Except on the plain carrera rotors - zimmerman only makes one rotor for the front that's interchangeable. For the turbo rotors they made them directional for all four wheels.

I haven't run carrera brakes for a while, but I thought they had R and L? Anyhow, I don't like the asymmetry of having opposite sides facing different directions

[JeremyD]

fung shui eh?