Willwood D8

as will I. I need to bleed the brakes, install the upper control arms (front), finish a wiring project (2 wires), install a brace, and fix the rear sway bar.... then I'll give them a thorough test.
 
Sky65 said:
Are ya done yet? :smash:
Click to expand...

nope.... it appears that I need 59 hours in a day to get all the stuff done..... I can't believe I spent almost $1000 on brakes and the stuff is now sitting in my garage in a box, collecting dust, waiting for me to finally find some time to work on the Vette again....
 
mine are installed and bled, hopefully tomorrow I can get the alignment close enough to drive it just a bit (toe). I've already set the caster, camber is just going to have to wait for the alignment shop.

Again, my complaint is they are devilishly hard to center (see my C3 build posts) and requre either grinding or spacers....
 
SuperBuickGuy said:
mine are installed and bled, hopefully tomorrow I can get the alignment close enough to drive it just a bit (toe). I've already set the caster, camber is just going to have to wait for the alignment shop.

Again, my complaint is they are devilishly hard to center (see my C3 build posts) and requre either grinding or spacers....
Click to expand...
Please post a link to your build.
Are you using these?

Corvette D8-4 Caliper Kits

"The calipers are a direct bolt-on replacement** for all 1965-82 Corvettes. Forged billet aluminum bodies, stainless steel pistons, and high-temperature seals put an end to the rust, bore pitting and seal failures that plague the OE caliper design."
 
Sky65 said:
SuperBuickGuy said:
mine are installed and bled, hopefully tomorrow I can get the alignment close enough to drive it just a bit (toe). I've already set the caster, camber is just going to have to wait for the alignment shop.

Again, my complaint is they are devilishly hard to center (see my C3 build posts) and requre either grinding or spacers....
Click to expand...
Please post a link to your build.
Are you using these?

Corvette D8-4 Caliper Kits

"The calipers are a direct bolt-on replacement** for all 1965-82 Corvettes. Forged billet aluminum bodies, stainless steel pistons, and high-temperature seals put an end to the rust, bore pitting and seal failures that plague the OE caliper design."
Click to expand...

Yep, starts here at post 14 http://vettemod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8505&page=2

direct bolt on :censored: no

I did send an email to wilwood with a link to my build, they responded by saying they'd be happy to send me a bridge clip.... uh, no thanks. It was cheap and easy to go to my local hardware store and get the clip I lost. They said "they'd tell management" about my issues - I've heard nothing but deafening silence.
 
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SuperBuickGuy :

from this picture, it looks like you used a front rotor in the rear (or your rotor don't have any hole for park brake adjustment) :
P7240002.jpg

in the front, I see a rear rotor (with hole for park brake adjustement) !?
P7290007.jpg

front and rear rotors have different offsets and that can cause your caliper alignment issue
 
Vince'82 said:
SuperBuickGuy :

from this picture, it looks like you used a front rotor in the rear (or your rotor don't have any hole for park brake adjustment) :
P7240002.jpg

in the front, I see a rear rotor (with hole for park brake adjustement) !?
P7290007.jpg

front and rear rotors have different offsets and that can cause your caliper alignment issue
Click to expand...

you may be right they are swapped, still, even were that true, the caliper is at least .125 off, even if the rotors were switched, the difference is .040

As for adjusting - it baffles me that GM would put both handle height adjustment and pad adjustment on the drum; it's redundant.

Again, let me "advertise" for iRotor.com.... they are crap, on every level, crap. Buy from Summitracing.com - with them, if there's a problem, they try to help rather then accuse or hurl vile epitaths.

My issue with Wilwood is they could have easily manufactured these to be in calipers to allow for that tolerance. What it appears they did was the found the minimum distance on the inside and indexed all of their other dimensions off that... what they should have done was index from the center of the rotor and included shims so that you could fine adjust where the caliper is located.

There is a secondary issue - on the rear they replace the hardline with a ss line.... why they didn't make that line 6" longer and attach to the frame is also puzzling. They designed to simply replace the hardline, so you have a rubber line in front of the SS line - which could cause brake issues.... again, a simple fix; but poor planning IMO.

And if they say cost.
How much would it cost to make the line 6" longer? it would have saved me $80.00
Add to the offset issue, it's simply a number on their CNC. It cost me $30.00 to fix that issue.
Of course, they offered me bridge springs to offset these issues... needless to say, I said no thank you; I'll go ahead and post up the good and bad of them and let them explain it to their customers.
 
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BBShark said:
SuperBuickGuy said:
you may be right they are swapped, still, even were that true, the caliper is at least .125 off, even if the rotors were switched, the difference is .040
Click to expand...

The difference is .10
Click to expand...

wouldn't matter if it were .124 - no matter how hard you hit it, it still won't fit :evil:

had they made it the other direction, it could have been shimmed and would be no big deal.
 
I've heard, in order - .040, .40, .080, and .10

So I went and measured the rotors that came off the car... and I'm wearing the scars from pounding the rivets out of the front rotors, so I know they're genuine GM

.296, .309
.396, .402

so the widest would be .106, the narrowest would be .087

And my point remains - that no matter how you stack it, it's not .125 difference, thus the calipers aren't right.... sorry if you own stock in wilwood, your paycheck is signed by them, or you won't own anything but Wilwood... it's still wrong.
 
what are you measuring that is .300 and .400 average ? I assume it's the rotor thickness ???

measure the offset from the mounting suface inside the hat to the inboard pad contact face.

the Addition of .080" difference in offset that I measured on my rotors PLUS the .050" difference in thickness (average) front to rear is very close to the .125" that you are looking for.....

the new rotors you bought might not have the correct offset and that might be your issue. I don't own any Wilwood stock but they have a pretty good reputation regarding quality, can't wait to see how my calipers fit.

the double brake line is silly, I agree 100% ... can you post the photo that you have in the other thread here as well? that shows the double line pretty good.....
 
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Picture
P8020004.jpg

the offset is actually gained by machining the thickness of the flange - they case the same raw casting front or back, but machine more material off the back for the difference in depth..
not sure if you can read these, but here it goes
P8030001.jpg
P8030002.jpg

I'll remeasure the depth of the hat section, but it seemed to be the same between all the rotors

(you mean .040 and .030 right?):)
 
great photo of that line, it would have been so easy to make one single line and eliminate this extra connection ....
 
I have Stainless Steel Brake Corporation (SSBC) aluminum calipers on my 68 and 70. I bought them before Wilwood began making aluminum caipers for C3's. Wonder how SSBC and Wilwoods compare? The SSBC's are a great deal more exensive - $1500 to do one car. The SSBC's have a few features over the stock Delco...that is features other than the obvious that SSBC is aluminum and has stainless steel sleeves and pistons. The features are that the pads are held into the calipers with two rodsl instead of one, meaning that the pads are more firmly held in place and also the SSBC has repositioned bleeders that make it easier to avoid air bubbles in the calipers. I notice the Wilwoods only have one pad retaining rod. Don't know about their bleeders. The SSBCs look more massive than the Wilwoods....don't know if this is an advantage, but for one thing I'd guess the SSBC's weigh more.

I have all SSBC rotors. Of the eight I've bought, the last 6 have been plated so they don't get rusty and look ugly. They are tin plated...the plating on the pad swept area will wear off quickly. I'd like to think that the high price of these rotors ..$130 each...means they are more accurately machined than cheaper rotors, but I don't know.

My 68 has silicon brake fluid and it has a very hard pedal. The 70 is still dry.
 
well, I've driven the car with the brakes.... oh good heavens does it stop well.... my ABS GTO doesn't stop as well (on dry) as this thing...

so for all their sins, at least so far (which is about 15 miles) so good.:)
 
Got the Wilood calipers on. Went pretty smoothly. Everything fit right out of the box except on the rear. I have Vansteel offset trailing arms and the rear/lower caliper mounting boss on the calipers hit the trailing arms and would not allow the mount hole to line up. I had to grind the edge of the TA a little then the caliper fit fine. I expect on stock arms it would not have been a problem. I also opened up the angle of the brake hose in included in the kit from 90* to about 120*. That put the hose on a better angle to attach to the caliper.

The brakes feel good. Nice high hard pedal. The car stops well but to be honest only marginally better than the stock calipers with O ring seals but still happy I made the change.
 
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