Front brake discs and calipers

[Johnboy]

Morning or night for you Ricky
Looking forward to seeing your setup and good news about the pads not falling through . That could of been interesting

[ricky ricardo]

Bang **Crash**

[KevJTD]

28mm down to 19mm....i'd be a bit concerned.

they would have allowed a couple of mm clearance between the disc and the pad carrier for the original brakes so you've probably got a gap of about 32mm where the pads seat?

19mm of disc leaves you with a 13mm gap between disc face and carrier.

even if you centre the carrier perfectly you have a 6.5mm gap each side. that's the amount of pad wear material you'd need to be left on the pad when you'd be in danger of them being pulled through. counting the metal backing plate as part of the safety net (approx 5mm thick) is to be seriously avoided. once you get to that edge then remove them. i have seen them pull through and jamb despite you never being able to knock them through, the pressures of heavy braking would see to that.

so if using pads like ebc yellowstuff which have precious little material to start with you'd be lucky to get anywhere near using 50% of it. and that's if you centre the caliper exactly.
for example, the nissan ones i used (4 pot calipers with similar dimension pads to brembo etc) had a total thickness when NEW of 14mm.
if you take off the 5mm of backing that gives a pad material of approx 9mm.
if we have surmised that the best you could achieve is a 6.5mm safety net that gives you 2.5mm of wear to play with.
not much more than one decent track day. and far from 75% pad wear.

i wish there was a simple/cheap solution but there are compromises/trouble with every way of doing it.

i'd either look for a caliper/carrier that uses a similar thickness of disc or get some discs that suit the set up machined out to take the pcd and centre bore of the 33.

[KevJTD]

the other option that i would probably have gone down if i'd still got the 16V sud, would be some of hi specs' universal 4 pot lug mount calipers which can eb specced in disc diameter and thickness.
they also do brackets that could be machined to suit the 33 hubs, although they have no data to pre-drill them, i did ask.....

lightweight too, colour of your choice, very reasonably priced, and pads available to fit at good rates too.

really would be my choice. far better braking than a twin piston floating caliper without the issues of using other stuff

http://www.hispecbrake.co.uk/index.html

[deggy]

Very very interesting! Brakes are next on my list! Seems abit of a mine field at the min, anyone know what conversion is best in way of braking well, easy discs and pad buying and cost?

[PETROLHEAD]

There is no one answer Degs, but were getting there!


Ive still got 2 sets of different 4 pot brembo calipers to play with, and 306mm discs, which would all have been straight forward if not for using 15" and smaller rims!


This could be a viable alternative, its shaping up well so far, all be it with the concerns that Kev has experienced previously, but availability is another issue for us in the uk to get past too.

Finally, bigger, multiple piston calipers are great if you can get them fitted, but the final piece of the puzzle is pushing the pistons hard enough.

Our 33/sud master cylinders are pretty puny and you can end up with even softer brakes because that component just isn't up to it.

75 master cylinder is a recognised mod, and i suspect that maybe the stock cylinder could be bored larger by a nats and a bigger capacity cylinder and service kit installed, possibly?


Its all good fun eh!

[ricky ricardo]

I've got some disc and pad backing measurement's.

22mm for the disc I plan to use.
+6.5mm for each pad backing plate.
=35mm

There's a 32mm disc gap in the caliper carrier.

So assuming both pads were evenly worn down to metal they would only just be held in.

Should be enough as long as I replace the pads at 75% and check them once in a while and it's been confirmed for me the 16x7wheels I'm looking at have a 4x98 pattern, just waiting on a shipping cost.

[PETROLHEAD]

oooh shiny new wheels too!

what you having?

show me show me!

[ricky ricardo]

I know you like wheels but don't know if these are to your taste. Just please don't poo on them I've been looking for a long time but since my harts stuck on 16 inch these are the best I can find and second hand in just the right size are impossible to find here and I mean any +25et wheel.
There not Volk wheels but copy's identical to these. I do like them, to me modern wheels look good on the series 3 and will show off the 155 drilled and slotted discs but lets not get ahead of our self's here.

[PETROLHEAD]

hi ricky

i like the volks rays wheel, typically a jap drift style wheel over here.


could i make a small suggestion of tweek to that style of wheel, that i think (personally) might help them look even better on a sud


Rota Grid V


with a decent dish to them they look a lot more period but with that similar modern track/motorsport appearance generally.


what do you think Ricky?

[ricky ricardo]

G,day, I emailed the Rota importer in WA 3000km away and the Grid V is not available in the size I want. But the wheel I posted above is available with a raw alloy lip finish and painted centre like the pic you posted.

I'm thinking about it what I prefer but at the moment still going for full black and sent another email about the Rota Grid, not holding my breath though on a correct size.

I should point out the wheel I'm likely to get is gloss black and disregard the first wheel I posted, the wheel fitted to the car is like what I'm looking at but with +25et will look deeper. We'll see I have plenty of time before I buy and could find something else.

I could buy the discs in a couple days, I have the new pads and have much more pad to disc contact area than the used set I have so might not modify the caliper mounting. We'll see again when the discs are in my hands.

[ricky ricardo]

Hey all just tuning in for a update.

I have what I need to bolt it up. It's all looking good, in fact putting it all together it's closer to a perfect fit than my earlier measurements by 1 or 2mm.

Like a gift from above some big 4x98 wheels come up on ebay. Had been looking for ages so when I saw them didn't waste time buying. Not really the design I was after and still might paint them but for the price I'm happy.

Still to do is to find a male double end connection to join the brake lines to the car or get some new ones made and buy some new tyres, tyres on the rims are shagged. Then I'm sure I'll be looking for a 75 master cylinder. Cant complain though so far it's been a bolt straight on conversion. I'll be doing some extra cleaning and painting for max looks

[PETROLHEAD]

Looks excellent Ricky, well done.

Wheels suit the 33 in my opinion, what were they, Fiat Punto perhaps?

[ricky ricardo]

The seller was using a 25mm stud conversion spacer on a Holden/Isuzu Gemini and wasn't sure of the offset but I was sure they'd fit because for cars here only cars like Suds/33 had 4x98. I'm lucky to find them.

[ricky ricardo]

Just sharing the 99% finished brake conversion. The last thing to do is fit the Alfa 75 master cylinder, I have it but just need to fit it.

Been driving it too. What can I say freaking AWESOME stopping power High speeds just get wiped away with the tyres scrabbling for traction with good feel through the pedal and will be better I'm sure when the master cylinders replaced. The wheels look pretty good to me but they'll be painted black down the track.

[Mufasa]

Savage!!!

[PETROLHEAD]

Thats fantastic Ricky

I really really want to do that with my Sud me thinks. (33 16v outboard brakes currently)


just got to find them darn calipers here in blighty, awkward!

[SteffenJ3316V]

That looks really awesome
Don't paint the wheels black though

[ricky ricardo]

Thats fantastic Ricky

I really really want to do that with my Sud me thinks. (33 16v outboard brakes currently)


just got to find them darn calipers here in blighty, awkward!

I could pull a pair of used calipers off a Commodore approx $100, seal kit $20 cheap pads like I'm using $30 but there are really good pads to choose from all in aussie dollars. Have no idea with shipping cost that's a big ?? Should have weighed the calipers but I think there a little lighter than 33 ones being alloy.

PM me if interested.

[ricky ricardo]

That looks really awesome
Don't paint the wheels black though

We'll see we'll see

[ricky ricardo]

Here's a few links for Commodore calipers who will sell international. These are new or fully reconditioned and spare parts would be available as needed. Email them for shipping costs.

I can pull used calipers off cars cheap but shipping needs to be worked out ?

VT, VX, VY, VZ calipers are the same.

https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct= ... zCYzLBRT9Q

https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct= ... JgTEUlOhkA

[KevJTD]

nice increase in pad area if only one piston, but good increase in surface area.

i'm still very nervous for you about the gap between disc face and the pad support bracket. there appears in the first picture to be very little room left now before the pad is left hanging over the edge, even with those new pads. once it gets near to be overhanging the edge it will fall in, seen it plenty of times before.
have a volvo sat at work for me now that has done this very thing as the discs had worn thin enough to allow the pad to fall through, and that was an OE fitment!

guess keeping an eye on pad wear is the key.

do like the way they fill the bigger wheels though, look great.

[bobkelso]

Hi, sharing this about front brakes larger discs upgrade on alfa 33:

many treads exist on using opel (vauxall) calibra/astra brake caliper on 33,
to put sligtly bigger diameter discs of 22-24mm on 14 rims on alfa 33 on budget.
(the only tricky part is have custom brake lines with mixed opel-fiat ending)

I just added a lighter option for the caliper: some type of
oper tigra/corsa calipers also are compatible with 33 hub
and are good for using 20mm discs, so an option for a lighter car setting

and added some more easy to adapt/lighter discs selections,
using online brembo catalogue:
https://www.bremboparts.com/europe/en/c ... rance=True

These infographics resume the options






Bob