Ross, Roy and Rick got together with me to start taking a look at the conversion from the Wilwood brakes to the Girling brakes. This is what we started with
the first step was to try to dry fit the Girling rotor over the drive pins, and that did not work as the rotor are threaded and the holes are of a smaller diameter than the pins. The Wilwood rotors slide over the pins, which are secured at the back of the hub by nuts. The drive pins also have a different thread than the Girling rotors.
In addition there were clearance issue with the Girling calipers if attached directly to the mounting point on the uprights.
The Wilwood calipers are attached by a bracket, which i will have to get a good picture of next time, and the Girlings attach to the upright and steering assembly directly on originals. Roy brought with him the upright from an regional slab side and we attached that to help figure out mounting strategies. First picture is what is on the car, the second is the original.
We attempted to mount the rotor as on the original, which is behind the hub, as opposed to the SPF FIA Wilwood which side over the pins on the outside of the hub and ran into clearance issues with the lower ball joint. The lower ball joint on the SPF FIA is more substantial than the lower ball joints on the originals and the rotor was rubbing on the ball joint.
We then removed the original upright and placed the SPF upright back on. We then decided to use a similar setup as the Wilwood rotor used with the rotor sliding over the pins, so we drilled out the threads and widened the holes on the Girling rotor to allow for the rotor to slide over the pins and test fit. It worked!
Next step was to check to see if the caliper would fit and figure out how to mount it. You may notice that one of the pins is missing and it was replaced by a bolt, another person working on his SPF FIA had broken a drive pin and there was a lag in getting a replacement for him so Dennis asked if I would send him one of mine since I was going to have some time before my car was on the track. So we placed the Girling caliper, which is substantially larger than the Wilwoood on the rotor and went about cutting the SPF mounting bracket for the Wilwood and making a template out of some material on hand to attempt t make a new mounting bracket.
We then test fit the wheel and it was tight, but did fit. We may need to make some adjustment to the caliper mounting. We did have to remove the tire weights which were attached at the outside edge of the inner side of the wheel, as they were making contact with the caliper.
So the next step is for Ross to manufacture the new bracket, test fit and make adjustments as needed and then move on to taking a look at the back brakes.
Progress! More later.
Jim
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Girling brakes conversion
Hybrid Mode
