Shaving TT brake calipers
03-18-05, 07:50 PM
#1
Shaving TT brake calipers
OK:
Another question...Has anybody shaved down their TT brake calipers to help them fit under their wheels? Anybody have any experience with shaving any brake calipers? What are the pros and cons? How difficult is it? Best way to do it?
Thanks,
Ryan
Another question...Has anybody shaved down their TT brake calipers to help them fit under their wheels? Anybody have any experience with shaving any brake calipers? What are the pros and cons? How difficult is it? Best way to do it?
Thanks,
Ryan
03-19-05, 08:04 AM
#5
David:
You know I never let quality suffer for cost...
I love my wheels, but they will not fit over TT brakes, and with the TT project projected to be completed soon, I am concerned about stopping the car quickly enough. I am mainly concerned about tramlining. After speaking with Emanuel Spinola, and others, I am going forward with the complete Vlamos Bushing install- Front/ Rear, upper /lower. Then I will add some H&R Trak+ spacers and see how they fit and drive with the Supra TT front and rear brakes.
Quarter inch spacers...Hmmm.....about 6 mm. Trak makes 5 mm, 15 mm and 20 mm spacers if I recall correctly. If the 5 mm will cause clearance, and I can maintain hub-centricity, I will go with those. time for some more measurements...
Ryan
You know I never let quality suffer for cost...
I love my wheels, but they will not fit over TT brakes, and with the TT project projected to be completed soon, I am concerned about stopping the car quickly enough. I am mainly concerned about tramlining. After speaking with Emanuel Spinola, and others, I am going forward with the complete Vlamos Bushing install- Front/ Rear, upper /lower. Then I will add some H&R Trak+ spacers and see how they fit and drive with the Supra TT front and rear brakes.Quarter inch spacers...Hmmm.....about 6 mm. Trak makes 5 mm, 15 mm and 20 mm spacers if I recall correctly. If the 5 mm will cause clearance, and I can maintain hub-centricity, I will go with those. time for some more measurements...
Ryan
03-19-05, 08:16 AM
#6
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SC400T,
Before u run out and buy those high qaulity spacers. U need to take a look at our rims/tires and fender in relationship with each other. If you rims fit flush with the fender right now, spacers going to make your car look very ugly. Your rims would stick out. Double check with the things mentioned and find a SC400 owner with a Supra TT front brake setup locally and try to install your rims into his car and see if it clear or not.
Before u run out and buy those high qaulity spacers. U need to take a look at our rims/tires and fender in relationship with each other. If you rims fit flush with the fender right now, spacers going to make your car look very ugly. Your rims would stick out. Double check with the things mentioned and find a SC400 owner with a Supra TT front brake setup locally and try to install your rims into his car and see if it clear or not.
03-19-05, 08:13 PM
#7
Ok, for "racing use only" you may be able to disassemble the caliper, and measure the thickness of the casting at the base of the bores, you need at least .125 of material out there.
As for removal of material, never do anything to heat the metal very much, it can cause tiny fractures that'll lead to cracks eventually, so grind very lightly, and never very much in any one spot. Chances are that the most metal will need to be removed from the decorative portion of the casting that's away from the bores.
Might even be a good idea to have the parts penatrant inspected before using them on a car after doing something like this.
Do you even know how much you need to clear, along with .080 of clearance?
As for removal of material, never do anything to heat the metal very much, it can cause tiny fractures that'll lead to cracks eventually, so grind very lightly, and never very much in any one spot. Chances are that the most metal will need to be removed from the decorative portion of the casting that's away from the bores.
Might even be a good idea to have the parts penatrant inspected before using them on a car after doing something like this.
Do you even know how much you need to clear, along with .080 of clearance?
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03-19-05, 09:54 PM
#8
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I have a set of Supra 4pot calipers from a UK spec MkIV Twin Turbo, the biggest OEM Supra brakes (323mm brake disc). These will not fit behind my BBS rims so we measured everything so see what we needed to gain in order for them to fit, 8mm would do it and leave 2mm clearance allowing for wheel flex.
My front rims are 42mm offset which is already 8mm beyond the factory spec (50mm) so wheel spacers are a real no-no as it will badly effect the steering, looking at the 4pot caliper it is very thick but the area we would need to reduce thickness is at the back of the piston housing so wall thickness is important.
I took my caliper to an engineers and we stripped it down, using a long leg micrometer we obtained the minimum wall thickness (it varies slightly across the width of the bore) and it was 1.1mm, despite the huge size and weight of the Supra calipers there is "just enough" metal to do the job and removing metal behind the piston area would severely weaken the structure which would lead to flexing and possible fracture under hydraulic load from the braking system.
We also looked at shaving the mounting points as these are quite substantial, it would be possible to do this and set the calliper off-centre to the brake rotor by a couple of mm and gain a couple of mm wheel clearance.
The caliper could also be reduced in overall thickness by shaving the internal face of the mating half’s, only one side (the outer half) could be reduced by about 2mm as the other side has angled drillings for the fluid passageways. Again this would further offset the caliper in relation to the rotor, combined with shaving the mounting points you could gain 4mm total clearance but the outer side of the caliper will be 4mm nearer to the rotor leaving no room for a “new” brake pad, a pad would also have to be shaved (from the friction material) in order to fit.
So if you need 4mm clearance for your wheels it could be done but don’t forget to add a couple of mm air gap to account for wheel flexing. Or you could just add wheel spacers and ruin the steering/handling.
My front rims are 42mm offset which is already 8mm beyond the factory spec (50mm) so wheel spacers are a real no-no as it will badly effect the steering, looking at the 4pot caliper it is very thick but the area we would need to reduce thickness is at the back of the piston housing so wall thickness is important.
I took my caliper to an engineers and we stripped it down, using a long leg micrometer we obtained the minimum wall thickness (it varies slightly across the width of the bore) and it was 1.1mm, despite the huge size and weight of the Supra calipers there is "just enough" metal to do the job and removing metal behind the piston area would severely weaken the structure which would lead to flexing and possible fracture under hydraulic load from the braking system.
We also looked at shaving the mounting points as these are quite substantial, it would be possible to do this and set the calliper off-centre to the brake rotor by a couple of mm and gain a couple of mm wheel clearance.
The caliper could also be reduced in overall thickness by shaving the internal face of the mating half’s, only one side (the outer half) could be reduced by about 2mm as the other side has angled drillings for the fluid passageways. Again this would further offset the caliper in relation to the rotor, combined with shaving the mounting points you could gain 4mm total clearance but the outer side of the caliper will be 4mm nearer to the rotor leaving no room for a “new” brake pad, a pad would also have to be shaved (from the friction material) in order to fit.
So if you need 4mm clearance for your wheels it could be done but don’t forget to add a couple of mm air gap to account for wheel flexing. Or you could just add wheel spacers and ruin the steering/handling.
03-19-05, 10:47 PM
#9
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Shaving the caliper may cause the fluid to leaks, be careful. I seen that happen b4. It was stock RX-7 caliper. The owner shave the logo off and repaint the caliper in red. After a few days of driveing the break fluid push the thin caliper open and leak, at the area where the logo used to be.
Good wheel spacer with correct hub centric will do the job. Most wheel spacer in the market don't have this feature so might have to custom made it.
Good wheel spacer with correct hub centric will do the job. Most wheel spacer in the market don't have this feature so might have to custom made it.
Last edited by gowest; 03-19-05 at 11:01 PM.
. They have only so much casting as needed. Your life depends on it...
03-20-05, 12:47 PM
#12
Lexus Champion
Originally Posted by lexforlife
why not just use either the ls400 4pots or ls430 4 pots.. i use a ls430 rear caliper on my gs with a custom fab carbide steel bracket from japan with supra tt rotors and it works perfectly
I was just about to bring that up
The rears have tons of room... 
03-21-05, 07:19 PM
#15
Originally Posted by gowest
Shaving the caliper may cause the fluid to leaks, be careful. I seen that happen b4. It was stock RX-7 caliper. The owner shave the logo off and repaint the caliper in red. After a few days of driveing the break fluid push the thin caliper open and leak, at the area where the logo used to be.
you're saying sanding down the caliper will cause it to leak?
The guy must have used a grinder or something...