Wilwood rear disc brakes

[Richard Cranium]

These are the rear disc brakes on my 64 Savoy that I bought last summer. Checking through the Wilwood website, they are listed as lightweight race brakes. The rotors measure 11 1/2" and are 5/16" thick. As you can see, this rotor has some strange pitting, but the rotor on the other side is fine. Obviously, they are replaceable.

My two concerns are..

1. Are these suitable for street use?
2. The car has no emergency brake & I'd like to put one on to at least hold the car while in neutral.

Should I get a different rear brake kit or is there some kind of add-on emergency brake system out there on the market?

 

[dadsbee]

I think you should throw the entire car away with the disk... please dispose of said post car 3 hours North of Buffalo NY!

 

[69L48Z27]

Those will work on the ‘street’ for awhile but they are not suitable for constant braking that you do one the street. They are drag race parts that are designed to be light as possible and used 1/4 mile at a time.

I would go with one of the 2 or 4 piston kits they have. Those will have the park brake in the rotor hat.

Not sure what happened to that rotor, looks corroded by some harsh wheel cleaner or something.

Brakes lines should be on rubber hoses too, not hard line right to the caliper.

 

[bobtile]

I have aftermarket emergency brake kits for sale.
$175.00 + shipping.

 

[bobtile]

They look like they rusted and someone used some type of rust remover on them.
I would put drums back on it for the street.

 

[Lefty71]

It almost looks like the one side doesn't really work, like that caliper is froze and it just applies the other side instead. Also, there looks to be pretty minimal contact on the good side, which is probably fine for the rear of a drag car. I'd follow 69L48z27's advice and go to something a little more suitable for heavy street use, just in case. One minor wreck, and the other guys insurance company could pick you apart.

BTW, even with the very limited view given, my imagination tells me that car just could be gorgeous. Are there perhaps better pix of it somewhere on this site??
Lefty71

 

[1967coronet440]

RC, that kit is not meant for street use, The rotor will heat up and warp. The hub is reuseable and capable of using wilwoods parking brake set up. Should just be able to buy new rotors and the parking brake kit and go.

 

[Kern Dog]

You have a Savoy ?????
I thought you were just a "Charger" guy.

 

[dsd1967]

RC. I posted the exact same two questions last week about the exact same setup.

After some research I went with a pirate jack disc brake setup that was $400 delivered to my door.

If you have a green bearing setup you should be able to modify your Wilwood caliper bracket by adding two holes just outside the inner threaded boss holes. I had to turn my axle flange .050” on diameter to fit the rotor. The pirate jack rotor centers on the axle flange for me as the rotor through hole was too large for the axle pilot boss. Using the wilwood bracket puts the caliper at the three o’clock position when looking at the drivers side and the pirate jack kit puts it between 1 & 2 o’clock. I’m not sure if that will cause an ebrake issue yet as that’s where I left off.

So far I have about an hour in modifications and I think I’m pretty much done modifying.

If you want some pictures let me know. I can get you the kit number and pictures tomorrow when I get back to my work computer.

 

[dsd1967]

If you stick with Wilwood you might as well buy the whole street brake setup. The pieces to make your setup work will add up to more than the kit.

The Wilwood stuff has a better cool factor than the pirate jack stuff at double the cost. However the Wilwood stuff probably will not need any modifications.

 

[Richard Cranium]

You have a Savoy ?????
I thought you were just a "Charger" guy.

I like the 64 Plymouths & this is a little something I picked up last summer. There's pictures of it in the 62-65 section, but here's a video my son took of it.

 

[Richard Cranium]

If you stick with Wilwood you might as well buy the whole street brake setup. The pieces to make your setup work will add up to more than the kit.

The Wilwood stuff has a better cool factor than the pirate jack stuff at double the cost. However the Wilwood stuff probably will not need any modifications.

Thanks for all of the input.

The Dana is narrowed and as you can see, the frames rails have been pushed inward with some stiffening tubes have been welded in underneath leaving limited room for emergency brake cables. I have a feeling that if I want an emergency brake, I'll have to be creative to get the cables routed.

 

[Don selleck]

the wildwood kit i got comes with cables that can be cut to length, adjusters and cable to the front. I rerouted mine to the outer frame rail because of frame connectors, which I thought was better instead of cutting a diagonal hole thru them for the cable routing. call them direct they will hook you up.

 

[VANDAN]

Awesome Looking Car ! My last Target, to fit between my '63 & '65 Dodge Posts, to complete the Stable...

 

[MW 413]

I've been running Wilwood Drag Lite 4 wheel disc brakes on my 62 Belvedere for several years on the street with no problem. (manual brakes, not power assist) No park brake, I just chock it and park it in gear(4spd). Its important to make sure your calipers are centered over the rotors evenly. You can use stainless steel flat washers of different thicknesses to do this. Also very important to seat your new disc pads in correctly. Old pads if flat can be lightly sanded on braking surface and re-seated. Calipers are non floating type so you can use stationary steel lines without flex hoses to rear calipers with no safety issues. Also make sure you use a 15/16" bore MC for good pedal effort.
Your rotor tells me that the inner caliper piston is possibly frozen or your caliper is not centered on the rotor properly. Having the calipers not centered will also cause low brake pedal on first hit. All this info is available on line at Wilwood's site. Their tech guys are very helpful by phone also.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Thanks for the response and info. This car was completed "a while ago" and only driven 12 miles when I bought it. I believe that the caliper is centered properly, but something got on the inside of that rotor to cause the corrosion and the rust was later "cleaned up". The pitting in the rotor is pretty bad & if you look at the picture, the shiny spots are the original machined surface & good contact is being made. You can see the factory machining in the 6:00 o'clock position on the rotor.

 

[MW 413]

From what I can see in your 2nd photo the inside pistons are out a good bit and the outer pistons are seated fully back. Looks like that caliper needs to be shimmed outward. Look at the Willwood web site and look up caliper shimming. They sell shim washers but you can use use stainless washers from any hardware store. Make sure though that you don't go to wide shimming. The caliper mounting bolt ends still should be protruding out the backside of the mounting bracket and not past flush. Also put the correct torque on the mounting bolts.

 

[Richard Cranium]

From what I can see in your 2nd photo the inside pistons are out a good bit and the outer pistons are seated fully back. Looks like that caliper needs to be shimmed outward. Look at the Willwood web site and look up caliper shimming. They sell shim washers but you can use use stainless washers from any hardware store. Make sure though that you don't go to wide shimming. The caliper mounting bolt ends still should be protruding out the backside of the mounting bracket and not past flush. Also put the correct torque on the mounting bolts.

Thanks for the info.

This car has only 12 miles on it since the previous owner built it and with a 572 crossram Hemi, I won't be taking any long distance rides. Although I would like the security of a parking brake, perhaps I'll just try it out as it is and see how things are once I register it this spring. Thanks for pointing out the off-center caliper; I will shim it out. The other side (left) is centered nicely. I don't know what happened to this rotor to get so eaten and pitted, but it was treated with something to eliminate the rust. I don't know why he went that route because the rotors are only 85 bucks each. All 4 pistons in each caliper are free & I've ordered a new pair of rotors since Wilwood offers these rotors drilled now.

BTW, your inbox is full.

 

[MW 413]

Thanks for the info.

This car has only 12 miles on it since the previous owner built it and with a 572 crossram Hemi, I won't be taking any long distance rides. Although I would like the security of a parking brake, perhaps I'll just try it out as it is and see how things are once I register it this spring. Thanks for pointing out the off-center caliper; I will shim it out. The other side (left) is centered nicely. I don't know what happened to this rotor to get so eaten and pitted, but it was treated with something to eliminate the rust. I don't know why he went that route because the rotors are only 85 bucks each. All 4 pistons in each caliper are free & I've ordered a new pair of rotors since Wilwood offers these rotors drilled now.

BTW, your inbox is full.

Just cleared it.
My 62 is a fairly radical xram 446. I only go locally with it. Picked up a pair of small plastic chocks I leave behind the drivers seat. Works fine. Only use them if I'm on a grade otherwise I just put it in 2nd gear. The rear axle calipers are the only ones that you need to shim and center. The fronts usually line right up with out shims. You have a good look'in Plymouth there.