[Scaldcat]

That's beautiful work. I'm going to play around with fitting the Wilwood rear brake to the '85 hub carrier. Did you fabricate the hub spacer, or is that available off-the-shelf?

And BTW, what transaxle is in the car?

 

[Chuck Nukem]

How do you like the Hispec calipers?

 

[Beerman]

That's beautiful work. I'm going to play around with fitting the Wilwood rear brake to the '85 hub carrier. Did you fabricate the hub spacer, or is that available off-the-shelf?

And BTW, what transaxle is in the car?

Thanks. The hub spacer is off the shelf, however, the center insert (used to precisely locate the rotor and wheel) was fabricated by me and pressed fit into the hub spacer.

The transaxle is an Audi 016 from an old Audi 5000 with a LSD from a Porsche 944 and a few other parts to increase the load capacity.

 

[Beerman]

How do you like the Hispec calipers?

Very impressed with the Hispec calipers. Excellent quality and nicely powder coated, reasonably priced. Probably very comparable to the Wilwoods.

 

[Erik L]

woops, scratch the first picture - went with a twin piston caliper in the rear rather than the four piston

Awesome! Why did you change from 4 piston to 2 piston? Balance? I ask because I have the Hi Spec 4 piston on the rear of my car now.

Also I am using the built in E brake with pad lets. I hear terrible things. It took me a while to get it adjusted. But now it works fine. I have not used it on many hills yet. How are you finding the parking brake?

 

[Scaldcat]

The LS3 conversion of the '85 has been slow due to long lead times in just about every area of the project-- a shortage of LS3 crankshafts at GM Performance, delay at Holley of the ECU harness. So far I have these in hand:

Renegade engine mounts, transaxle mounts, flywheel & clutch. All great looking bits. The trannie hangs on brackets attached above to a heavy duty cross-brace that replaces the stock cross-brace.
Porsche 986S rebuilt transaxle with Wavetrack LSD
Wilwood 12.25" 6- and 4-pot brakes(bracketry by Claudius)
PUK poly bushing kit
19mm ARB
Speedway electric brake servo and master cylinder(appears almost identical to the Claudius kit)
Fiberglass front bumper(by Claudius). A bit rough from the mold, but workable.
Lotus Marques steering rack rebuild kit. Very nice.
Nitron shocks & springs. I fabricated aluminum adapters for the rear perches.
Boyd aluminum fuel tanks
Holley retrofit in-tank fuel pump(non-recirculating). A good fit to the Boyd tanks.
Holley 12.3" digital dash
Holley Dominator EFI ECU

While waiting for parts, thinking about linear actuators for the headlamp pods, electric parking brake, and HVAC conversion to Classic Auto Air evaporator/fan box, a pencil shaped parallel flow AC condenser from a Peterbilt truck(ebay) and JAE's 3-row aluminum radiator with Spal fans.

 

[Erik L]

You are pretty hard core (love it). So let me show you what I am tinkering on that may be of interest for your build.

https://www.compbrake.com/product/integral-universal-brake-bias-servo-replacement-pedal-box-kit-hydraulic-dual-cylinder-kit/

I "think" - at least on my car, I could easily mount this to the existing master cylinder studs with an extra custom wing over to the Clutch Master Mount (for stability). Endless brake tune-ability, cheap and super car stopping. I have had several cars in the past with non-boosted brakes. With the right master cylinder the feel is great. Just a bit different.

I love the idea of getting rid of the booster and the extra pump etc...lots of parts and joints to maintain.

This is basically what the Elise guys are doing with the "Brake Bias Cage" that is sold for their cars by BOE.

Cant wait to give this a try after I finish up some current suspension projects.

Love to see some pics of the parts when you get a chance.

 

[exigegus]

Here's a few pics of the rear brakes. No need to weld on ears onto the hub. The hub mounting points work fine with a custom adapter to mount the calipers.

The car has about 1,000 miles on it now post-transplant and the brakes work very well. There is an interior mounted bias adjustment which helps with dialing in the fore/aft balance.

Interesting ebrake setup
I'll bet a bunch of Elise/Exige owners would like that solution

 

[Scaldcat]

@Eric L That is an interesting approach, though possibly a tight fit next to the stock clutch master cyl. I went with the electric brake kit mostly out of curiosity after conversation with Jason Claudius, who reported that the electric kit had a more "modern" increased responsiveness and feel relative to the stock Bendix servo. My M4 tells me that this is a good thing I also purchased a Wilwood front/rear biasing valve.

Compact Electric Brake Power Booster Master Cylinder, Disc/Disc

12-volt electric power brake booster can be mounted almost anywhere System provides up to 2,000 psi of brake line fluid pressure to brakes 1-3/16-inch bore master cylinder designed for use with disc/disc braking system Master cylinder is compact enough to use directly on firewall, under dash, or...

www.speedwaymotors.com

 

[Erik L]

Yeah I have Ian's great system that replaces the Delco Morraine ABS, It uses a similar electric vacuum pump but with an old style booster, The feel is good but not perfect. I want to try the dual system and see if I can reach braking nirvana I suspect that since I have Calipers and Rotors similar to what you are going to run, I have a mismatch. This system is designed to work with the stock Calipers and Rotors. Looking forward to seeing your project come together!

 

[Scaldcat]

Here is a Nitron shock with lathed aluminum perch adapter. I added an Energy Suspension poly bushing between the adapter and the helper spring.

 

[Scaldcat]

Here is the Speedway master cylinder with modified mounting. The angle of the flange has been changed to level the cylinder and clear the bonnet.

 

[Erik L]

Nice! are you going to open the hole in center of the spring adapter? Or will it work just as you have shown.

Love how you change the angle of the MCYL. - never would of thought of such a simple solution.

 

[Scaldcat]

The spring adapter works as shown. Its hole is the diameter of the piston rod and thus centers the rod in the perch. The center of bottom side of the adapter is relieved to the thickness and diameter of Nitron's washer-- which is curved on one side facing down to engage the rounded plastic plug/bush fixed to the piston rod.

 

[Erik L]

How does the spring adaptor stay attached to the out rigger? Wont it come out of the stock spring seat over a bump?

Also, I think the bottom of the shock moves in a very slight arc as the suspension moves up and down. I thought the piston rod had to be mounted in rubber at the top to allow for this rocking movement. Perhaps the Nitron mounts differently.

 

[Scaldcat]

The Nitrons came with nothing but a hard clamp mount at the perch, with washers and nuts on both sides and no apparent accommodation for lateral play of the piston rod at that junction. But you may be right about the need for a bit of compliance at the rear perch. My stock '85 shocks have rubber bushings on both sides. However, for the Renegade swap I'm switching to a '89 rear suspension. I need to check for differences, as well as the layout of the V8 rear shocks, on which the Nitron kit was based. If this is not clarified by the service manuals, I'll fit the suspension without springs and see how it behaves across its full travel. I can always re-engineer the center hole and add rubber bushings.

 

[Erik L]

thats the way i have seen it, and how my 94 is, larger hole in the center of the spring adapter and rubber pillows and washers at the mount point on the chassis suspension out rigger, which is just above.

 

[Erik L]

Here is the parts diagram for the my car - I think its same as v8

 

[Scaldcat]

I'll ping Nitron on this. However it seems unlikely that the shock piston rod needs to pivot at the perch, as parts 72 spring and 73 rubber donut are in strict perpendicular alignment with the frame perch. Same situation at the front suspension.

 

[Scaldcat]

Received many suspension & rubber bits from JAE & a nice alum radiator with low-profile 12" Spal fans-- 26 lbs. in all!