Big Brakes

[ralphscott]

Just finished installing some bigger Wilwood brakes on Lil Cobra so I thought I'd share some photos
Ralph
These next three shots try to give you a sense of how much bigger these brakes are:







The shot below is the safety wiring of one of the cap and rotor sets. I did the safety wiring after I did the cap and rotor indexing total on each right and left was about .002 inches runout. Time consuming but vell worth the effort



The next two shots are the rotors on the spindles





These two shots are the safety wiring of the Joe Trout mounting bracket and the calipers





The last two shots are the finished product bled and ready to go





Hope you enjoyed them I'm working on the turkey pan and the self cancelling turn-signals now

[pgermond]

They look great, and big! Very meticulous workmanship Ralph.

Phil

427 Roadster, #4279436
Southern Automotive FE
3:31 and Toploader

Roseville (N.Cal)

[eliminator]

Ralph,

It's about time!
Only 10 weeks until Homecoming.

Rick
#4279405

[KrAzEcJ]

Ralph, how about some details to? Those do look much bigger sitting side by side one another in the pictures.
What are the size of the new disks? Are the calipers 4 piston or 6 piston? How about the difference in the size of the pads?
Did you have to do any upgrades to the brake lines with the swap? What part number did you end up going with?
BTW we all want a detailed evaluation and comparison old-vs-new when you get finished! lol And another pic of
the wheel mounted with the bigger brakes behind it would be nice too. Sorry for all the questions Ralph, its
something I might do in the future so your feedback would be very helpful.

Unique 4279459

[GeorgiaSnake]

Nice - those things look as big as my wheels

Randy

Unique 289 FIA #2899420
Southern Automotive 396
Team III 16's
Brilliant Silver

[Adrian472]

Ralph
What size wheels you gonna be using with them trash can lid rotors????
Adrian

[ralphscott]

Thanks Guys. They are 6 piston calipers. I have 16" wheels on the car and they fit fine. The rotors are 12.19" diameter part # 140-7017B. The pads are polymatrix part # 15D 4332K. I have not bedded them yet as the car is still up on its stands. Finished the turn signal thing today awaiting some new intake manifold studs to mount the rebuilt carb, turkey pan and spacer. Hope to get to it next weekend. Travelling every week so I'm having to work on the car at a much slower pace. BTW no other upgrades to the braking system and the pads look almost twice the surface area of the originals.

Again thanks guys.

Ralph

[KrAzEcJ]

Great info Ralph! I cant wait till you get a chance to try them out.

Unique 4279459

[clayfoushee]

Very nice Ralph!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Clay

'98 Unique #9299, 427FE side oiler (452.1-stroker), top-loader (close), 3.31 rear

Annapolis, MD

[ralphscott]

Thanks Clay I'm eager to try them out, but all that is going on it will still be a couple of weeks off.

Ralph

[Master]

Ralph, Those are BIG BRAKES!!!! Eliminator and you will have to do some 100 - 0 braking tests at homecoming.



Scott
4279454
SA 428
3:54

[eliminator]

I have the same brakes on mine with 15" Trigo's, clearance is fine.
How about 0-100-0 TESTS.

Rick
#4279405

[ralphscott]

Rick, Wish we had a track it would really be fun to get some numbers. They are all around but none within 200 miles.

Ralph

[Adrian427]

what did you do to the stock rear jag brakes to balance the braking forces up?
thanks
Adrian

[juanone]

Hi Ralph:

Why did you change the brakes? Are the ones the car comes with not adequate enough? Seriously I am asking because the brakes in my car feel very wimpy.

If that is the case I may have to open my wallet once more.

Juan

[ralphscott]

Juan, I messed with the brake bias and finally installed a remote brake bias adjuster under the drivers side dash. I could never get to feel comfortable and always felt I was standing on the brakes to stop. So I bit hard and brought the kit did the install and was very careful on rotor runout measurements and have not ever regretted it. Lil Cobra stops with no nerve racking moments no vibration,and no swapping ends under heavy braking, very well balanced. Now a lot of folks are quite happy with the original set of brakes. And if they are they should stay with what they have as the kit is not cheap and it took about 1 week part time to do it -- the way it needs to be done. (I loved doing it)

I guess I'm spoiled with today's power assist braking. I also have a 428 with AL: heads, waterpump, and intake so it is still a bit heavier than your engine as the difference is in the weight of the engine block and crank.

Don't know if Rick has upgraded. Ralph Long did it a few years ago I was a very minor assistant on that job so got a sense of what was required. Butch was the chief on that job and Tony Lewis was the assistant and Ralph's co-pilot on the first test run----Thank God they worked!!! Ralph put'em through the paces!! Just ask Tony he has the shorts to show you!!!

Ralph []

[ralphscott]

Adrian, brake bias adjustment. Check the site for adjustment instructions also in the book I got with the rolling pallet there is a diagram. Remember you have two brake master cylinders one for the front brakes and one for the rear. By adjusting the bias (when you put pressure on the brake pedal) the bias rod transfers proportional pressure to the master cylinders depending on the adjustment of the bias rod. That controls the braking pressure on the front and rear brakes to get balance in your braking. You don't want 50/50 you want more braking on the front than the rear. I don't want to suggest a specific ratio, but take the car our in a vacant parking lot to experiment. I ultimately installed a remote brake bias adjuster and that made it a lot easier to adjust the brake bias without having to get into the drivers footbox.

Hope this helps

Ralph

[Justin Upchurch]

Juan,
I upgraded the brakes on my kit as well, but mostly because I plan to do a few track days with the car. As Ralph mentioned I would try the bias adjuster and pads before springing for the bigger brake kit, after all the kit that comes on the cars is the same one that goes on a 3500# Camaros.
At homecoming last year Alan told me to look for cars that were slowing down before before the brake lights would come on, and sure enough while following in my rental I saw several cars doing this. Alan said that that is a sign of not enough front bias since the switch is activated by the front brakes and these cars were starting to brake with the rear first. If possible, you may want to get your wife to follow you and check when the lights are comming on.
As far as the price of the 6 piston kits go, I have seen them from $1100 - $1800 depending on options, Mine were a $700 upgrade.
I look forward to seeing you and your car at homecoming, and I think it is really cool that you are driving it all the way there.

Justin

[eliminator]

No upgrade for me, I ordered my Delux Pallet Kit with BIG BRAKES! To me a no brainer with the FE engine.

[eliminator]

Juan,

There are 2 things wrong with your brakes:

1. There not power brakes, your use to a Superformance Car with Power Brakes. Start using that top-loader to gear down.

2. Your brakes need bleading again, a little air still in there.