We are having problems with the ECI brake conversion, thought we might get some help form someone whos done it. We changed the uprights to 53s to pickup the extra 1 drop and a using 49 steering arms. Calipers mounted to the rear! The problem is that with the rotor and caliper inplace the pins that hold the caliper inplace do not clear the nut on the tierod end, this happens on both the pass side and the drivers side. Just to try it out we removed the tierod end and slid the pin in, with this done we cant get the nut to go either. I already know that the calipers can be mounted to the front. Has anyone had this problem with them mounted in the rear, the instructions say nothing about it? I havent called ECI yet but thats next. I figured we just did something stupid and dont see the mistake. Here is a picture of the pass side pin not clearing.
When you put those uprights on they were lower and that is what is causing your clearance probelm. I just put 2" dropped uprights on my 62 vette and got droppe steering arms from Fatman Fabrication. You need to either get some dropped arms or bend your stock ones. BB
Ive been doing some checking around and have found no one asking about the clearance issue, this leads me to believe I have done something wrong. Everything on the 49 front suspension is resently rebuilt, while rebuilding it we got a disk brake setup used off ebay. The deal included 53 uprights,53 spindle w/adapter allready on it, rotors and caliper, ect. The guy we got it from says you just bolt it up, no problems! He used it on his 53 until he got a MII frontend. Looking in the on-line manual I seen that there was a design change in the steering arms in 53, I was hoping that this change might provide alittle different fit in the problem area. I have a local friend who has a 53 2/d and took my steering arm over to his house and they are the same part and part number, it changed sometime in 1953. Sence thay are the same for Corvette threw 53-62 http://chevy.tocmp.com/1929_54chevyparts/06/382.HTM could you tell me if your steering arm looks different than the one pictured below? Thanks for the input!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
did it come with the 1/2"dia spacers for the 7/16 bolts? I got mine all put together and had to take it back apart b/c I had them in the wrong spot. same deal, no clearance. I'm pretty sure thats what happened to you. Look on the ECI site for the "instructions" they are hard to read until you screw it up once. Then it makes sense
Mount the calipers opposite the steering arm. If using stock (rear) tie-rod, mount calipers on the front, if using rack with steering on front, mount calipers on rear.
I had a similar problem on mine. It all fit (barely), but I had to assemble in the right order and very very slowly to make it work. Try popping that tie rod end out, installing your calipers just like you were, then bolting your tie rod end back on a thread at a time. I had to leave the nut sitting on the steering arm and use it to pull the tower up through the hole. If I'd tried to set the tie rod in its final position and then put the nut on, the nut wouldn't have cleared the caliper pins. Make sense?
Yes ! that would work! But who wants to take all that shit apart every time you want to do a check of the bearings or whatever! Somethings not right! As Bob said you could heat and bend them a little, just a 1/4" will do it. When you start changing the tierod location on the tie-rod steering arm expect bumpsteer! the pass side tierod is fixed and not ajustable unless you convert to a different rod. I cant belive this has not been brought up before!
NO! I have 1/4" spacers! thay are placed at the top of the spindle! I'll go check out eci again , but I havent seen any instructions there before. when the problem first came up I thought just switch caliper to the front, I did that and the hoses became a issue, like you said at a full turn theres interferance with moving parts. If you have any picture of your hose setup with calipers mounted to the rear could you post them some time. Thank for the input guys keep it coming!
That looks correct. I have the chevelle/malibu calipers and camaro hoses. the hoses want to point forward, so I routed the line around the suspension. I need to make brackets to hold the lines still, but I don't drive it so I have time. I could have just routed the rubber back to the stock location, but it almost touched in 2 places and was stretching at full turn.
I've been thinking about getting these for my 49 so I'm gald to see this post. I did see another post where someone mounted the calipers to the front but they switched left to right, right to left. It seems like with the stock 49 stuff you can't just bolt the calipers on the back. Is that what you did? Also if you put them on the front, is there still a problem at full turning?
Yes that is what I did, and they will bolt right up if mounted to the front, when I turn the wheel full right or left everything clears barley! That not the problem though! Im using a stock Chevy brake hose 15", attached to the calaper in its stock location (between the guards)! The hose during travel of wheels turning to the right want to go into moving parts of the suspecsion! So to recap whats going on! IF I mount the caliper to the rear the caiper pins wont clear the tie rod ends! If I mount the calipers to the front the hoses become a issue. I still need information on what kind of difference there is between a 54 steering arm and a 49. If there is a problem with ECI backing plates its time for it to come out of the closet. If there is no problem with these big brake conversion kits lets here how well it went for you. Maybe we can learn something. My dad has been helping me with my car and I want to get it on the road. Input wanted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
bend the steering arm down 1/4". Mine clear, barely. I had to remove tie rod and then put it on last. Not that big a deal.
I talked to ECI today they are aware there is a issue with the clearance of caliper pins when using the 53 and up , upright! They mentioned nothing about moving the caliper to the front or bending steering arm ends to make there part fit right. As a "make it work" sugestion they said to loosen all 4 spindle nuts to get enough play to get the pin to go in. We have not tryed that yet. It still bothers me that some guys are not having problems and are using the 53 and up , uprights. A couple things come to mind, the holes in the eci plate are different and/or the holes in the steering arms may be off abit. This would account for "why" on some cars the work or not! I think re-clocking there plate a few degrees forward would be the fix! as long as air can escape the caliper when bleeding, and the hoses still clear. my 2 cents!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Does this kit require some kind of an adapter for the bearings? I have an old speedway kit for '53 spindles and I can't get the rotors to go onto the spindle with the supplied bearings. The ECI kit looks like it has pretty much the same caliper brackets and it uses the same rotors and calipers. Does anyone have a bearing part number that this kit uses? I may just order the bearings from ECI, but I was just wondering if there is something else to it.
ECI requires a spindle adapter! You need to know what kit you have! Some kits require turned spindles, some dont! You might want to ask Speedway what you have. At this point I would go with the turned spindles kit if it would cure the clearance problems with caliper pins. Here are some instructions that were sent to me, thay may help!
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