Technical Disc brake caliper bracket

I decided to convert my 54 chevy handyman to front disc brakes. Is there anyone around here that has cad models or dimensional drawings of the caliper brackets so I can make them by myself instead of buying them. I live in the Netherlands and shipping heavy items is always expensive. If I have to buy the caliper brackets what can you recommend me, speedway, POL ...

 

If you're not going for a kit, do you have an idea of which discs and calipers you'd want to use?

Is the Chevy front end currently stripped down? i.e. is it in such a state that you can take measurements? I'd be happy to do the CAD work if you could feed me the measurements.

It might be less tricky than it looks. If the calipers are of the single-piston floating kind you have a useful amount of axial and radial tolerance to work with.

 

I used these brackets from Speedway on a 64 Studebaker front axle. Bolted them on using the holes for the backing plate . https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Weld...NgKSeJAmPl_Bfzt1vARQRlcKEbFAZjCsaAgUOEALw_wcB

 

The cad work isn't the problem I'm a draftsman. Don't want to invent the wheel again. I bought some 11" rotors, going for the 70-81 GM calipers. Still collecting stuff to keep it within a budget

 

Maybe the photo and specs will help get you started:
https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Basic-Disc-Brake-Kit-GM-Mid-size-to-Early-Chevy-Spindle,4428.html

 

I have made my own and it isn't that hard. The spindle is centered in the backing plate bolt pattern and the slider bolts for the calipers need about an 1/8" clearance. Try to set the angle of the calipers so the bleeder screw is as close to straight up as possible. I made trial/prototypes out of plywood.

Gary

 

If you are going to make your own caliper brackets you might find this helpful.

https://www.rodsnsods.co.uk/threads/billet-perspex-brake-caliper-brackets.26027/unread

 

You might have found this already:

This is probably accurate enough to scale the dimensions that aren't given closely enough. The only thing missing is the hub, and the distance from its outer face to the face of the tabs which receive the brake backing plates.

 

Try ECI brakes in Connecticut. As far as I am concerned they make the best brake kits. That is why others have copied from them. If you contact them, ask for Marcus. Tell him that Nick recommended them and their products.

 

Speedway's instruction sheet for the machined spindle brake kit says they will not work on a stock suspension.

 

I've used these same weld on brackets to convert a number of axles to front disc brakes. They sell them for SAE or metric GM calipers, and they are very inexpensive priced. Easy to make up a cardboard template to match the backing plate bolt pattern, and then cut away the part of the brackets not needed, and drill holes. If you want 3 mounting holes a tab of steel of the same thickness can be easily added by welding it on also.

 

With the skill’s to draft a bracket and knowing what needs to go where here’s this. On the 56 in avatar I didn’t have the money of CAD skills so I cut factory caliper bracket where they attached to the spindles and pretty much did what the guy’s are say about how they made Studebacker brackets work. I also in corporated the factory dust shields.

 

Install the rotors, clamp the caliper where you want it, then you have your parameters. Then it’s just make a piece to bolt to the spindle and bolt to the caliper.

 

Wrap some masking tape around the hub of the rotor to space the caliper it up where it needs to be to locate the pads.

 

This will help with a visual.

 

Desire
Time
Thought
Creativity
Cardboard

 

PDF file just posted Here you go. Still will need bearing spacer.

 

Thanks ! By the way, do you know the difference between 71-77 & 78-81 GM calipers ?

 

71-77 caliper banjo bolt & bleeder screw are 7/16-20 threads. 78-81 caliper banjo bolt & bleeder screw have a 10mm x 1.5 pitch thread.

 

The former is the SAE caliper, and the latter is the Metric caliper.

Pin spacing on an SAE caliper is: 7.05"

Pin spacing on a Metric caliper is: 5-1/2"

SAE calipers commonly have a 2-3/4" piston, while Metric ones commonly have 2-3/8" ones.

SAE calipers are intended to grip 1-1/4" thick rotors, commonly 11-3/4" in diameter.

Metric calipers are intended to grip 1" thick rotors, commonly 10-1/2" in diameter.

The use of either will require a wheel that is large enough, and/or has the proper inner rim and center shape to clear the caliper. Not all OEM wheels will fit. Not all early aftermarket wheels will fit.

There is, of course, less of an issue with the Metric calipers, as they are more compact, and the rotors are smaller in diameter.

 

Thanks for explaining. I already got some 11" rotors (1" thick), so I have to find out which calipers fit the brackets they commonly sell at speedway, POl, CPP. Trail fitted the rotor to see how this will work

 

Put a Metric caliper on the rotor, with pads, and see if the wheel-side of the caliper clears the wheel center.

 

Did some further research,on the eci brakes website there's a picture of a wheel and the inside diameter that is required for a rotor and standard caliper

 

That is not what I am getting at.

Yes, the diameter will clear on many wheels, except for those with tapered lips.

The SIDE of the caliper that faces the center of the wheel extends past the wheel mounting surface on the rotor.

Depending on the wheel design, the center of the wheel may hit the SIDE of the caliper, although a thin spacer might fix that.

 

Speedway and some of the stock car sites list a metric caliper with the 2 3/4" piston. Speedway says it gives 20% more stopping power than stock.

 

On mid 60s F100s, the inside of the wheel tapered the the mounting surface, when Ford went to disks, the inside was horizontal the went vertical to clear the calipers...... Side by side the difference is apparent.

Also, sometimes , even after market wheels will rub... a caliper may need a bit of grinding clearance
The ears on the brake pads may need some grinding clearance.

And, putting the bleeder at the top may not allow all the air out, google diagrams of calipers and it will be apparent.

That is why some brake calipers have different part numbers as one is left and one is right

Ricky.

 

You're in the Netherlands , so why don't you ditch the idea of using GM style calipers.
Check out some PBR calipers [Australia] that were used on Holden Commodores and "Vauxhall" Monaros [and C4 Corvettes] and some Fords
Some of these vehicles were available in Europe.

The Calipers only need a simple 2 lug mounting plate

 

The finned aluminum C4 Corvette calipers need 16 inch wheels unless the fins are trimmed.

 

Only if used with 12" Corvette rotors and Corvette + 56mm wheel offset [or 13" Z51 rotors]

With 11.5" rotors and zero offset wheels offset they fit

The PBR calipers were a popular brake mod with "Pre-65 Racing" in NZ [which is a Junkyard class, that only allowed OEM parts]
The rules only allowed 2 piston calipers and plus 1" wheel size [Wilwoods and Brembos prohibited]

Most cars prior to 1965 had 14" wheels and could only go up to 15" wheels
The PBR 2 piston caliper was a loophole in the rules because the pistons were side by side [floating] and had the same clamping pressures of a 4 piston caliper.

This is "Pre-65 Racing"

 

On my DD it only required a few passes of a coarse file over the stock calipers to get the 15" Renault steelies to clear.