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bear351c

Brake upgrade. Thoughts, reviews, etc...

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Gday all,  just wondering what upgrades people have done to their Fords.  Heard good and bad reviews about Hoppers and Wilwood kits, anyone use them, suggest someone else, got a good or bad opinion.??  

 

Obviously I'm biased towards XA-B-C but would like to hear from anyone who has fitted these kits. Any mods needed?  Didn't fit at all? After sales service?

 

Cheers.

 

 

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Good topic . I've been experimenting using all factory stuff .

Started with XC disc/hub unit

Cut the rotor off 

machine the hub ( that is originally around 20mm thick) to allow for added thickness of rotor 

I didn't finish my setup but a mate has and he used calipers from a territory and rotors , I think his were 322mm

 

Once hub is machined you need to leave the centre hub a little oversize than the wheel centre part to locate the rotor 

 

The caliper bolts up to the XC factory lower hole on the stub axle 

Machine a spacer to centre caliper 

A top mount block needs to be made up from original stub axle hole to caliper 

 

Anyway his all came up good and is running. He did do some pics on FordForums.com.au 

 

My setup I was using all FG calipers etc and 322 mm rotors . I had some interference between the rotor O.D and caliper but his with the territory gear worked . 

 

 

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I will add .  I don't get the whole Wilwood thing . I did a setup for a guy on an XA to fit up to the factory stub axles . The rotors were very thin and to me appeared flimsy . The calipers were smaller than the later model Ford ones ..

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Yeah, heard some "interesting stories" about Wilwood, won't flame them on here, as I have never used them.

 

Thinking of BA-FG 4 spot calipers onto XA/XB stubs, readily available, better performance etc,  but need Eng report.  Will have to look into the Territory job on Ford Forums. Cheers.

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On 3/21/2020 at 6:30 PM, gregaust said:

I will add .  I don't get the whole Wilwood thing . I did a setup for a guy on an XA to fit up to the factory stub axles . The rotors were very thin and to me appeared flimsy . The calipers were smaller than the later model Ford ones ..

 

And just to back up what gregaust said.......listen to the turbo yoda's explanation. 

 

 

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Don't get caught up in the Willwood fad lol ..

 

Yes those look a lot like the kit I fitted .. Have a good mate just removed Willwood from his Bigblock coupe as well , just didn't do it for him. He went to a kit similar to the one in the vid 

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On 3/21/2020 at 6:25 PM, gregaust said:

Good topic . I've been experimenting using all factory stuff .

Started with XC disc/hub unit

Cut the rotor off 

machine the hub ( that is originally around 20mm thick) to allow for added thickness of rotor 

I didn't finish my setup but a mate has and he used calipers from a territory and rotors , I think his were 322mm

 

Once hub is machined you need to leave the centre hub a little oversize than the wheel centre part to locate the rotor 

 

The caliper bolts up to the XC factory lower hole on the stub axle 

Machine a spacer to centre caliper 

A top mount block needs to be made up from original stub axle hole to caliper 

 

Anyway his all came up good and is running. He did do some pics on FordForums.com.au 

 

My setup I was using all FG calipers etc and 322 mm rotors . I had some interference between the rotor O.D and caliper but his with the territory gear worked . 

 

 

I would love to read more about this, do you have any pictures or links?

I take it that you would need 17's?

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Geez, don't tell me this now, I got 3k worth of willwood front brake gear sitting in a box waiting for me to get home so I can install it. 

 

Though I did do a lot of research and talked with Willwood reps and could not fault them before the purchase. 

The fault lies with the "kits" available in australia. They are not the race spec components and are either for drag cars or for giving street cars some bling. 

Real race rotors need thermal mass, NO drilling, slots only. Curved vein ventilator, 2 piece and no dust boots on a stainless piston. Their race calipers, apparently, and made specially to maximise stiffness you can see flow and stress simulations on their website. 

 

The aussie kits do not use these components.

The kit I have, I imported direct from Willwood to the specs I wanted,

So I hope it's good, this is the second time in a week I've heard a rumour of Willwood been crappy... :S

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1 hour ago, Crazy2287 said:

 

The aussie kits do not use these components.......

 

 

This may be the issue, then. Looks like you've done your homework, so your setup should be sweet.  Would be nice to get FG or BA stuff to fit our old girls, in kit form. 

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12 hours ago, Crazy2287 said:

Geez, don't tell me this now, I got 3k worth of willwood front brake gear sitting in a box waiting for me to get home so I can install it. 

 

Though I did do a lot of research and talked with Willwood reps and could not fault them before the purchase. 

The fault lies with the "kits" available in australia. They are not the race spec components and are either for drag cars or for giving street cars some bling. 

Real race rotors need thermal mass, NO drilling, slots only. Curved vein ventilator, 2 piece and no dust boots on a stainless piston. Their race calipers, apparently, and made specially to maximise stiffness you can see flow and stress simulations on their website. 

 

The aussie kits do not use these components.

The kit I have, I imported direct from Willwood to the specs I wanted,

So I hope it's good, this is the second time in a week I've heard a rumour of Willwood been crappy... :S

 

I agree, most of the kits you see for sale in the Australia are one of these two kits:

6 spot

https://www.wilwood.com/BrakeKits/BrakeKitsProdFront?itemno=140-12945-DR&year=1970&make=Ford&model=Falcon&option=Disc+Brake+Spindle

4 spot

https://www.wilwood.com/BrakeKits/BrakeKitsProdFront?itemno=140-15406-DR&year=1970&make=Ford&model=Falcon&option=Disc+Brake+Spindle

 

The main issues most people have with these kits is that the calipers flex and the rotor is narrower than the standard one.  The other thing I'm not a big fan of withe these kits is how they mount to the disk spindle. The holes they use for mounting the caliper are 3 bolts for the heat shielding. I just dont know if the standard spindles are designed to take a load like that.

 

But this kit look a lot better and uses a completely different caliper and uses the standard mounting holes.

https://www.wilwood.com/BrakeKits/BrakeKitsProdFront?itemno=140-10220-DR&year=1970&make=Ford&model=Falcon&option=Disc+Brake+Spindle

 

I have not seen any reviews from Australia on this kit but It look a lot better to me.

 

The only issues are that you have to run a minimum of 17"s

 

Crazy 2287 is this similar to what you ordered and what application were you going to use them?

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Thanks mate, all good info there. One of the reasons I started this thread was to hear from others. Especially those who have run the setup, bought parts, whether they bolt straight in, will they fit Oz Falcons, etc....👍

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18 hours ago, bear351c said:

 

 

This may be the issue, then. Looks like you've done your homework, so your setup should be sweet.  Would be nice to get FG or BA stuff to fit our old girls, in kit form. 

 

Have a read in that link i posted above . That was the setup I was working on, only he finished his before I did lol . It's all factory stuff 

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9 hours ago, Gold XR said:

I have not seen any reviews from Australia on this kit but It look a lot better to me.

 

The only issues are that you have to run a minimum of 17"s

 

Crazy 2287 is this similar to what you ordered and what application were you going to use them?

 

WIL14010220 1 WIL14010220 KIT,FRONT,MUSTANG 70-73,BIG

BRAKE,RADIAL

WIL2209195 1 WIL2209195 FLEXLINE

KIT,FRONT,MUSTANG,70-73

 

That is my part numbers. I measured a lot of points off some xf stub axels and it all matches the mustang stuff. The kit will offset wheel track +1mm so nothing to worry about. And it will fit my 17" rims, but NOT all 17" rims. 

 

Remember, I HAVE not fitted these yet. So I don't know if they even will fit and work.

 

So no one rush out thinking you can bolt these on. 

Be assured when I fit them, if they work. I'll make a thread ;)

 

Application is for tarmac racing. (I'm not a pro racer or anything though so don't take any advice from me on that.)

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