Has anyone tried setting up a front brake caliper on the rear when up grading to larger racing breaks in front to balance out the rear breaking? I know all about the RZ/RS kit and the only real diffrence in the rear is the much much larger rotor. So has anyone ever thought about doing this or giving it a try?

 

Mounting is a typically a problem.

Another problem is the front calipers on the rear don't have a e-brake capability. Street cars need an e-brake.

 

I thought about that. I've asked a question like this before so people have simply parked in reverse or 1st gear.

 

So has anyone astually tried anything like this?

 

That might work in a very flat area, but I'd never find it acceptable. It would probably not pass a safety inspection either (although how many inspectors look for it?)

Dave

 

One time I parked my car on my driveway... pulled up my e-brake and put it in first. I went up to my room, 30 minutes later I heard kids playing outside(they hit rocks with bats). So I looked out my window to see if the ******** were near my car and to my surprise my car is halfway onto the street. The car rolled down EVEN in first gear(due to the big slope) about 30 feet. I never slightly pull up the e-brake anymore when I'm on my driveway .

Jeremy

 

They will most likely create a unbalanced brake system. And most likely you will be doing loops when you hit the brakes hard. Most big brake kits do NOT include any provisions for the rear other than SS lines and maybe some pads. But for the most part on most cars, the stock rears do a fine job on braking. As the Majority of the braking is done thru the front brakes.

I can't think of anyone on the board or from any tracks that i have been to that has overpowerd the rear brakes in there stock form..( upgraded rotors and pads. powerslot type rotors nothing speacial)

What makes you want to try to put big calipers on the rear? Just a fun project to try?

 

Isn't there larger rear brakes from like the Spirit R or something?

BTW, it's an *emergency* brake, not just a *parking* brake. If you have a catastrophic brake failure, the E-brake can safely slow you down and get you off the road. That's why the E-brake uses a totally separate mechanical system - it's a redundant system.

I would never recommend losing the use of an E-brake on a car that's ever driven on the street. There's a reason it's there.

I'm pretty conservative when it comes to brakes. This is one area where you can have VERY bad consequences if you screw something up.

Dale

 

Where I come from it is called a hand brake. 99% of the time I use my hand brake it is neither an emergency nor am I parking - I use it every time I am stopped at a light.

And using the hand brake in an emergency is very dangerous unless you know what you are doing. It will lock up the rear wheels and most likely send the car into a spin. If it were intended as a redundant braking system, it would have braking capabilites for the front wheels too.

 

I just finished helping install 99 spec brakes onto a 93.

99 spec installed parts were both front and rear backing plates, front and rear rotors and calipers, front and rear pads, new ss brake lines but the old and new looked identical.

The fronts were a direct bolt on without any problems, the rear backing plates had to be pressed on requiring removal of the rear bearings "we replaced them" everything else fit perfectly but the bolts on the original rear calipers were too small so we replaced them with longer grade 10 bolts.

The setup worked perfectly and front and rear rotors are an inch larger.

 

If you increase the diameter of your front brake rotor (or the size of the front brake caliper pistons) you will to either increase the rear brake rotor size proportionally or remove your ABS and get a brake proportioning valve.

Otherwise your brakes will not be balanced which leads to inferior braking and possibly an unsettled feel to the car when braking in turns.

I use custom 13" front rotors with Wilwood calipers on the front and RZ brakes on the rear. Works well for me at the track. It's pretty well balanced but could use some fine tuning.

As was stated above you don't have to worry about overheating your rear rotors in most track situations.

 

There are a few places just to get larger rotor kits, without the caliper of course since your can use the stock caliper. Pretty pricey, but I think I might go that way for the rears in my FD vise putting some caliper kit back there.

 

Yeah see, it isnt always just a larger rotar that counts its also how many psitons you have pushing down on that rotar. is it possible to mount the stock rear break on the other side of the rotar an still use it as a hand brake? And it isnt an issue of over heating either but more or less a balance issue once you up grade to huge ones up front. Increasing the rear rotar size and the pistons you would also achieve greater stopping power and shorter stoppings times allowing for later breaking into a corner would it not? I remeber seeing a german car i think it was or was it an acura? With a double caliper setup in the rear...Is this a a just fr fun project? No when it comes to things like this it is a very serious approach on my behlaf to try and increase break power. Becasue as we all know Bad breaks = DEATH! That or shitty track times....

 

That would not add stopping power in most cases becuase it's the tires stop the car, not the brakes. If the brakes are capable of locking the tires then no change to the brakes is going to make the car stop quicker. Additional pistons do not really add stopping power either, they just clamp the pads more uniformly since they cover a larger area of the pad.

https://www.rx7club.com/suspension-wheels-tires-brakes-archive-112/do-rotors-lines-pads-really-make-big-difference-231994/

Everything about Brakes by Grassroots Motorsports

 

Not to mention that the rear brakes only do about 15% of the work of stopping the car.

 

Hmmm, alright thats true the tires are what really stop the car. But doesn't adding another piston instead allow that caliper to cover more of the disk which allows it to clamp on to it better and in other word apply more force to the disk more uniforally over the entire area of the disk allowing for a slighlty quicker decrease in speed without locking up the wheels? And yes I read those two posts....very informative...but still than why do people go with larger brembo type breaks? If a good slotted rotar and pad will do the same? Actually i will answe rmy own question becasue the larger rotar allows more area to coool off. But than why more pistons? Wouldn't it make sense to go with more on the rear as well? I mean not same amount but still? I'm no physicist obviously, but I am very very curious about htis now.

 

You sort of answered this, but the full answer is that people buy big brake kits because the larger/thicker the rotor, the more surface area it has. More surface area means it can dissipate heat more quickly. The more rapidly it can dissipate heat, the better it resists fading, and the quicker you can stop repeatedly from high speeds.

More even clamping pressure for more even wear with longer/larger pads. If you look at the style of brake pads that come with multi-piston calipers, you'll understand.

No, not really.

 

Front calipers from an FD wont work in the back. The only way to improve upon the stockers is the 99 rears or the custom stuff I did. Brembos calipers in the rear and an upgraded rotor.
I havea kit for sale still if anybody is interested.
1R1

 

I did much research in this area and have looked at many calipers, the brembos work as do the Harrop. AP doesnt make an affordable caliper that will fit without major surgery to the rear hub carrier. Wilwoods fit as do Outlaw and a few other less know calipers. But I wanted the AP Champcar rotors that M2 used on their old kits. So,I selected Brembos for the quality and the style factor and that it would work with the AP champcar rotor and it balances out the front BBK kits that are readily available.
1R1

 

With or without a parking brake?

 

no parking brake, It just cant be done in any reasonable manner.

 

Jim, I PM'd you on this topic.
1R1