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Date:         Sun, 11 Aug 2002 10:02:44 EDT
Reply-To:     BenTbtstr8@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Ben T <BenTbtstr8@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Q: re. SA big brake install in my 87 GL
Comments: To: syncro@yahoogroups.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Good morning folks,

I realize that I am sending this question to the Syncro List as well. I suspect Syncros have a very similar fitting problem.

I had Jimmy at my buddy's shop install my big brake kit purchased from Tassi's in Colma. I did not suspect there were going to be fitting problems as that associated with Syncro installs (clearancing for the Syncro hub to fit the rotor). All went very well until I reinstalled by redrilled Porsche alloys. The poor quality control in SA (or wherever they make these calipers) was exhibited by the uneven grinding on the exterior of the caliper body. One caliper was ground off cleanly and fit w/o any hassles. The other one was not ground all the way on one section so that it interfered with the 15" wheel that I just installed.

The choices I had were to ground off some material from the caliper, install different wheels, or add spacers. I decided against grinding off any of the excess material as that would also mean grinding off the cadmium plating in that section. I really like the look of the Porsche alloy son the van so that was going to stay. I suspect the SA alloy wheels have enough backside clearance to permit the use of these calipers w/o any modifications. The Porsche alloys backside is on the same plane as the mounting pad. So the 8 mm spacers I had sitting around were called to duty.

Not only were the spacers just the perfect thickness to clear the calipers, they also permitted the reinstallation of my Wolfsburg billet aluminum centercaps. If you have the thread about these wheels before, I discussed how redrilling the wheels to fit the van rendered the caps unusable in this application. Anyway pmail me for that other story. Back to the spacer deal. This would have been just about perfect if my wheels were 7" wide or narrower. Of course, they had to be 15"X8". They had a purposeful look and made the van handle very well. So I decided to take her for a 20 miles spin.

I was one mile out of the shop when I ran into some undulations on the road. Scraaaappppe. That's what it sounded like. My tires which barely cleared w/o the spacers, now screamed for mercy under even most minute bump on the road. It did not heal that I have lowered H & R springs on the car already. Pieces of the tire were cut-up on every bump.

So finally here are my questions before I removed the spacers and grind the caliper for clearance instead. John Wessels and a couple of other folks have mentioned using washers to space out the calipers. a) Is this for Syncros only? b) Where do these washers mount? No matter where I place them, they end up moving the caliper outward in the undesirable position c) How thick were these washers?

TIA, BenT <A HREF="http://hometown.aol.com/bentbtstr8/myhomepage/index.html">Vanagon Cafe</A>


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