Wilwood rear brakes on solid axle issue

[TMartinLVNV]

I received my solid axle yesterday and I've been working on mounting the rear Wilwood brakes. I have everything mocked up before final torquing with red loctite. I ended up with two shims on the caliper mounting bracket and two shims on the caliper mount itself. Left side is good to go. However, for the life of me, I cannot get the right side caliper to open wide enough to fit over the rotor with the pads installed. I tried to compress the piston with a c-clamp and it seems to be bottomed out.

The rotor is .820 wide and the gap between the pads is only .730. Does anyone have an idea of what I'm doing wrong?

The caliper is mounted at the 2 o'clock position for the right side and 10 o'clock position for the left side. Is this the correct orientation for the solid axle?

I'm using all standard FFR parts.

Terry

[phileas_fogg]

Do your rear calipers have the built in parking brake? If so, have you actuated the spring, thereby closing the parking brake? I did, and had to send my brakes back to Wilwood to get the pistons back in their tracks. Which is every bit as frustrating as it sounds. Also, check to see that the spring is oriented correctly. In the second picture below, you can see that the spring interferes with the location of the banjo bolt. That was a second shipment back to Wilwood.

If you don't have the integrated parking brake, you may want to try a tool like this https://smile.amazon.com/Jecr-Disk-Brake-Caliper-Piston/dp/B076T28SVJ/ref=sr_1_16?crid=748TYBQ39BIV&keywords=brake+caliper+tool&qid=1564173762&s=gateway&sprefix=brake+%2Caps%2C120&sr=8-16 & attempt to wind the pistons back into place.


John

https://live.staticflickr.com/4297/35456559964_43bfece395_k.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/W2b8Zo)IMG_0847 (https://flic.kr/p/W2b8Zo) by jhsitton (https://www.flickr.com/photos/91016165@N07/), on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/4316/36289815855_500600bade_k.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/XhNMWg)IMG_2199 (https://flic.kr/p/XhNMWg) by jhsitton (https://www.flickr.com/photos/91016165@N07/), on Flickr

[TMartinLVNV]

Those are the brakes that I have. Yes, I was fiddling with it when I took it out of the box. Good Grief, I will call Wilwood on Mon morning. This is frustrating.

Thanks for the help Phileas. That is the info I needed.

Terry

[totem]

Maybe it’s the type of caliper that you need to rotate/screw the piston to retract it?

[phileas_fogg]

Try the cube tool first; you may get lucky screwing the piston back into place. I had to grind a couple of the prongs off on one side to get the cube to sit flush with the 3/8" ratchet.


John

[TMartinLVNV]

Ok, I have it on order now. It should be here tomorrow and I will let you know how it worked out. On my calipers, the spring and metal bracket is not close to the part where the brake line screws in. So no problems there.

[TMartinLVNV]

Thanks John. The cube tool worked perfectly. I have the caliper mounted now.

[phileas_fogg]

Woohoo! Glad you got it sorted.


John

[Papa]

Question on this thread. I assume that the pistons will need to be wound back into the caliper when a pad change needs to be done in the future?

I have the tools to do this already, just want to understand.

[TMartinLVNV]

Papa, that would be my guess. I've never had this on rear brakes before. They turn in pretty easily. Clockwise moves the piston back in.

[Papa]

Thanks, good to know.