Front Hub and Brake Upgrade

[mopoole]

Am about to embark on this winter's activity which involves fitting new vertical links, CDD hubs, Wilwood calipers, rear cylinders and new master brake cylinder. I plan to do it in the order, links, hubs, master cylinder then calipers and rear cylinders. Would welcome any advice as to whether that's the best or not.
Looking at the Wilwood upgrade, there seems to be a possibilty of mounting the "bells" (I gather from Chris these are the adaptors for the discs to the hubs) and discs the wrong way round - knowing me I'm very likely to do that. He says that everything will be clear when actually doing it. Has anyone who's fitted these got any instructions or, better still, photos of them fitted which would help a lot.
Many thanks
Maurice

[mike@thenook]

Hi Maurice,

I've done all of this myself, not a difficult job especially if you are using new veritcal links as it will save you the aggravation of pressing out the old stub axles.
The order you suggest is the most sensible on and to be honest it is difficult to get the adaptors the wrong way round - if you run a trial fit of the parts before bolting up you will see where the adaptors need to be with the callipers to lune up correctly with the disc. There are some spacers included too which you may need to use between the adaptors and uprights.
Remember too that when you bleed the Wilwood callipers you bleed from the top only and both sides of the caliper, without this you'll still have air in the system but it does say that in the Wilwood instructions anyway.
Is a very worthwhile job, the CDD parts a so well made and give greater confidence that you have front axles that won't shear!

Bleeding the system is the only dull bit really but I used a Bleed-Eazi kit which takes pressure from a car tyre at no more than 20psi.

Cheers

Mike

[new to this]

Ive got the wilwood brake calipers on mine,still got to fit the ally hubs,fitted ally hubs to the sprint there well made and fit easy

Dave

[mopoole]

Thanks for the confirmation Mike; yes bought new vertical links to avoid the stress (both me and the links) of pressing the old ones out. Will report back when I get it all done; probably in the new year

Regards
Maurice

[mopoole]

Well, have taken the bull by the horns and started; all came apart pretty easily but have hit a - to me - major problem; there are no instructions as to how the bells(adaptors) and discs fit on the hub. By my calculation there are 8 different ways they can fit see diagram which is hopefully self explanatory. Some will be impossible no doubt, but not wanting to spend hours under the wheel arch swapping all around, can anyone who's fitted them give me some idea as to which is correct? Also with regard to the hubs, do I need the dust shield from the old vertical link as it appears difficult to get off?


img680.jpg
Many thanks and apologies for the angle of the diagram

Regards
Maurice

[new to this]

When i fitted mine,theres no bell adaptors,the disc just bolt on to the hubs

Dave

[mopoole]

Well, I'm a little further down the road now, but with one or two bumps along the way, one of which is causing me problems.
New master cylinder in place, primed with a Dorman 14151 Bleeding Tool (took for ages till no more air came out. Easy to do on the bench though so can recommend it). Discs and adaptors finally went together (was option 8 in the end). However hit a problem yesterday when I came to connect the calipers. Allowed silicone fluid to gravitate into them and they both started to leak at the lower, inner brass connectors at the rate of a drip every couple of seconds. The leak is from the brass nut, not the bleed nipple. The two remaining connectors seem to be weeping as well, all with no pressure in the system.
The threads appear to have some sort of sealant on them so am reluctant to try to tighten them as it may destroy the seal and make the leak worse. See attached
Any advice as to a way forward welcomed
Regards
Maurice Caliper Upper Connector.jpg Caliper Lower Inner nipple.jpg

[Bakdraft007]

Hi Maurice,

As a side question, surely by adding such power to the front braking system,the rear brakes would be completely out of balance. Maybe you already have changed the rear drums to something else... if so what have you, or are you going to change them to?

Dave

[Bakdraft007]

I am no expert... but it looks upside down,why would it be fed from the top and bled at the bottom.. surely the bleed should be at the top ( air rises) as Mike described in the second post?

[alan_thomas]

I am no expert... but it looks upside down,why would it be fed from the top and bled at the bottom.. surely the bleed should be at the top ( air rises) as Mike described in the second post?

As Dave says, upside down. I did the same on a Mk4 Cortina back in the 80’s , drove me mad trying to get rid of the spongy pedal. A mate came round, only said two words “Upside down”

[mike@thenook]

Sorry I didn’t see your earlier post but yes, definitely upside down I’m afraid, the two bleed nipples on each calliper must be at the top of the callipers not bottom and both nipples must be bled not just one side.
they should swap over fairly easily now you’ve found which adaptor to use.
When I got mine from Robsport there was only one type of adaptors so it wasn’t really possible to get them wrong but I think maybe the kit you have is a more universal one with more options.

Cheers

[mopoole]

There are 4 bleed nipples on the calipers, 2 at the top(one of which is connected to the hose) and 2 at the bottom and I will be bleeding from the top. It is one of the bottom ones which is leaking. If I remember correctly, previous calipers I've handled (TR5, and previous on the Stag, standard and CCD) have all been fed from the top. Have I got that wrong? The problems I've encountered have been exacerbated by the lack of any instructions as to orientation etc. Are you all saying that the hose should be connected to the bottom of the caliper? Not sure that won't put extra strain on the hose. Thanks for all your comments. Am waiting for the supplier to come back to me and also Wilwood
Maurice
Caliper Outer.jpg

[mike@thenook]

The callipers you have there are different to mine from what I can see, for a start mine are a different shape but also the input is in the middle of the rear of the calliper
Where did you get this kit?

B2F5E3D9-4751-476E-A3F9-5A8FFF3D2B65.jpeg

[mike@thenook]

Also, the discs you have are completely different to mine as fitted to the hubs

EBD3D94B-CFD0-47E4-80C2-CA47AE1A02D2.jpeg 6E4B3C90-C4CF-4659-9F9A-4A10D142AB99.jpeg

[mike@thenook]

Looks to me as though you have some form of general fit kit rather than one specific to the Stag, don’t like the look of those nuts on the inners outer edge of the disc..

Be interested to see what the supplier says (sorry, just saw that you bought from Chris Witor so should be fine)