Bigger, Better Binders – Assembling and Installing Wilwood Superlite 6R Disc Brakes
If you wanted improved braking capabilities “back in the day,” it likely involved a scavenger visit to a local junkyard to search out a set of discs from a Corvette or other disc brake car and maybe score some larger rear drums from a heavy-duty vehicle.
Luckily, those days are long gone and with the power available from late-model engines and the improved stick of modern tires, braking performance is more important than ever. More good news is that you can find brakes to fit pretty much any hot rodding application or custom build. The question today becomes how fast do you want to stop, how much braking capacity do you need, and how do you plan to drive your vehicle?
One company that can help you answer all those questions is Wilwood Engineering. Wilwood has been involved in braking components for nearly half a century and continues to develop, enhance, and provide effective components for enthusiasts, racers, builders, and even other hot rod manufacturers.
Case in point, we were at a shop checking out a ’66 Nova project that was getting a TCI front and rear suspension kit along with big LS power. TCI offers a couple different Wilwood brake systems with its suspension setups, but the Nova owner wanted to step up to the Wilwood Superlite six-piston brake kit, including 12.88-inch vented rotors coated in a heavy-duty Black Electro Coat which provides corrosion protection and looks great.
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- We jumped right to the shiny parts and started to assemble the new Wilwood hubs. The hubs are machined for two lug patterns, 5×4.50- and 5 x 4.75-inch, so make sure to screw the new wheel studs into the right lug pattern for your application. The studs need to be torqued to 77 ft-lbs
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- Wilwood supplies new bearings, of course, so we pulled out the well-used bearing packer and dropped the rear bearing in place followed promptly by the seal…but we were getting ahead of ourselves.
One great thing is that these two companies know each other’s products and offer the correct brackets and components to easily mate everything together. The Wilwood Superlite SR front kit is designed for American muscle cars and classic rods with the capability of serving double duty on the street or the track – certainly a solid choice for a modern muscle machine.
We hung around to follow the assembly and install process of the front disc kit and glad we did as there’s more to consider than simply pulling parts out of the package and popping them on the spindle! Looking for brakes? Click over to Wilwood to find your application!
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- Before installing the new hub, the caliper brackets need to be installed on the TCI spindle. This TCI application features a two-piece spindle and Wilwood supplies a flat bracket to bolt to the spindle assembly, followed by a radial bracket that secures the spindle.
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- The spindle assembly was installed to the TCI tubular control arms, followed by the Wilwood flat bracket. Wilwood emphasizes to confirm that the bracket is absolutely flat, with no machining ridges or interference. Once deemed perfect, apply a touch of red thread locker (on the Wilwood bolts) and torque to 77 ft-lbs.
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- The radial mount is positioned behind the spindle bracket and installs with two M14-2.00 x 30mm bolts, but Wilwood recommends installing one .029-inch shim between the radial mounts. You may need to add or remove a shim to ensure that the caliper is centered on the rotor.
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- With the Wilwood brackets installed on the spindle, we went back to the shiny hub, packed the outer bearing and grabbed the spacer from TCI plus the Wilwood hardware to install the hub. As the nut is tightened, make sure to rotate the hub until you feel a slight bind on the bearings, which indicates that the bearings are seated correctly. Back the nut off about 1/6 to 1/4 of a turn, or sufficiently to allow .001- to .007-inch of end play.
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- This specific Wilwood kit requires the assembly of the rotor to the rotor hat. Hardware is supplied in the form of ¼-20 12-point bolts and washers. It is imperative to torque the bolts to 155 INCH-pounds using an inch-pound torque wrench. They also recommend using a red thread sealer on the bolts as they’re torqued in a criss-cross pattern. If you’re still concerned, the bolts are pre-drilled for .032” safety wire.
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- With the rotor assembled, locate the arrow indicating the rotation due to the cooling fin orientation. Also, the rotor has mounting screws to hold it in place against the hub which must be aligned and final torqued to 85 in-lbs.
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- Install two .035-inch spacers on the radial bracket studs then slide the caliper in place. Tighten the lock nuts temporarily and measure the distance between the rotor face and the caliper surface on both sides of the rotor. The goal is to have the rotor centered.
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- The six-piston calipers are a thing of beauty and designed for a specific side of the vehicle. Note the arrow of rotation on the caliper, but also make sure the larger of the six pistons is positioned at the exit side of the rotor as it spins (the top). This caliper is for the driver’s side.
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- The back of the rotor-to-caliper measurement was .680-inch while the front side was .710-inch for a difference of .015. The nice thing is that by replacing one of the .029-inch shims with a .015-inch got us right into the middle. (Once centered, add red thread sealer to the radial mount bolts and tighten to 77 ft-lbs.)
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- Time to install the pads by removing the pad retainer bolt and sliding each pad into position. Make sure that the top of the brake pad is flush with the outside diameter of the rotor. If not, add or remove shims from the caliper mounting studs. Once confirmed, install the center bridge pad retainer tube and torque the caliper nuts to 30 ft-lbs.
That there is some serious braking power! Next up they will be adding the flex lines and making hard lines to reach up to the Wilwood Master Cylinder. We’ll stop by again to check progress.
