alloy four pot calipers for under 10" rims opinions/experiance needed!
Turbo Mini Forums

hi all me yet again :) i'm considering going the route of vented disks & alloy 4 pot calipers to go uder my reverse rims,

what brands & experiance's have you chaps had, i've heard of some alloy calipers corroding so new seals & pistons are a waste as the caliper is fooobared! this is'nt to appealing to me as my car is my daily-driver

i presume a 7.9" vent disks would be the upgrade for me to go for?

my current setup is 7.5" s-disks & calipers which is'nt bad but with a turbo motor & me having serious thoughts of trackdays etc i feel i could do with a reliable upgrade!

i've done a search for info on alloy calipers but not found owt! cheers chaps

SKYLINES ARE LIKE CLITS, EVERY FLANGE SEEMS TO HAVE ONE: see this sticker on my silvia

the Search-section on this forum is blummin superb & simple to use, unlike some other forums, without the search-section & the help of this bunch of chaps on here i'll never be able to !!!Start the day with a 998cc turbo!!! :) i'm getting closer though!

Tom Fenton says: I have it all, make me an offer

i think very few (if any) vented 4 pots will go under reverse rims, lots will fit under various 10" alloys, but the reverse rims have a smaller ID, or so I am told...

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

really! oh cack-pants i may have to get alloys then :( not the biggest gripe though if i gain better brakes

so i should sort some cheeap but wide 6x10 alloy rimage 1st, thats cool

i know turbodave ran s-disks but with grooved disks but i still think the cooper setup is a bit aged for a turbo engine any recommendations of whats decent

so far i've seen minisport have new calipers
minispares

i cant afford KAD parts are there any other lightweight braking options

a friend has minispares calipers & they seem good

SKYLINES ARE LIKE CLITS, EVERY FLANGE SEEMS TO HAVE ONE: see this sticker on my silvia

the Search-section on this forum is blummin superb & simple to use, unlike some other forums, without the search-section & the help of this bunch of chaps on here i'll never be able to !!!Start the day with a 998cc turbo!!! :) i'm getting closer though!

Tom Fenton says: I have it all, make me an offer

I got mine on the bay for 150 inc P+P
Had em for 2 months now and im still runnin drums. Me uncle had nicked me disc hubs.
Mini spares dey are.

Youll find a set for cheap.

Back once again like a renegade master

I use KAD 4 pots, Bought them because! and never regretting them

save up! There ace

Lightweight racer coming soon.

I have also looked into this as I would like some fine brakes behind my reverse rims but as had been said there's very little that goes behind these wheels. I think with the KADs you can only use a solid disk no bigger than 7.5" and you need a 9mm spacer for that! I'm not wanting to run arches (technically illegal I know) so the 9mm would really push the wheels out beond the borderline of needing arches where I am now.

i presume most of you are running metro turbo setups then with big wheels

those that are running alloys calipers,

what are your thoughts on them?

shall i opt for a set & a loss on my wallet


or shall i find as many ways as i can to upgrade the setup i have?

cheers all

SKYLINES ARE LIKE CLITS, EVERY FLANGE SEEMS TO HAVE ONE: see this sticker on my silvia

the Search-section on this forum is blummin superb & simple to use, unlike some other forums, without the search-section & the help of this bunch of chaps on here i'll never be able to !!!Start the day with a 998cc turbo!!! :) i'm getting closer though!

Tom Fenton says: I have it all, make me an offer

might be worth a knowledgable person like turbodave or tom f helping decipher a brake efficiency graph of the upgraded cooper setup versus a vented setup - remember your car wont be very heavy though dave

I am using minispares 4 pot calipers and carbon metalic pads on my 7.5 inch discs. It had all the brake power I needed and did not fade one bit after many laps on the track in Norway that are hardest on brakes. my discs turned blue:)

Edited by miniminor63 on 14th Aug, 2007.

Hi guys.

I'm restoring an old Mini Van with a seriously modded turbo motor but in true stealth style I wanted to keep 10 inch wheels without arches to give me that classic look.

I've got a set of 4.5 x 10 'S' rims and a few years ago I sold a pair of cast iron Metro 4 pots that had been professionally machined to fit under 10's. However, before selling them I took all the details of the mods.

Last year I managed to convert a set of metro calipers myself very easily at home. These are fitted with a metro hose conversion and run on 7.5 inch drilled and grooved Tarox 'S' discs with 7 mm spacers between the caliper and hub just to centralise the Greenstuff pads.

The main issue is the clearance between the inside of the 10 inch wheel rim and the outer two caliper pots which need bevelling off. The caliper bolt holes also need to be press fitted with interference cast iron plugs to enable the bolting position to move further into the wheel centreline. There are three bleed nipples per caliper on the cast iron 4 pot set up. The inboard two are ok but the outboard nipple needs to be replaced with a short machine screw otherwise it sticks out too far into the wheel rim.

Not for the faint hearted I know - especially if you're not happy to machine down caliper halves and are worried about hitting the fluid transfer port in the outboard caliper. Best to get a couple of pairs and do a trial run or get a machine shop to do it - they're quit cheap to buy and it takes about a day to do the mods, including knocking up the blanking plugs.

I've done this successfully by ensuring absolute cleanliness, replacing all seals between the calipers with new and by doing a pressure test.

Good as new at a cost of about £70 including cost of st steel pistons and piston seals. Not that much heavier than 2 pots but considering I'm using 'lighter than alloy' steel rims the calipers are about a quarter of the cost of Ali.

I could post details of the mods if there's enough interest.

Food for thought.

Minivanless, but reluctantly happy living with the decision. There'll be another one day.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=minimadmotorman#p/u

i have done the vented disc and metro 4 pot all machined down and they do fit 10" wheels

BUT

reverse rims do not fit. not even close.

i have reverse rims and the only brakes i have found are either drums, 7" cooper discs or 7.5" cooper S discs.

would be interesting to try the Fiesta calipers with reverse rims but just cant see it working.

As above, nothing really fits benhind the bowl shaped reverse rims other than 4 pots/solid discs with a spacer behind the wheel.

I can't see why modded metro 4 pots wouldn't fit under reverse rims if I can get them to fit under a 4.5 in 'S' wheel.

The 4.5 in 'S' wheel uses the same centre as a reverse rim its just that on a reverse rim, the centre is fitted 'back to front' so that the larger offset of the finished wheel is biased to the outboard side of the drive flange rather than the inboard side as it is on the 4.5 in S wheel.

This should mean it's easier to fit modded metro 4 pots on a reverse rim if they'll go under a 4.5 S wheel.

The pic shows a modded metro 4 pot caliper bolted in its fitted position inside a spare 4.5 in S wheel undergoing restoration. It fits with 3mm clearance and no wheel spacer. The drive flange is in its normal position inside the wheel. I've only used spacers on the caliper bolts to set the pad clearances.

It is also possible to convert reverse rims to 4.5 in 'S' wheels by unstitching the 8 large spot welds that hold the wheel centre to the rim then turning the centres round and welding them back up. The tyre valve hole needs blocking and re-drilling so that it comes out on the outboard side. I have a wheel that I have done this to and you can hardly tell the difference. The issue here is ensuring deep pen welds and alignment so that you dont get a major inbalance. Beauty is that they don’t protrude past the standard wheel arch line at all, even with 165x70/10 Yoko’s.

It's an interesting thought considering 4.5 in 'S' wheels sell so well and are about 4-5 times the cost of reverse rims.

Richard.

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Minivanless, but reluctantly happy living with the decision. There'll be another one day.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=minimadmotorman#p/u