Lotus Europa Wilwood Rear Disc Brake Upgrade Kit

[Dave Richardson]

I would be interested in purchasing a Wilwood based rear disk brake conversion kit.  Are they still available?

[Chuck Nukem]

Serge and I are both working independently on this project. What series car do you have?

[Dave Richardson]

1974 TCS Type 74. Thanks.

[Chuck Nukem]

Serge will undoubtedly be finished before I am. He has a great set up and we actually happened upon the same integral parking brake wilwood calipers for the rear.

I am setting out to make my rear kit work with the TCS wheels and retain the parking brake. I am making aluminum hats and using OEM front rotors with the centers milled out to take fixed or floating hardware from AP. The shorter hat I pictured is a prototype for the front.

The trouble is the rotor can only be pushed back so far before it hits the trailing arm. The special p brake calipers leading actuator hits the inside of the wheel. I am going to machine a new low-profile arm with a ball socket to replace it. Wheel spacers would help matters but I am trying to avoid them if possible. If you don't need a p brake that would greatly simplify things.

[Bainford]

Looking good, Chuck.

Have you considered a vented rotor option for the front, or is that an unnecessary complication?

[BDA]

That looks great, Chuck!!! 

[Chuck Nukem]

That looks great, Chuck!!! 

Thanks!!

Looking good, Chuck.

Have you considered a vented rotor option for the front, or is that an unnecessary complication?

I have. Wilwood makes the Powerlite radial in two sizes so you could run ventilated if you go with the larger size

https://www.wilwood.com/Calipers/CaliperList?subname=Powerlite

Ideally I would tweak the location of the ventilated rotor by adjusting the offset of the aluminum hat so the same bracket could accommodate both offsets.

Long term I am designing a new aluminum hub which accepts the rotor via AP floating (or fixed) hardware instead of the traditional 4 bolts. This saves the weight of the bolts and the associated material needed. I have been scratching my head about this because the normal aluminum hubs are plentiful and cheap, so this is my logical evolution to that set up. Another feature I want to integrate is a bearing spacer tube (similar to the rear bearings) because I have read of improvements in stability. I hope to have some real parts to show everyone soon

Nietzsche argued it is the tool which insists on cutting rather than the user's genuine proclivity to act...I believe his analogy was the knife of a murder is the ever suggestive force that demands use from its owner... It's not that I need this hub... but rather that my machine lusts for chips

[literarymadness]

Anybody who can quote from Nietzsche is my kind of friend.  You might want to post your disc brake progress also on the Rear Disc Brakes post from a month ago. It have over 2100 hits; so there is a lot of interest in the subject and it might be easier for people to find than in the classifieds. I'm sure a lot  more people would want to follow your progress. But what you are doing looks great.

[gideon]

Chuck, that looks interesting.  I applaud the desire to save weight and reduce the number of parts.  FWIW, I was thinking of buying the uprated front hub and stub axle kit from Canley Classics, which I hope will solve the stability issues with the OE hub and stub axle.

https://www.canleyclassics.com/?product=uprated-front-hub-and-stub-axle-kit

I'd be interested to hear if anybody else has this kit?

[Chuck Nukem]

Anybody who can quote from Nietzsche is my kind of friend.  You might want to post your disc brake progress also on the Rear Disc Brakes post from a month ago. It have over 2100 hits; so there is a lot of interest in the subject and it might be easier for people to find than in the classifieds. I'm sure a lot  more people would want to follow your progress. But what you are doing looks great.

Thanks Literary

Chuck, that looks interesting.  I applaud the desire to save weight and reduce the number of parts.  FWIW, I was thinking of buying the uprated front hub and stub axle kit from Canley Classics, which I hope will solve the stability issues with the OE hub and stub axle.

https://www.canleyclassics.com/?product=uprated-front-hub-and-stub-axle-kit

I'd be interested to hear if anybody else has this kit?

Thanks! JB has it and I've seen positive praise come from him and others.

[jbcollier]

Yup, got it and it's very strong. Two large, sealed, tapered rollers with perfect machining mean no play whatsoever.

[gideon]

Wow. Thanks for the pictures.

[lotusfanatic]

Thanks JB!

Very shiny! 

[jbcollier]

I have a couple of spare hubs coming and I'm going to see if I can do a vented rotor conversion.  I found some Toyota rotors that might the ok-ish.  Busy as heck though so don't hold your breath waiting for news.

[Blitzen]

JB, are those their trunnionless uprights? How do you like them?  Also what rotors are those?