Wilwood Rear Brakes with a REAL parking brake?
Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 11:23 pm
Wilwood Parking Brakes on an Alfa transaxle.
The rear brake calipers are a weak point of the Alfa transaxle, They are difficult to work on or adjust, and are unreliable to boot. It is the mechanical parking brake function of the caliper that makes them unreliable and prone to sticking and seizing..
While you can replace the rear calipers with a number of aftermarket calipers, these lose the parking brake function. Since you need a parking brake to register the car in most states(USA), these aren’t an option.
The only parking brake worth a damm, IMHO is the kind you find in the Alfa Spider and some other vehicles; a drum brake hidden inside the top hat of a disc brake rotor.
Wilwood makes a number of kits to convert big American muscle car with rear drums to rear disc brakes. These kits retain a parking brake function by placing a drum brake style parking brake inside the disc brake rotor. Wilwood makes these kits with both solid and vented rotors. Follow this link to see more.
http://www.wilwood.com/BrakeKits/Pages/12/index.asp
I think this assembly would fit on the Alfa transaxle. I have done some measurements and the bolt pattern for the stub axles, is a square 60 mm(2 1/3 inches), the space we have to work in, from the transaxle case to the base of the CV Joint is 77mm( 3 inches ).
If all this works out we would end up with rear Wilwood brake calipers, a choice of rotors( solid, vented, floating) and a real parking brake.
Is anybody else interested in doing this ? If so could we approach Wilwood as a group ? . Dose anybody on this list have any contacts at Wilwood Brakes in California? If necessary I can supply an empty transmission case, stub axles, drive axles and other parts for a prototype.
Bye for now
Milanoguy
1987 Milano
Houston Texas, USA
The rear brake calipers are a weak point of the Alfa transaxle, They are difficult to work on or adjust, and are unreliable to boot. It is the mechanical parking brake function of the caliper that makes them unreliable and prone to sticking and seizing..
While you can replace the rear calipers with a number of aftermarket calipers, these lose the parking brake function. Since you need a parking brake to register the car in most states(USA), these aren’t an option.
The only parking brake worth a damm, IMHO is the kind you find in the Alfa Spider and some other vehicles; a drum brake hidden inside the top hat of a disc brake rotor.
Wilwood makes a number of kits to convert big American muscle car with rear drums to rear disc brakes. These kits retain a parking brake function by placing a drum brake style parking brake inside the disc brake rotor. Wilwood makes these kits with both solid and vented rotors. Follow this link to see more.
http://www.wilwood.com/BrakeKits/Pages/12/index.asp
I think this assembly would fit on the Alfa transaxle. I have done some measurements and the bolt pattern for the stub axles, is a square 60 mm(2 1/3 inches), the space we have to work in, from the transaxle case to the base of the CV Joint is 77mm( 3 inches ).
If all this works out we would end up with rear Wilwood brake calipers, a choice of rotors( solid, vented, floating) and a real parking brake.
Is anybody else interested in doing this ? If so could we approach Wilwood as a group ? . Dose anybody on this list have any contacts at Wilwood Brakes in California? If necessary I can supply an empty transmission case, stub axles, drive axles and other parts for a prototype.
Bye for now
Milanoguy
1987 Milano
Houston Texas, USA