Wilwood rear calipers hit my Weld wheels

Old 05-23-2010, 09:39 AM
  #1  
markdunlap
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Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: central Illinois
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Default Wilwood rear calipers hit my Weld wheels

I just replaced the rear drum brakes on my 9" Ford rear end with Wilwood disc brakes. I have Weld wheels that are 15" wide with 7.5" back space.
This is a drag race application. When I bolted on the wheels I got 2 surprises. The Wilwood rotors bolt to aluminum hats that are 1/2" thick, where my drums were only 1/8" thick. This moves my tire out 3/8" on each side, reducing my clearance to the fenders. It was tight there already.

But the worse surprise is the calipers actually touch the inside of the wheels and they won't even turn when I bolt them up. I suspect the exteme offset of the wheels if the problem. In talking to Wilwood they suggested changing to wheels with different offset. Of course I didn't want to hear this as that means I would have to shorten the rearend, etc. I asked if there was enough material on the callipers to carefully remove to get clearance. I was told that they could not tell me that, but consider .060" clearance as adequate
.
Just thought I might save someone else a headache in the future.

Anyone ever have this problem? Anyone fix it by clearancing the calipers?

I would have normally bought Strange brakes but this car already has Wilwood on the front and I thought it would be better if both ends were same brand. Also I found these new on Racing Junk for a very good price.

A friend of mine has the same brakes and wheels on the back of his race car and has 1/4" clearance, but his offset is only 4.5"
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