{"id":19205,"date":"2015-10-08T09:30:40","date_gmt":"2015-10-08T16:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=19205"},"modified":"2015-10-22T16:36:26","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T23:36:26","slug":"subframes-part-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/subframes-part-four\/","title":{"rendered":"Subframes – Part Four"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"Subframe<\/a>Over the past several issues of \u201cThe Burnout\u201d,<\/em> we\u2019ve been assembling a basic Camaro (Nova) subframe for drag duty.\u00a0 In those segments, we started with a stripped subframe, detailed and powder coated it, installed the solid subframe bushings from Classic Industries and installed the TRZ Motorsports suspension and Classic Industries steering parts.\u00a0 In each of those segments, there was a common thread:\u00a0 The parts were bolt-ons (no fabrication necessary). If you go back and review the articles, you\u2019ll also find there was one other commonality:\u00a0 We used very high quality components that anyone can mail order.\u00a0 That means everything was accessible (no \u201cunobtainium\u201d stuff here).\u00a0 We\u2019re going to continue with that premise in this final segment — high quality, readily available parts and no fabrication necessary during the install.\u00a0 In this issue, we\u2019ll look at installing Baer\u2019s Deep Stage Brake kit (covered in detail earlier in \u201cThe Burnout\u201d<\/em>). Check it out:<\/p>\n

The first step in the brake install is to mount the base caliper brackets to the OEM spindle. These pieces are marked with regard to the side of the car they\u2019re installed.\u00a0 Baer supplies a \u00bd-20X3.0-inch and a \u00bd-20X2.75-inch bolt and lock nut set for each side of the car.\u00a0 The longer bolt is inserted through the spindle into the steering arm closest ot the tie rod.\u00a0 Next, the fasteners are torqued to 85-foot-pounds.<\/p>\n

The second step involves the installation of the brake hubs. These come pre-packed with synthetic grease. There\u2019s no need to add more grease (bonus as far as we\u2019re concerned).\u00a0 Simply add some grease to the seal surfaces and install.\u00a0 The spindle nut should be tightened to approximately 5-10 foot-pounds.\u00a0 Next, spin the hub to seat the bearings.\u00a0 Loosen the nut and then re-tighten to remove all play.\u00a0 Tighten it approximately 1\/16th<\/sup> of a turn (or slightly more) to align the cotter pin holes.\u00a0 This provides a small amount of preload on the bearing. \u00a0Baer includes a new spindle nut and cotter key in their brake package. Install then dust cap (which is sealed by way of an O-ring and simply taps on by way of hand or a rubber mallet).<\/p>\n

Next up, the intermediate caliper bracket is installed with a pair of supplied 9\/16X1.5-inch bolts and washers.\u00a0 They mount to the base caliper bracket.\u00a0 There\u2019s a part number engraved on the bracket. It faces outward.\u00a0 Don\u2019t tighten the fasteners yet!<\/p>\n

Install the rotor (they\u2019re marked left and right) and secure it with a couple of lug nuts.\u00a0 Remove the pads from the calipers and install.\u00a0 What\u2019s up with that?\u00a0 Simple. You\u2019ll need to shim the calipers.\u00a0 The reason for this is to ensure the caliper sits square to the rotor.\u00a0 This compensates for the wide tolerances found in the OEM spindles due to production line machining processes.<\/p>\n

Baer supplies a complete set of marked shims with the brake kit.\u00a0 What you have to do is measure the gap from the rotor to the caliper body at four separate points \u2013 top inside, top outside, bottom inside, bottom outside.\u00a0 When you arrive at the dimensions, then it\u2019s a matter of determining how much shim is required, and where to place it.\u00a0 For example, if the top inside measurement is 0.865-inch and the top outside measurement is 0.905-inch, then there is a difference of 0.040-inch. You need to divide that by two and place the shim between the caliper mount and the intermediate bracket.\u00a0 Pretend the measurement numbers are reversed:\u00a0 0.905-inch inside and 0.865-inch outside.\u00a0 Then you\u2019ll need to shim the intermediate bracket outward by placing an 0.020-inch shim between the intermediate caliper bracket and the base bracket.\u00a0 Sounds a bit complicated, but in practice, it\u2019s very simple.<\/p>\n

By the way, we arrived at out dimensions using a common dial caliper. If you don\u2019t have one in your toolbox, Baer suggests you install the brake pads and use a feeler gauge between the rotor and the pad.\u00a0 Take measurements from the top inside and top outside along with bottom inside and bottom outside.\u00a0 Baer points out there is 0.010-inch minimum clearance between the pad and the rotor, but you should aim for gaps as close to equal on all four measuring points.<\/p>\n

With the shimming process complete, torque the 9\/16X1.50-inch bolts to 100 foot-pounds of torque.\u00a0 Torque the caliper to bracket bolts to 75 foot-pounds.\u00a0 Aside from plumbing (which weren\u2019t not doing here), you\u2019re done!<\/p>\n

That put a wrap on our basic \u201cDrag Duty\u201d subframe build.\u00a0 As you can see, it\u2019s entirely possible to build a high quality front end for your early Camaro or Nova with bolt-on parts.\u00a0 So what have we accomplished?\u00a0 First of all, each and every steering component is brand spanking new.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to concern yourself with 40+ year old components, plus it\u2019s now very easy to adjust toe.\u00a0 The subframe is locked in place via solid body mounts.\u00a0 The control arm package allows for much more positive caster, which means the car will track far better than stock at speed. The suspension doesn\u2019t bind due to the use of Delrin bushings (downstairs) and rod ends (upstairs).\u00a0 It\u2019s lighter overall and chrome moly tubing construction offers considerable strength benefits in comparison to the stock hardware.\u00a0 The brakes are designed specifically for cars such as this (relatively heavy).\u00a0 The brake package is as large as possible and it still fits within the confines of a narrow 15-inch wheel, plus they\u2019re extremely capable of hauling the car down from warp speed.\u00a0 So far so good. And down the road, we\u2019ll show you the shock absorbers we picked.\u00a0 They\u2019re actually matched to the rear suspension and we\u2019ll show you the complete package in another issue.\u00a0 Meanwhile, check out the accompanying photos.\u00a0 The bottom line here is, it\u2019s really not that difficult to set up a super high quality drag duty subframe in the your own home shop.<\/p>\n

Subframes Part I<\/a><\/p>\n

Subframes Part II<\/a><\/p>\n

Subframes Part III<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The first step in the brake setup is the base bracket install. Baer provides Grade 8 fasteners for the job.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Once<\/a>
Once the fasteners are torqued to spec (see the text), you can install the hub. As you can see, this setup includes long \u00bd-inch ARP wheel studs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Baer<\/a>
Baer pre-packs the wheel bearings, so it’s a simple matter to seat the bearing setup and tighten to specs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The intermediate bracket goes on next. It’s marked for orientation. Don’t tighten it yet. You’ll need to shim the caliper.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The rotor is installed and the caliper can be shimmed so that’s square to the rotor (see the text for full details). Sounds difficult, but it’s actually very easy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Subframe27\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Here's<\/a>
Here’s the finished “Drag Duty” subframe. As you can see, we’ve come a long way from the grimy, crusty mess we started with (refer back to the first segment for a refresher!). Best of all, anyone can copy this in the confines of their own garage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In part four of this series, we finish putting together the Drag Duty subframe.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":19206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,11,9],"tags":[2,4800,3405,461,321],"class_list":["post-19205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-how-tos","category-tech-tips","tag-drag-racing","tag-how-tos","tag-subframes","tag-tech-tips-2","tag-wayne-scraba"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Subframe-lead1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-4ZL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19205"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19695,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19205\/revisions\/19695"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}