Wilwood Question

[ho428]

Looking at a 6 piston front kit. This diagram, page 3 http://www.wilwood.com/PDF/DataSheets/ds617.pdf

say I need 7" radius in my wheels, and the kit says to use 16" wheels. But my 15" wheels have a true 14" (7" radius) inside clearence, yet the Wilwood guy says they won't fit.

Anyone actually measured/checked the fitment dimensions on these things?

[MCB Matt]

From our experience they will NOT fit in your 15's

We do have other wilwood kits, baer kits and stockmstyle kits that will. There is not a big advantage to running a high end kit in a 15" wheel from our experience.

Let me know if you need some suggestions on other kits!

matt

[ho428]

This is a race application, trying to get as much brake as possible inside the rims.

American Racing wheels. Measuring even with the mounting flange it's exactly 14.0" and tapers smoothly out to 14.63" at the outter edge.
Seems like it fits's their 7" radius requirement and the spokes give plenty of clearance from the caliper face.

The kicker was they said I couldn't do a mock up and send them back if they didn't fit. (Said I'd scratch them)
So IMO, they should change the mounting info sheet if a 7" radius won't work.
Why say 16" rims and 7" inside radius? Two completely different things. The 16" has nothing to do with the inside.

[Bryce]

gordon, it sounds like it should fit. Maybe find a local supplier or a buddy that will let you try your wheels.

[ProdigyCustoms]

I just put that brake kit on my Street Racer. If will only cost $40 round trip to send the wheel me the wheel and I will test fit it.

[High Plains Mopars]

In Octobwer '09, PHR did an article on installing these on a '71 Plymouth with 15" wheels http://www.popularhotrodding.com/tech/0910phr_1971_plymouth_satellite/index.html. I'd imagine after that, there was a big boost in sales, and a subsequent run on returns once a percentage of buyers found these kits wold not work with their specific wheel ste up. Clearance with that big a rotor is hit or miss and I'm sure Wilwood does not want to eat any more returns for guys who don't know how to measure their rims. Since the nascar guys run 12.19s, they MAY fit. But there are so many 15" rims out there, it is safer to say they probably wont fit.

A lot of members on here may not remember that back in the growing mucle car era of the '60s, that a growing after market was producing many custom wheels for the predominatly drum brake cars of the era. What was discoverd in the next decade as discs become more prevelant, is that suddenly a larg number of drum brake wheels would not fit disc brake cars because of caliper interference. No doubt there are still any number of these wheels still out there and I'm sure any number of resellers, as well as the manufacturer, do not want Dilbert Dumbutt call them up saying the tech line told them these would work on their car but after bolting, hammering, and torching to get them to fit, the still don't fit inside his vintage Superior Mesh wheels that he had sitting in his uncle's cousin's best friend's sister's garage for the last 30 years because they never fit disc brakes to begin with, but he is demanding a full refud on something he has beat the snot out if in the meantime.

[Wilwood Tech]

I couldn't help but weigh in on this thread since the question is really a Wilwood Tech question. If your wheel measurements are correct and I assume they are, your wheels should clear the brakes. We realize that the kit in question will fit a majority of 15" wheels designed for disc brakes; however, there is always the exception, hence we recommend 16" wheels. That notwithstanding, your thread has actually caused us to reexamine our wheel size recommendations. Going forwand, we will state something to the effect that the kits will fit some 15" wheels. We haven't worked out the exact language yet, but you will soon see some changes on our web site and in our data sheets that are shipped with the kits. I hope this has been a help to you and the other forum members.

Ken H