how much clearance should i have between the caliper and rotor face.

[67cougnut]

I will be thinking about this for the rest of the weekend till I hear back from gateway OR baer. I have a set of the Track 4 calipers and with the rotors and calipers mounted I have .45mm of clearance on the front face and 1.75mm on the back face.(sorry for using metric but these are the only feeler gauges i had at the moment). I looked and there is no way to shim the caliper to center it. matter a fact if i shim it it would make the front clearance problem worse. the rotors sent in the kit measure out at 1.105" thick. the slot on the caliper measures 1.189" which only leaves me .084" of clearance with only a little in the front and more in the back.

Ive never had a set of baer brakes before but in general i know that disc brakes tend to have or end up with a little bit of wobble.my concern is not enough clearance and once it comes just a tad out of true this may start hitting the caliper. since these are a "fixed" design as opposed to "floating" i have to make sure its all correct.

so my question is whats the deal? are these rotors so thick that they are not suppose to warp or just come out of true just a little bit? I took some pics they aren't the greatest but hopefully it will help. thanks in advance!

* will have the pics posted up as soon as they upload

[67cougnut]

front face pic:
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2010/11/caliperclearfront-1.jpg

rear face pic:
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2010/11/caliperclearrear-1.jpg

[MrQuick]

you should have more than that....are your lug nuts on?


you should be able to shim the mounting bracket to get you more room.

[67cougnut]

yeah i put all the lug nuts on and and ran them down tight to simulate the wheel being on there. If i shim it , it will pull the caliper closer to the problem side. this kit had me use centering rings to center the rotor on the hub and as soon as i did that the problem was there.I'm pretty sure they didnt account for these rings shoving the rotor out just a little more. well it looks like i will have to pull it back apart and have a the machine shop take off the appropriate amount off of the caliper bracket to center it.

[Bryce]

The spacers/washers should go between the caliper and bracket that would move caliper out.

[67cougnut]

there is only two mounting points as you see here where the caliper bracket mounts to the spindle putting a spacer there would only make the front clearance worse.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2010/11/calipermount1-1.jpg

then here is the other mounting point where you see the two shinny allen head bolts putting a spacer there would only move the caliper up doing nothing for the side to side clearance.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2010/11/calipermount2-1.jpg

thats why the brackets will have to be machined to gain the required clearance.

[MrQuick]

correct with the radial mounting brackets. are they the same left to right? could they be flipped? just wondering before you break out the Bridgeport.

[Bow Tie 67]

Baers rotors should not warp, I would be more worried about slight play in the front axle during hard cornering. The pad will wear down the rotor and create more clearance. I'm curious how much clearance is needed, subscribed.

[67cougnut]

correct with the radial mounting brackets. are they the same left to right? could they be flipped? just wondering before you break out the Bridgeport.

brackets are side specific, and reversing them or fliping them around will not help. I probably wont hear from gateway or baer till monday and im just waiting to see which of the two will make good on this(gateway sells the kit with baer brakes so technically i bought everything from gateway, but i have had a few technical questions that baer helped me out with). i could go local and have the machine work done and avoid waiting ( i spent a lot of money on this whole setup and would rather have them make good and re-anodize or powder coat which ever they use after the corrections have been made)but i have had a ton of problems with this kit which im sure if gateway has made notes and corrects them it shouldnt be a problem for future users of this suspension . if any ford users are thinking of this kit i will be glad to inform you of everything needing to be done.

[67cougnut]

talked to baer today. they are going to shave just a little off of my driver side bracket and the passenger side had the same problem just on the inboard side of the rotor so i will be able to shim that out. so in the end it will leave me with 1.10mm spacing on each side which is = .043 on each side.

[Bryce]

Thats great news. Did they explain what the real issue is?

[BOBBYA312]

Manufacturing tolerances?

[67cougnut]

Manufacturing tolerances?

yessir! but baer was not at fault it was the maker of the spindle.