How many with front calipers that are in the front of the wheel?

[nova65ss]

I am working on some Wilwoods for the front of my Nova that are the 4 piston Superlites. They are pretty big and are hitting the control arms at full lock. One way to solve the problem is flipping the brackets and calipers side to side and moving them to the front of the wheel rather than the rear. I already talked to WW and they said that is fine but I am wondering how it would look?

Anyone have pics of what I am looking to do? Thanks,

[sik68]

If that's the only solution you got, I don't think it would look bad at all.. I'd check out any of the high end car mfr's for caliper pics.

[Apogee]

There are plenty of OE's that move the calipers around depending on the configuration of everything...the only real no-no is between 4:00 and 8:00 as they're much more suceptible to damage that low and tend to be impossible to bleed. It won't look like everybody else's, but that's not necessarily a bad thing IMHO.

Tobin
KORE3

[greencactus3]

caliper location is usually just a packaging issue.
technically at th 6 oclock position would yield the lowest unsprung mass so it is better, but usually that is hard to fit with the balljoints.

then there's the racecars with 2 calipers, 1 at 3 and 9 oclock.

i have read a paper on how thinking about bearing loads alone, the best location would be the rearside lower quadrant

[1968CamaroSS_Sam]

I had a theory when I was planning out my brakes on my Camaro. I thought that functionally would be better with something between 12 and 7 o-clock (forward caliper) would be best. My thinking was that brakes would be used most when the vehicle is in a forward motion and dust and debris would be falling off the rotor and pads. Gravity would pull it off and away from the rotor with less landing back on caliper and pads.

If mounted on the 5 to 1 o-clock position. Gravity and vehicle motion direction would tend to deposit more dust and debris back onto the caliper and pads.

This was just a mental theory I had. Not sure if there is much relationship in caliper positioning, and in keeping components cleaner thus increasing longevity. Wow, this truly brought out the nerdy engineer in me.

With all that said...I ended putting mine about 1 o-clock because I love the asthetics of it. Go figure.

[GBodyGMachine]

My thought has always been this....

There is a force created when the brakes are applied on a vehicle. You are trying to stop a rotation.

If the caliper is mounted rearward and above the point of rotation (wheel/spindle), you will get a pulling (downward) effect.

If the caliper is mounted forward and above the point of rotation, you will get a lifting effect. Think of it like the rotor trying to crawl above and over the caliper.

Thats why I figured the calipers on most vehicles were mounted above and behind the point of rotation.

Jeff

[mjoc1]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^+2 He's right they need to be mounted some place between 7- 12 for the system to be the most effective.

Mike

[nova65ss]

Thanks for all of your help I think they look fine and would of never paid it any attention had I not tried them in the rear first .