Big front brakes.

Inspired by the fitting of Holman disks to the rear of van, I have been collecting the components required to upgrade the front of van to Audi A6 312mm vented disks, mintex disks £54 pair, mintex calipers x2 £50 pair, both new old/stock, Epytec brackets/bolts £97, carriers x2 £30 s/hand, refurbished fine, hubs turned down £80, Lockheed pads, £16 new/old, bmw 450mm e36 hoses x2 £14, bearings and studs new last year so fine and refitted, so everything for £340. cheap!

Started work two weeks ago, all came apart except hoses to pipe connections, 30mins with hacksaw, having 1st jammed brake pedal down with a length of wood to seat, no mess!! so far so good but as I went to rebuild with new components found a myriad of suspension faults, both top swivels rubbers split, both bottom swivels, play, track control arm bushs did not look right? as I removed them they fell to bits, metal tubes had broken free a long time ago allowing the cotton reel rubber to scrub out on the front of its location, a.r.b. lower rubbers all but falling apart, upper intact but sloppy fit, wishbone bushs noisy and split, ripped it all out and replaced with new thus doubling the cost of my simple little job! sigh.

However! finished last night, all lookin good, reset the camber with a gunson tool from Simon, caster fine, set tracking by eye, checked it today and spot on? miricule! just got back from a 25 mile run and what a difference! the van feels like its on rails now, the brakes were there straight away, solid pedal, tiny bit vague but stomp on them and you stop in a hurry, bedded in a bit now and very responsive, find myself pulling up short, good brakes! well worth fitting and the handling now is remarkable, an unexpected expense but again worth the effort.

Initially I was not sure if going from a 60mm caliper to 57mm would be a step in the wrong direction but the increased braking area of disk and size of the pads easily outguns the original vw sliding calipers on 256mm disks, which were past their best as were the calipers, you need 16in wheels to fit this kit in, there is approx 15mm clearance between the caliper and rim, dont think a 15in would fit?

Cup of tea, then go set up the rear with camber tool, remarkably easy to use, dont have a tyre wear problem but can see the camber is way off, also tracking is out a tad since I replace the rear bushs, slurpz....


Edited by scrogins - 24 Aug 17 at 15:27

Very nice  Need to upgrade mine soon! After an enthusiastic run my brakes resort to me soiling my seat ,as i jump on the pedal with little effect until they've cooled down again   

Edited by Bromy - 26 Aug 17 at 23:48

7000 miles ago?