[DeTomaso] Wilwood Brakes WTF????

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/15/13 4 58 23, pantera at cox.net writes:


> I bought a set of Wilwood brakes from one of our local vendors back in 
> the 1990s. and when checking the runout ("wobble") of the installed rotors, 
> several were found to be in excess of 0.050", over 10 times the usual 
> working range.  This will produce the juddering you spoke of.  
> 
>>>I had the same issue, and fixed it by having the rotors turned on the 
car.   I have zero runout now.   The juddering I experienced on the track was 
short-term, caused by the problem that I had picked up.
> 
> >Thanks again to S O Bill for the help, we spent a lot of time on his 
> lathe correcting the misgivings.  It seems that although the kit was stamped 
> "Wilwood", the rotors were actually cloned by a pacific rim company, not 
> sourced from Wilwood.
> 
>>>I have to wonder where my rotors (which came as part of a kit from 
Pantera Performance Center) really come from?   I do intend to upgrade them to 
curved-vane, slotted discs.   Just not this week!
> 
> >Also, get rid of the 2 psi residual pressure valves ASAP, they belong on 
> a car that has the master cylinder physically lower than the calipers, as 
> in the 'ol T-bucket street rods. They will typically drop the master brake 
> assy below the floor so as to hide it and present an uncluttered firewall.
> 
>>>Dennis included them with his kit.   I have to say that I drove a 
Pantera that had a Hall JFZ system (which is effectively the same) without these 
valves, and it suffered greatly from pad knockback.  If you drove down the 
road for ten minutes, the first time you stepped on the pedal it would go 
halfway to the floor, as the initial travel was used to reposition the pads 
against the discs.   Subsequent stops would deliver a nice, firm pedal, until 
you drove for some distance without using the brakes.   It was very unnerving 
not really knowing where the braking was going to begin.   The RPVs totally 
eliminate that, which I suspect is why they were included in the system.

There are probably better ways to handle the situation; one would be fully 
floating rotors.   I will probably be upgrading my brakes at some point, and 
slotted, curved-vane, floating rotors are high on the list, along with 
six-piston calipers.
> 
> >Hope this is of some help.
> 
>>>Indeed!
> 
> >Congrats on the upcoming nuptials, BTW,
> 
>>>Thanks!   Have to make sure both Panteras are there to celebrate with 
us!

Mike