I got around to doing a couple of things to my car today. One was the Fastbrakes kit and the other was testing the PCV e-vac for vacuum.

Fastbrakes kit:
I never got any instructions with the kit, so I had to play around with things for a bit to make sure it went together properly.

For all you people who don't wanna spend the extra time thinking about what goes where and in what orientation, I wrote a little install guide to help smooth things along.

The kit includes:
.(2) 11" rotors drilled to 4x100 lug pattern
.(2) caliper bracket relocation brackets.
.(4) M10x1.25x40mm bolts
.(4) M12? washers

The kit doesn't include any lock washers, so you'll need to reuse the old ones with the old bolts and buy (4) M10 lock washers. Use a lock washer and regular washer for each bolt.

The stock M10 bolts are used to secure the relocation bracket to the hub.

The included M10 bolts are used to secure the caliper bracket to the relocation bracket.

1.) Caliper relocation bracket orientation.


2.) Caliper bracket mock up.


3.) Rotor hub-centric ring. Beveled side sits on the hub.






4.) The pads are tiny. The positioning is pretty dead on the edge of the rotor tho. Pad wear will definitively tell me if it really is or not. I think Brian should adapt the kit to use the ITR's rear calipers b/c the pads are taller.


5.) Re-installing the caliper onto the caliper bracket is kinda tough b/c of the extra distance that you have to stretch the parking brake cable. You can finesse it on, but I recommend undoing the brake line stay behind the trailing arm and releasing the parking brake cable from the caliper and removing the horseshoe clip to release it from the caliper all together. It's easy to put back on with a screwdriver, so make the install easy on yourself and undo everything holding the caliper back.

You have to give up using the parking brake shields unless you want to reshape them to clear the parking brake mechanism. Even then, it still probably won't cover the entire mechanism like it used to.


6.) Finished.



PCV e-vac:
It was a flop of an experiment. I measured the vacuum at the header collector and it was at atmospheric pressure during idle and no load revving. We also tested it while under load and it momentarily hit 3" Hg of vacuum, but that was it.

You definitely shouldn't be using a muffler, long exhaust, cat, or anything else that inhibits exhaust flow and creates back pressure.

I'll test it again on the dyno with the race pipe installed.


Modified by IN VTEC at 11:33 AM 3/8/2004

 

nice install.

the only thing to me is that about half of the rotor isnt being used.

 

ya whats the point if your not upgrading the caliper? its still only gripping the same amount it was on the smaller rotors right?

 

well the larger rotor still reduces fade. personally, im gonna wait until he adapts the kit for the itr rear rotors. i have the 11" front kit he makes. does anyone know if itr rear calipers and stock da or dc calipers readily interchange?

 

great install!!!!

 

The bolt pattern on the ITR rear caliper is narrower and the caliper and caliper bracket are taller to accomodate a taller, but slightly narrower pad.

It wouldn't be all that hard to adapt a relocation bracket to mount the ITR rear caliper bracket. If you guys go to the fastbrakes site, you can submit the request for that application under the support link. If enough people request the app, then he'll be more likely go to the trouble of machining and mocking up a bracket to use the ITR rear caliper.

The biggest issue with providing a kit with the ITR rear calipers is that the ITR rear calipers are hard to come by and I haven't heard of any of substitutes from elsewhere in the Honda family. That could make it a pretty expensive mod and shy some people away from it.

 

I read through some old posts on the Fastbrakes rear kit b/c I have an issue with the kit, and I'm not so sure anymore that Brian can physically put together a kit using the same rotors with the ITR rear calipers. The ITR rear calipers are probably too tall to mount on a relocating bracket and still clear the hub.

Reference post:
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=76200

The issue I had is that the pads are only grabbing on the outer half of the pad. I'll post a picture of it later on. It's like that on both sides.

If I can't fix the problem, then I'm selling the kit and putting the stock ones back on.

 

rear calipers are hard to get just go to any auto parts store that sells refurbished calipers. there used but with new working parts.

 

Caliper pistons are fine. I think the calipers are being cocked over b/c of the pull from the e-brake cable.

 

Have you talked to Brian about other rear caliper options yet? I'd be interested to hear what he had to say. yeah yeah i know... i can call him myself.

~ I had his big rear brake kit on my '99 Si and enjoyed every minute of having them.

 

NIIIIIICE

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by turbogeekDA6 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">well the larger rotor still reduces fade. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I would love to meet some who actually faded rear brakes on a FWD car with decent pads and a well mainainted brake system.

 

Rear rotor heat is definitely not an issue. THe only time they ever get real hot is if a rear caliper seizes.

 

i never said that rear brake fade was a problem, only that a larger rotor would reduce fade as compared to a smaller one, in theory. we were all merely speculating the potential benefits of the kit. since brake fade obviously isnt a true benefit, i will share what else i know. when i ordered the front kit i talked to brian about the 11" rear kit too. he said that the car would have a tendenct to nosedive on hard stops with the big front brakes. he said the 11" rear kit helps to maintain a more balanced car. in autox weight transfer under braking dramatically affects the way the car behaves. this must be the real purpose for the kit. i think replacing the puny factory disks is a good enough reason to get it.

 

Pics: You can see that the pads are only being about half used. The problem is worse on the passenger-side than the driver-side rear brake. I'm gonna call Fastbrakes today and maybe Brian can give me a quick and dirty solution/suggestion on the problem.

 

Brian was really kind and helpful. He ended up overnighting me a set of instructions and a whole set of fasteners b/c I was missing the socket head cap screws (which I really didn't need anyways - more on that later).

It turns out that I only had to shim the caliper bracket to move it towards the outside of the car more. I used a pair of washers from the ones I already had for that.

The socket head cap screws, as I found out from the instructions, are meant to help with a clearance problem b/w the caliper bracket and the head of the bolts used to secure the adapter bracket to the trailing arm. I didn't have that issue, so I didn't use any of the new fasteners Brian sent me. Maybe he'll want them back.

 

keep us updated
I'd like to know if stopping performance is increased at all
and if your issues were resolved

 

It's getting better. The parking brake cable has much better feel now and so does the braking.

Passenger-side


Passenger-side rotor/pad - it's getting there...hopefully the pad will even out and start contacting fully.


Driver-side


Since my exhaust is gone....an odd shot.

 

it seems that the bracket is not mounting the caliper perfectly parallel with the brake rotor

i saw similar uneven wear when i did my 11" front incorrectly

the pads are going to wear funny, and new pads will also have only part of the surface touching till it "wears in"

I would try to get the caliper mounted better

 

did you notice any chatter, or pulsing in the brake pedal?

 

I ran the car for like two weeks with the pads cocked over before I fixed it two days ago. The pads were a little unparallel with the backing plate, so I'm gonna let them wear in for a week or two before deciding whether I need to mess with it more.

I'm not driving the car much on the street b/c I have this thing:


The braking is smooth as butta with much less front weight transfer than when the rears were all jacked up.

 

thats a sexy turn down

post a lil vid
i wanna hear that b!tch scream

 

For future reference, you need this 7mm hex head socket to use the shallow socket head cap screw bolts. I think Brian needs to include that tool in the kit b/c it's inconvenient to not include it in the kit.

http://www.ipdusa.com/Products...D=629

We haven't been able to find one in any local hardware store until Adam randomly brought one over to do his brakes on his Volvo.

 

I will actually be calling him soon...

You must grind away at the rear caliper brackets, and... well there is a bunch of goofy other stuff you need to worry about like correct shiming and so on... I thought his instructions were rather poor, so I will most likely be submitting a new set to him for review