07
With the backing plate removed, now is a good time to
use some brake cleaner and a wire brush to clean the
spindle. After a thorough scrubbing, we masked off the area
the wheel bearings make contact with and gave the spindle a
fresh coat of paint.
08
Since we intend on keeping our 15-inch wheels, we went
with a Wilwood Forged Dynalite Pro Series front brake
kit (PN 140-12458-D). It features 11-inch rotors, which are drilled
and slotted for maximum cooling. The four-piston calipers will
provide plenty of clamping power.09
The Wilwood kit comes with a
two-piece caliper bracket, and
that is the first part to be assembled on
the car. Finger-tighten the bolts holding
the two pieces together until final assem-
bly. Mock-up is first to make sure the
brackets are aligned properly.
12
Two new bolts and nuts are
supplied for the bottom cali-
per bracket bolts. These bolts pass
through the spindle and through the
steering knuckle arm. The lower bolts
are tightened to 40 ft-lb.
10
Included in the kit is the proper
hardware, including spacers
and shims to align the bracket. All cars
require the wide spacer, but some may
require one or more of the 0.015-inch
shims, as seen here. We only needed
one shim.13
Next is the aluminum hub assem-
bly, which is a crucial part of the
lightweight Wilwood disc brake kit.
The first step is threading in the new
1/2-20 wheel studs into place. Keep in
mind that the hub features two bolt
patterns, so be sure to use the pattern
that matches your wheels. For us, it
was the 4 3/4-inch pattern.11
Wilwood suggests using Loctite 271
red threadlocker on all hardware in
the kit. The caliper bracket’s upper bolt
gets torqued to 140 ft-lb.14
The inner wheel bearing is next.
We’ve always had good luck
using the old-school “palm” method
of packing the bearings with grease.
Simply put a blob of grease in your
palm and roll the bearing in it, while
also packing it in the gap between the
bearing race and the cage.38 VETTE 19.07
[ TECH]