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AZC Install with Watanabe's and ARP studs


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Hey Guys,

 

I finally splurged and bought the AZC front brakes for my car. In doing this I had to go back to the stock hubs so I dug them out of the corner and refreshed them with new wheel bearings and ARP studs. I went with the Mazda Miata 12mmx1.5mm - 2.75" Studs, ARP PN: 100-7719. They have an identical Knurl and work very well.

 

I am very impressed by the kit it is super easy to install and everything went together well. I applied a generous amount of blue loctite to everything to be on the safe side. Other people have mentioned run out problems. I had .002" of run out on the passengers side and .010" on the drivers side. Hopefully the drivers side will be fine if not I will shim or turn it.

 

The Wantanabe's are a super tight fit and it looks like I need about a 10mm spacer for the front to give me comfortable clearance.

 

Anybody have a suggestion for a place to buy good quality spacers?

 

I know its the same ol same ol but here a few pictures:

DSC_0217_Large.jpg

 

DSC_0219_Large.jpg

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IMHO, you will feel 0.010" of runout. Shim it back under 003" and you will be golden. If you shim it, the next time you put on a new rotor, it will be ready to rock. If you turn it, you will need to turn the next one too. Please give feedback on the brakes. I love my set. It's the single biggest improvement to the car asides from the turbo swap.

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I found runout in the aluminum hat while mounted to the hub, so turning the hub only, may not fix it. Although the "waves" in the hat could be coming from a warped hub, the warp is probably caused by the forces of the four mounting bolts flexing the aluminum hat.

 

I suppose you could turn the aluminum hats inner face, after it is torqued to the hub and that would alleviate the need to shim anything. I assume the rotors are straight to start with. Authentic Wilwood rotors, which I use, are guaranteed to 0.001" I think.

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I hate to ask a stupid question, but from the picture of the left side rotor it appears that the vains on the rotor are pointing backwards. The other installs of this break kit I have seen have the vains pointing in the direction of rotation. Could the rotors possible be installed on the oposite sides or am I not seeing the picture correct?

Summit Racing has all types of spacers available and a great return policy.

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Thanks for the info on the run out guys, Ill go ahead and shim it out..I really didn't know what was acceptable. This is one thing that I really don't like about the setup...for minimal effort and cost AZC could switch the design to use floating rotor hardware, which would be better all around. I may have to work on this :)

 

Baer's spacers look pretty nice, summit has them in stock so looks like ill be going that route. Wanna test these things out this weekend.

 

The rotors are installed via the manufacturers directional markings. As far the the hubs, Dave makes kits for the 280z and the 240z hubs you just have to specify when ordering.

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..for minimal effort and cost AZC could switch the design to use floating rotor hardware, which would be better all around. I may have to work on this :)

 

 

Austin,

 

If you if you decide to make a few of these, I'll be first in line. I was thinking the same thing as I was shimming my last set of rotors.

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I went with the Modern Motorsports / S12W calipers / Watanabe's and needed 16mm spacers. I ended up getting BAER billets from Summit racing

 

http://www.summitracing.com/search/?keyword=baer%20wheel%20spacer&dds=1

 

I needed to have a machine shop turn the centers a little bigger because the MM hubs were a little too big.

 

7-28-09wheelspacer.jpg

 

Everything ended up OK

 

8-9-09004-1.jpg

 

8-9-09009.jpg

 

 

:mrgreen:

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Interesting.... Your not the only person I've talked to who has had large runouts on those AZC kits.
It might be the rotors not the kits per say - I know when I purchased some Wilwood rotors (now on a mates race car) there were run out issues so it might be just the wilwood rotors. I guess that is why AP rotors and the like cost more as maybe they have better tolerances.

 

I found issue with getting calipers/rotor setups to clear the RS Watanabes rims also. I have now got Hi-Spec brake calipers from the UK as these are well made and have a lower profile than any other caliper I looked into. I am using the ultralite 2 pots on the rear with a custom internal drum park brake setup (would not do it again - I would now recommend just purchasing the Hi-Spec SVA calipers with separate park brake build in). I only just received my fronts this week I went for the billet 4 as these are close in spec to the FIA pot calipers ie pad/piston sizing and over all sizing of the caliper.

 

Also the setup I have gone for is not large but larger than the normal Toy/Z31 front setup and 240sx/Z31 rear setup and smaller than the JKS/AZC 12.2 setups. I have gone this way so I could go back to 15" rim if I wanted to + I did not want to over brake the zed and put extra unsprung weight into the car. The Hi-Spec calipers are nice and light and smaller rotors also cuts down the weight. So if I have brake issues I will just add better cooling for more performance from the setup I will be running.

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A sexy clearance picture.....

DSC_0253_Large.sized.jpg

 

This is with a 3/16" stack of washers. I will be running 1/4" Baer spacers.

 

I decided to bite the bullet and buy some "nice" lug nuts. Those are KICS R26 lugs. I have had issues with galling on aluminum wheels, my girlfriends miata wheels got galled bad when the dealership used an impact to tighten the lugs. I inspected the seats on my wheels this go around and noticed a small amount of galling and I usually used a torque wrench. These KICS lugs have floating seats that remain stationary when you tighten....I liked the design and think that they should cure any galling issues. Oh and they also look good :)

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