demon Posted May 10, 2004 Share Posted May 10, 2004 I'm running Arizona Z Car's wilwood front and rear brake kit. I am also using 3/4" bumpsteer spacers in the front. At certain limits of steering the control arm is touching the rotor as seen by the groove in the picture below. Has anyone else had this problem? I have ground as much as I am comfortable grinding from the lip of the control arm...the only other solution I could see would be to shim the hat -> hub mount but that doesn't seem particularly safe to me. Any ideas? [/img] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluto Posted May 10, 2004 Share Posted May 10, 2004 Uhhh... wow I'm, surprised this hasnt popped up sooner? There has to be more than a few people with this setup. I'm going to be doin almost the exact thing to my car shortly and thats a disturbing picture.. Sam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted May 10, 2004 Share Posted May 10, 2004 Send DAve that Pic and see what he has to say. He has been very helpful to me. Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted May 10, 2004 Share Posted May 10, 2004 I think that is why Juan says to switch to 280 hubs. More offset. Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demon Posted May 10, 2004 Author Share Posted May 10, 2004 Well I just spoke with Dave at Arizona Z Car and showed him the above picture - he basically said that any part of the control arm outboard of the balljoint is extraneous and can be ground down. I am a *little* concerned about doing this but he seems to have sold quite a few of these and used them himself which provides SOME reassurance. Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted May 10, 2004 Share Posted May 10, 2004 I thought John had already ground off the end of the control arm for clearance. Am I mistaken? I'd seriously consider the 280 hubs. They are slightly heavier, but if I'm right and they do have the offset needed, then that would be a preferable solution IMO. I just hesitate when you're talking about removing structure from the control arm. I don't honestly know how extraneous that material is, but it just seems like a bad idea to this non-engineer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demon Posted May 10, 2004 Author Share Posted May 10, 2004 I thought John had already ground off the end of the control arm for clearance. Am I mistaken? I'd seriously consider the 280 hubs. They are slightly heavier, but if I'm right and they do have the offset needed, then that would be a preferable solution IMO. I just hesitate when you're talking about removing structure from the control arm. I don't honestly know how extraneous that material is, but it just seems like a bad idea to this non-engineer. I'm with you but I suggested the 280 hubs to Dave who disregarded them. Apparently grinding off the control arm is in his instructions for the brake kit (which I have, of course, lost) so I can only assume that several people have also done this OR are just unaware that it is in fact the control arm-rotor that is rubbing (it took me and John a while to figure it out). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted May 10, 2004 Share Posted May 10, 2004 I was just thinking this thru and you'd probably need to shim the caliper out if you changed the hubs too. Not sure what the difference in the hubs is, but it might be more shimming than would be good/safe/preferable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted May 10, 2004 Share Posted May 10, 2004 The correct solution is to change the offset on the brake hat and the caliper bracket. Everything needs to be moved outboard by .100" and there wouldn't be any more scraping. I'm not sure about grinding off the end of the lower control arm. I would want to take an arm, mount the inner side in a vice, put a big torque wrench on the end, pull to get .125" of deflection, and measure the torque. Then I would cut the end off per Dave's recommendation and repeat the test. If there's no change in the torque number then I would be OK with the modification. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demon Posted May 10, 2004 Author Share Posted May 10, 2004 The correct solution is to change the offset on the brake hat and the caliper bracket. Everything needs to be moved outboard by .100" and there wouldn't be any more scraping. How would you recommend doing this? I am assuming that shimming it is sub-optimal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted May 10, 2004 Share Posted May 10, 2004 You can't shim the hat out. You could shim it in, but that would be a bad idea IMO and isn't what you want anyway. Same deal with the rotor. Sounds to me like you need to a. do what Dave says, b. mill the hats down .1" (sketchy and then they might not be true afterwards, and you'd have to have them anodized again), c. run the 280 hubs and make a new caliper bracket... EDIT--d. remove the bump steer spacer if that is what causes the interference. Bummer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimZ Posted May 10, 2004 Share Posted May 10, 2004 FWIW, I had that same problem with the AZ Zcar brakes. I ground just enough off the end of the arm to clear the rotor, and have not had a problem since. That was back in, oh... about 1988... I had the problem without the bumpsteer spacers, btw. And its a 280 hub. The part that is ground off is all outboard of the ball joint, so I don't think it's adding much structurally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demon Posted May 10, 2004 Author Share Posted May 10, 2004 FWIW' date=' I had that same problem with the AZ Zcar brakes. I ground just enough off the end of the arm to clear the rotor, and have not had a problem since. That was back in, oh... about 1988... I had the problem without the bumpsteer spacers, btw. And its a 280 hub. The part that is ground off is all outboard of the ball joint, so I don't think it's adding much structurally.[/quote'] Thanks Tim, was hoping to find someone who had done this before. I guess it's time to break out the grinder! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
demon Posted May 10, 2004 Author Share Posted May 10, 2004 FWIW' date=' I had that same problem with the AZ Zcar brakes. I ground just enough off the end of the arm to clear the rotor, and have not had a problem since. That was back in, oh... about 1988... I had the problem without the bumpsteer spacers, btw. And its a 280 hub. The part that is ground off is all outboard of the ball joint, so I don't think it's adding much structurally.[/quote'] Thanks Tim, was hoping to find someone who had done this before. I guess it's time to break out the grinder! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synlubes Posted May 11, 2004 Share Posted May 11, 2004 Jim Cook Racing sells a 1" bumpsteer spacer ? ? ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clifton Posted May 11, 2004 Share Posted May 11, 2004 I ground the ends of mine off over 7 years ago and haven't had any problems. Only the driver side touched on mine though. You only need to trim a small amount. They only seem to touch on cars that are really low. This is also with 280 hubs, don't think you can run the 240 hubs with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quicker240 Posted May 11, 2004 Share Posted May 11, 2004 same thing happened on mine when I put the brake setup on it.I have 1 inch spacers on mine.I just ground a little bit off and have not had any more problems.Not real happy about that groove it left in my rotor(just like yours!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
240hoke Posted May 12, 2004 Share Posted May 12, 2004 I cut the whole end of my lower control arm off. It really insnt needed, or at least i hope not ahem. BUt i havet had any problems, i just took a hack saw to the end and then rounded it off nicely. -Austin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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