Caliper Clearance + Tire Question
Oops, another miscommunication haha. Rears will be 15x8 4.5BS with a 275/60-15 + the Dr. Diff leaf shackle spacer kit. Have also ordered some Mopar performance rear springs per his suggestion as well. I will have to look more into what axles I can upgrade to and take a look at the 73+ A body disc brake conversion as mentioned above. I have been reading my *** off on these cars... let's more complicated than my modern BMWs I work on, rofl.
Mike
With a Barracuda or Duster/Demon/Dart Sport you can usually fit 275/60/15's without the 1/2" spring offset kit. The other thing is, that with a 15x8" and a 4.5" backspace using BBP axles you won't have enough backspace to make use of the 1/2" offset. A factory A-body 8 3/4 with BBP axles will put the wheel mounting surface about 6" from the springs with drum brakes, you can add another 1/4" to that with disks. So a 275/60/15 is about 11" wide at the section, a 15x8 is 9" wide outside to outside lip. So 4.5" of backspace, plus 1" of tire overhang is 5.5", which leaves you ~1/2" of clearance with no offset kit and drums. With disks in the back it will leave almost 3/4", which also means the outside of the tire will be really close, if not rubbing on the inner quarter lip depending on your car and its ride height.
With an A-body rear with BBP rear axles and rear disks I'd be inclined to run at least a 4.75" and probably more like a 5" backspace for 275's. If you're going to run a 1/2" offset kit, make use of it and run at least a 5.25" backspace. If you get too close the the springs you can add a small spacer. If you get too close to the quarters, the options to fix it are a lot more expensive.
Understood. I liked the Willwood concept as it kept the same hub location and they are a little bit more pleasing upon the eyes. I know hardcore mopar fans will call it sacreligious, but I have to throw some new school flavor on the old school girl. Still weighing my options but thank you for all the helpful replies!!
Those Wilwoods have had the same basic design for well over 30 years now, they're hardly new. Plus, they don't work any better. They're basically the same idea as the SBP KH calipers, and Ma Mopar replaced those with better in 1973. They also limit your wheel choices, as the have a very large diameter hub. Shouldn't be an issue with the Ansens, but they're pretty limiting otherwise. And then there's the aluminum hub that has to be safety wired together. There are much cheaper options that work better (like the 73+ factory brakes). But if you want bling, Wilwoods are the chrome that won't get you home. With the 73+ disks you can run a 15x7 with a 4.25" backspace and 225/60/15's, even with a 4" backspace you should be able to pull off 215/60/15's.
It sounds like everyone here autocrosses/tracks their cars and if you don't do an oem conversion it's a big bad deal lol... I have Brembos on my daily and Spartas on my racecar, so I understand good braking systems and their impact on a car. I will not be autocrossing this car, nor will it see track time as I have a dedicated car for that. This is just a fun weekend, show, cruise car... Even if the Wilwoods (or another like company) get 10% less braking power I prefer the look... also, brake pads are more important than the caliper they are matched with (assuming relatively same build quality); funny how no one has mentioned pads, just calipers.
You're not really making sense here. I don't just run OEM brakes anymore, I run DoctorDiff's 13" Cobra style kit. Heck you've got another member with Wilwoods telling you not to get them. The reason you're getting comparisons and suggestions to go OEM is because the OEM brakes will outperform the Wilwood kit you're looking at and still fit 15" wheels. If you want to go aftermarket then there's plenty of options that will flog the wilwood kit you're looking at, but most of them won't fit with 15" rims.
Also, you can get decent pads for the OEM slider style calipers. Firm Feel has options, you can get the whole range of pads from EBC for the stock slider calipers, and Bergman AutoCraft is taking interest in carbon/kevlar pads for the stock calipers too. But if you're just driving on the street a decent set of semi-metallics will be more than fine for you. And since you say this is only a cruiser, I'm not sure I see why you need something other than regular old brake pads.
No idea why anyone would put 6 piston huge brakes on an a body... what does not impress you with the brakes? Are they still on the stock pads provided by Wilwood? Most stock pads, even from Brembo and big companies, really stink compared to aftermarket ones.
Uh, to stop the car better? With the better tire compounds that you can get for larger wheel diameters, not to mention wider tires, even A-bodies can make good use of high performance brakes.
