Fabricated A-Body spindle ideas and discussion

DionR said

The above layout is still using the Scat Pack caliper and rotor info. I don't have any of the needed S197 info and I'm not sure the nut needed for the LBJ bolts would fit between the caliper mount plate and the hub. The SP rotor has a depth of 58mm overall and the Mustang one is 46mm. That's potentially a 1/2" shorter on the spacer assembly and the current setup only has 0.338" before the nut is into the hub. Not saying for sure that is the difference in height, the caliper can have a large impact on this. Just guessing right now since I don't have an info.

My thought right now is to forge on with the SP stuff and if I want 15" brakes I will use GT350 calipers and an adapter that does from the ears to a radial mount caliper. Not going to be off the shelf, though.

And I think the SP setup is the better one anyways when compared to the S197 4 piston setup. Where the S197 setup shines is being able to easily upgrade to 15" brakes, the SP stuff only really has the HC option and that doesn't fit under 18" wheels.

Click to expand...

The four piston S197 Brembo caliper is designed to work with a 14" rotor and an 18" wheel. Thats what the GT500s and Boss 302s had. The 15" rotor didn't come about until the 2013 GT500 which used a 6 pistion Brembo similar to the S550 6 piston caliper and 20" wheels.

The caliper brackets like the ones I have made and the ones that you can still buy from another guy, used the S197 calipers and rotors becase they were readily available years ago and cheap to get. The SRT calipers were at least double to quadruple the price at the time. Plus the same bracket can use any of the S197 brake packages allowing 15" to 18" wheel fitment with off the shelf OEM parts. Same with the cost of the S197 rotors compared to the SRT rotors. The offset of the Mustang rotor and caliper arrangement also lends itself to working very well with cut down rotors turned into hubs or the use of Dr. Diff hubs without needing an offset caliper mount when using drum brake knuckles. The caliper only needs some slight shimming to get it centered over the rotor.