The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline CPP Front Disk Brake Conversion Kit Install ????

Hello Bolters,

I went and installed my CPP disk brake kit on my 1951 chevy 3100 today and I must say their instructions were terrible. I know its not that complicated but their directions certainly didn't help matters.

I must say though the kit was very nice and robust.

My main question is the instructions had me install the bracket so the caliper ended up on the front side of the spindle/disk which I thought was fairly odd.

Most of the time I'm used to seeing the caliper on the rear.

I have it installed and really don't want to pull it all apart to change it to the rear but I also don't want it to look stupid especially because I have open wheels that you will see the caliper.

I will probably give them a call on Monday but just thought maybe someone here maybe familiar with these kits.

BTW: The bracket is straight with no offset.

Thanks and Stay Well
Scott

I installed them on my 57 3100 and they are on the rear of rotor. They work way better than the old drum brakes. Had a bit of issue finding where to get vacuum from. I have mine come from rear of carburator. It's equipped with a 350 and a 4 barrel carb. I would call them to make sure. Be ready to wait to talk to someone or have them call you back. I'm installing power steering from them now. Good luck, Grady

From a saftey/functional standpoint, it does not matter where around the rotor it is mounted. There may be some clearance reason (drag link, maybe?) to put them to the front.

If it bugs you, call them and ask. Or just flip them to the back and see if there are clearance problems. Be aware that CPP customer service is not known for being prompt, so set aside plenty of time to be on hold.

I've recently been paying attention to brake caliper positions on new cars because, for some stupid reason, they seem to be design features rather than just mechanical parts. (orange, yellow, blue, red, etc)

Anyway, on two different Porsche models with 4 wheel discs and open wheels with very thin spokes, I noticed the following.

Car A: Front disc/caliper in back, Rear disc / caliper in front
Car B: Front disc / caliper in front, Rear disc / caliper in rear

If the system has been properly engineered, then there's no problem.

I will probably see what they say on Monday.

But as I think about it my rear axle which is from a 2012 Ford Mustang has the calipers on the front side as well.

So maybe for the point of uniformity I will leave the front in the front as well.

I will let folks know what I find out from CPP.

Thanks
Scott

The important thing is to have the bleeder screw on the top of the caliper, th@t means the feed line should be on the bottom!

Ed

Just in case anyone reads this post, I did contact CPP and when we reviewed the instructions in greater detail, it was clear that the bracket was to be on the rearward side of the rotor.

Only bad news is I had to take it all apart and flip it around. All went well and the brakes look great. I did paint the calipers red.

Attached is a picture of the rims I will be installing.

Scott

Scott 4 Chevy,

Thanks for coming back and posting a follow-up with the end result details.

Will be useful information for others that get involved in the same work.

Dan

Seconded: Thanks for the follow-up.

Those rims look great. What size are they?

I appreciate the comment on the rims.

Long story short because my rear-end (2012 mustang) turned out to be 3 inches wider I couldn't stick with the old school rims with the disk brakes.

The Wheel Smith shop didn't have tooling to create enough offset to ultimately have the tires clear the fender.

So I was able to find these at Summit Racing.

I got 17 x 7 for the front and 18 x 9 for the rear.

One last thing for anyone looking to swap rear ends to keep in mind is the front brake conversion kit only comes in a 5 x 4.75 or I believe 6 x 5 bolt pattern so if you want to swap wheels around make sure they all match.

My rear end has a 5 x 4.5 pattern and luckily these rims were available in both sizes to match front and rear.

Thanks again to everyone on this forum that continues to help me complete my project.

Scott

Did you do the Power Booster/Dual Master mod with that Scott?
See my recent thread regarding the cross-member issue (at least for the chassis mounted booster - if I were to do it again, would go with firewall mount)

I installed the 6 bolt kit - for wheels I used OEM Steel Wheels of a 70's Model K10 which fit the bolt pattern but are wider and have better rear offset to clear the calipers
Mine was mounted with the calipers on the rearward side; it's been a while but I don't recall having any confusion over that during installation.

Just have to make sure the bleeder is on the top!

Ed