The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline front brake disc conversion

Riddle me this:

I have a '53 3/4 ton GMC where I am converting the front brakes to discs using the Rustic Brake kit along with replacing the D52 calipers that came with that specific kit to Wilwood dual piston D52 calipers. Everything fits as it should however, when measuring for wheels, I found the driver side can take a 16" wheel but the passenger side would not as it would need a 17" wheel. Using a carpenter square I measured from the center of the spindle to the outer edge of the caliper, 8" will clear driver side (16" wheel) but passenger side is more like 8 3/8 to 8 1/2" (17" wheel).

I couldn't figure out why, got frustrated and came in for dinner.

any ideas out there?

Can we get a picture of the other side? Something is clearly different between them.

If I had to guess, I would guess that either the calipers are different sizes or the caliper mounts are different sizes.

I did take off the calipers thinking they were different sizes but seem to match up equally. My next thought is the caliper brakets are different so I will take a look at those next.

Maybe bolts/nuts holding them in place are facing different directions?

Make sure the side that doesn't fit now is assembled exactly as the side that does fit vis`a vis the bolt going outboard to inboard or whatever.

I finally got a chance to compare brackets and calipers and they are all the same size. I flipped around calipers from side to side and still end up with the same result. Frustrating.

I was also able to find a 16"x6" 8 lug wheel with 4" of BS and mount it up to the driver side. Wheel fits, caliper does not rub whatsoever, however, there is only 1/16" of space between rim and caliper. Too close for comfort? Should I just go to a 17" wheel making the side to side differences a moot point?

see pictures...

I posted on your other thread the same thing:

There's a reason the wheel mounts fine on one side but not on the other. Something is either bent, damaged, incorrect, defective, etc. I wouldn't do anything else until I figured out what the difference is.

Keep measuring every single thing, including the new parts. If all the new hardware and wheel was swapped from one side to the other and the interference is exactly the same, then the problem is with your truck.

If the problem changes sides when all the new hardware and wheel are swapped, then the problem is with the wheel and/or brakes.

Did you swap the rotors from one side to the other? One thicker than the other? Does the problem side seat properly? 3/8" is a big difference.

I have disc brakes on with 15” rims. It required me to use a 2” spacer. I know others will say that not safe but it is bolted directly to the lugs and had its own lugs. I wish I had a picture. If I find one, I’ll post it

You need to make sure that when the calipers re mounted the bleed screws are on the top. I had a vehicle previously where I replaced bith calipers and cound not get the brakes to bleed until I determined I had the calipers on the worng sides and the bleed screws were on the bottom (as in one of your pictures).

Are spacers behind the caliper mounting brackets the same on both sides?

I posted this reply in your Dity Gallery thread to offer a possible suggestion.

Questions:

1. You've swapped calipers side to side with no difference, but have you swapped the brackets?

2. Have you contacted Rustic Brake to ask if the brackets are supposed to be the same, or are the side specific? If side specific, maybe the sent two for the same side.

thanks for all the suggestions, I will rule each suggestion out over the next couple of weeks as time permits, stay tuned...