Wytbishop - 93' GS SE ZE - The Purple..I mean Black.. Beast

[wytbishop]

Just as a warning, these may not fit in the stock 14" wheels.. its VERY tight to start.

GS wheels are all 15" same as the Miata.

There's also a write up over there for a cheap 2 pot caliper conversion for the front but I haven't really looked into it yet. I think I'll tackle the front brakes in the spring.

[wytbishop]

I decided this morning that there’s no point in doing all this work on the rear brakes and leaving the fronts the way they are so I ordered some EBC front rotors and pads and bought a cheap pair of calipers off ebay this morning.

So basically this brake job will include, new EBC rotors front and rear, EBC Green Stuff pads, Silverstone SS brake lines, Miata rear calipers (used but very nice), ebay front calipers and relocating the brake master cylinder. I also bought some "Aluminum" caliper paint on the weekend. That’s as blingy as I can bring myself to go.

I also have a plan to separate the brake and clutch into two separate reservoirs. The clutch requires practically nothing for reserve fluid so I’m just going to get a 30mL remote reservoir from a motorcycle system and put it right above the clutch mater inlet with a short piece of hose. Then I will use a larger 45mL reservoir with a single outlet and a tee to put fluid to the brake master. I will jsut need to fabricate some way of securing the tubing in the master cylinder body that doesn’t involve a zip tie.

I hate zip ties. The last resort of a lazy man if you ask me.

[wytbishop]

I just found a set of 2 piston Subaru calipers that are supposed to bolt right up to the BG front spindles at a wrecker in BC.

Obsessive-compulsive much???

[fowljesse]

Sweet! I hope they work! I use the E-brake succesfully in autocross (for hairpin turns), but mines a little weak, so stronger rear brakes could be advantageous.
Aslo, for anyone else who wants to paint the calipers Aluminum: Rustoleum (or Tremclad in Canada) would work. I painted part of my exhaust just behing the headers on a hot-rodded V-8 with it, and it looked great for several years, and probably still does, wherever the van is (R.I.P.)

[IMACHU2]

I just found a set of 2 piston Subaru calipers that are supposed to bolt right up to the BG front spindles at a wrecker in BC.

Obsessive-compulsive much???

Nah your fine, now please return the favor and tell that same thing to everyone I know (about me)

Oh and the scooby cailper swap sounds cool.

[wytbishop]

Well...after a couple of days of research I have found out that the only steeringknuckles capable of accepting the Scoobie calipers are off the 94'-98' 323f/Astina 2.0L V6 which was only available in UK and Australia.

I'm working on finding a set. I'm also trying to find a cheap solution using North American parts but that looks unlikely. If all else fails I'm going to investigate fabricating a spindle.

[mx-3_4evr]

How about make a bracket to sport the calipers?

[PATDIESEL]

Whow, that sounds like alot of work just to get a slightly better caliper. I don't know what your budget is, or what your goal for stopping power is, but I can offer two, maybe easier, suggestions.
1. get a front and rear set of pads from Porterfield. They have a great auto-x/mild race pad (read under 300whp MXs) and a great street pad too. MOCA have used a number of different pads from EBC, Hawk and others. From our "testing" some like the Hawk and some the Porterfield. I think Hawk is a good pad, but the performance versions are super dusty and super noisy and only their best pad will hold up to 130 mph stops at turn 10A of Road Atlanta.
2. this option of if you want a great look, great caliper, less unsprung weight and have some money to spend. J-Dog had a new Wilwood Sport caliper hung on a stock MX spindle and then found a 2 piece rotor to boot. This only works with certain 16" or 17" wheels. He had a machine shop reman the mounting points of the spindle to fit the caliper and that was basically all he needed. The set-up was about 1800 iirc, but dollar for dollar about the best you can get or will ever need on a road going MX-3. I do not remember his rotor diameter now, but it is a bit larger. Anyway, more info can be found at http://www.atlantamx3.com/mocaforum" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; if you are interested.
On a last note- if you are using the stock rims to race on I would advise against it. They are good for alot of reasons but not good for the best one. They do not let enough air behind the wheel to help cool the brakes! We had alot of issues for a couple of years if we went to the faster tracks around here and were getting a ton of brake fade. After talking with some of the other locals someone advised us to try a new wheel. We found a Honda guy with an extra set and tried his 15s. Viola, better. So if you have a dedicated set of race tires, buy a set of dedicated race wheels too. Overheating the brakes is the best way to ruin several hundred dollars worth of pads and rotors.
GL with the car

PS- you should post some pics of all this work.

[wytbishop]

Thanks Pat. All of your points are good ones and I agree with what you're saying. I am not the "all out performance" kind of guy, but having figured out a cheap way to increase the size of the rear set up I wanted to see if a similar inexpensive all Mazda solution could be found for the front.

I will also admit that my main motivation is appearance. Lets face it, everone wants a bigger one...uhhh...rotor I mean.

I think a bracket that locates a Millenia front caliper (uses bigger pads than the Subaru) on Mazdaspeed Miata 271mm rotor without cutting the stock knuckle would be a great solution.

I think this will be my winter project.

I will post all the pictures of the Miata rear set up once I get it on in a couple of weeks.

[wytbishop]

OK so I did the rear Miata brake upgrade today. Went pretty smoothly, but there were a few things. I'll go from the beginning...

The Miata calipers were in excellent condition. They had been painted in the past so there was no surface rust on them. They are from a 2004 Mazdaspeed Miata w/ Sport Suspension. I disassembled them abit...nothing realy extensive, took a wire brush to them and got the flaking paint off and shot them with a couple of fresh coats of aluminum caliper paint.

Before paint...


After paint...




You're looking for the M160 forging. These are the calipers and brackets that fit.


I bought EBC rotors. They are very good quality and I think they were $29ea + shipping.

Note the difference in size. Not staggering, but noticaeble in the wheel.


The only big problem is the dust shields. The new rotors are more or less exactly the same diameter as the lip on the dust shield.


In order to remove the shields you have to remove the hub. Luckily I have had the hubs off recently when installing the poly bushings so there was no trouble here. I tried hammering the lip into a shape that would fit the rotors, but I didn't have the necessary tools to do it right. I will pick up a new pair and do it correctly. For now I installed them without shields. Not ideal, but temporary.

So remove the shields, reinstall the hubs and install the rotor and caliper. Here is another little thing that has to be adressed. The spacing is just slightly different than the stock caliper. All that is required is (2) 3/8" flat washers between the caliper bracket and the spindle on each bolt.



With these washers the rotor is centered perfectly.

I also installed new SS lines from an EBAY company called Silverstone. The lines are nice but the lug that is clipped into the tab on the shock body would not fit into the tab. The lines are so stiff that I don't think it would have been a good idea to clip them in there anyway, but I thought I should mention the fitment issue. The lines themselves are very nice. I did not have to buy Miata brake lines. The MX-3 ones fit just fine.

Here it is bolted together...



And here it is with the wheel in place before and after...

Before...


After...


Like I said. Not staggering but with a more open wheel and some blingier rotors it would be really sick.

The other issue which I did not show is the connection of the ebrake cable. The orientation of the bracket and lever of the E-brake are just slightly different and because the rotor is larger, the cable is now slightly longer that it has to be. These factors combine to create a lightly unnatural bend in the cable right at the caliper. but it's not an issue. The issue is that the stock cable has to be adjusted to the very end of its adjustment to tighten the cable. It does adjust but I would like to see if there's a cable set from another model that might fit better with these brackets.

So there you go...pretty simple. In the spring I will go to the trouble of replacing my cables. I was going to as my passenger side cable is broken, but you have to lower the exhaust and remove the heat shield to get them out and it was pretty cold today. I will also be doing the fronts with stock parts next weekend. Nothing new there.

[PATDIESEL]

Great write-up thanks. I am concerned about the e-brake cable though and really prefer to make my own decision on whether it is actually safe could I beg a pic of it be posted on your log.

[wytbishop]

I can't see the cable being in danger of failure or anything of that sort. I am going to search for a shorter set which will serve though. When I do the fronts I will pop a wheel off the back and snap a shot for you.

I was re-reading your previous posts here about Jaydog's Wilwood setup. Interesting that after all my searching I finally had to come around to something similar. I'm still not planning on going as big as he did or using 2 piece rotos, but it has become clear that there is just no way to mount a 2 or 4 piston caliper without modifying the steering knuckle.

[PATDIESEL]

Cool thanks for the pic whenever it comes. I posted a link to this (your thread) on MOCA and Jaydog corrected me. He spent 1200, not 1800 on his front set-up. A large bit of that was acutally the rotors. I bet if you could find a rotor with the proper off-set you could get the same basic stopping power for 800 or so. I think he said he saves about 7 lbs per wheel with the larger caliper and rotor too which is awesome. 7lbs of unsprung weight really makes a difference in the cars handeling at speed.

[wytbishop]

Mini Cooper has comparable offset and thickness as stock and comes in 276, 280 and 294mm sizes.

[MX3-4U2NV]

Uhm, if it's any help, you do not have to lower your exhaust to do the passenger side ebrake cable. You do have to remove the heat shield, which also doesn't require you to lower your exhaust.

I know because I did it not even a month ago in my driveway backed on to car ramps.

When doing the heat shield, all bolts are EASILY accessible aside from the one directly about your exhaust pipe. All I did was push it aside with one hand, was easy enough, and used a ratchet to remove the last bolt. There is more than enough play on the rubber hangers.

Other than that, the rest was peanuts. Took me all of 20 minutes. It had to be done to get safety-ed.

Hope that helps.