Simple (almost) all Mazda Front Big Brake Upgrade

[onlytrueromeo]

I haven't looked into any of this, but how compatible is some of the probe/mx6 stuff with the mx3? Yes, you'd need to change to the 5 lug pattern (would be best to keep Front and Back the same), but some might prefer that anyway.

[_-Night-Shade-_]

We have faith in you Wyt

[300zxrb26dett]

Nice find on the Mini rotors, I hope its an available option. I have a set of those RX7 calipers sitting in my shed collecting dust but you cant have them They are indeed wide and could certainly work with a rotor that had a tall hat to push them in a little. The VW corrado G60 rotors could also work for the front and its 11". I have on of those in the shed attached to a BG spindle right now also collecting dust.

[Steeb]

Here's another thing I stole from CP...I mean posted on CP...

The other advantage to the 5 lug hubs is that opens up even more options for big brakes since there are a lot of cars that use the 5x114.3 bolt pattern.
Almost every 5 lug Nissan, all the way up to the 370Z and Mitsubishi has this same pattern as well. I think the probe/mx6 guys are able to use brakes from a Mitsubishi as an upgrade, either a Galant VR-4 or a 3000GT? So if they can use that, then so could we perhaps with the BJ front spindles. I love all this interchangeability!, Reminds me of working on Nissans....

I am almost positive that somebody with a BG has already confirmed fitment of the front 5 lug hub, and the rear did not fit. I know I saw it somewhere.....
Well I found the thread
http://www.clubprotege.com/forum/showth ... t=lug+hubs

But I think by the sounds of it that maybe the solution for the rear may be just swapping to the rear disc BJ spindle if all else fails. The suspension has the same layout, with the trailing link, TTL's so maybe, just maybe.......

probes n mx6's have different sized ball joints as we do. from what ive seen on cp and pt over the years is that there are people using rx7 ball joints up front on both forums and cp guys bolting them up to mx-3 which means we can probably just bolt up the hubs if the steering stuff fits. ive never tried swapping all that stuff back and forth so i havent got a clue it it would work but it does make sense. if someone wanted to get a cheap kit, they could pick up a ksport kit and a brake bias adjuster.

....but i want to keep my 4x100 cuz i want to use my 18x9 vienna kreis still, one day when my car is finished. thanks for letting me to that

[wytbishop]

I have tried to reply to this thread for the last three days. Every time I start I wind up off on some new tangent and I have to stop to figure it all out again.


This is the deal as I see it so far....

I have blocked it out in CAD and regardless of what caliper I use the mounting tabs for the stock caliper are in the way. The BG (&EC) calipers are unique in that the mounting tabs go to within an inch of the edge of the rotor. So even when I mock it up with an 11.6" rotor I cannot make the caliper fit without hitting them.

I believe this is why the EBAY and K-sport big brake kits us such large rotors. If someone can show me an example of a kit for hte MX-3 that uses a rotor smaller than 13" and doesn't require cutting I'll eat my hat.

I have decided that the stock mounting tabs have to go to make this possible with the parameters I set out initially. In order to use a 15" wheel I am limited to an 11" rotor. There is no caliper that will not interfere with those tabs.

So now I'm working on a simple jig that will allow the average guy at home to put the holes in the right place and create a true flat surface to mount the adapting bracket so that we can bolt up a nice 2 or 4 piston caliper.

[onlytrueromeo]

You sir, have either too much time on your hands, or are crazy.

But I like

[wytbishop]

It's not crazy at all. The difficulty will be to make the new mounting surface accurate. Anyone can get a second set of steering knuckles at a wrecker for beans. Bolt on the jig, make a couple of holes, make a couple of cuts...everything bolts right on.

Just for fun I'm also toying with the idea of just making a set of custom knuckles. That'll be expensive though.

[300zxrb26dett]

I like your idea with the jig. thats excellent. Are you going to make this doable with FC calipers then? please?

By the way there was a guy over on CP that made a Big brake kit on the cheap and was trying to sell them, but idk if he was very successful. He never would disclose what rotor he used for it. it also had to fit a 17" or some 16" wheel may fit.

[300zxrb26dett]

Bump for updates

[wytbishop]

I am still working on getting my hands on a pair of BA V6 spindles.

I have pretty much exhausted what can be done without purchasing some more parts and its Christmas so we'll have to wait a bit for more progress.

[wytbishop]

I have a potential lead on the all mazda big brake set up.

I got interested in the 5 lug conversion thread that circulated the other day and went over to clubprotege and did a little light reading. A French guy from Quebec chimed into that thread that one of his buddies put steering knuckles from a 2000+ MPV into his 323 and it was direct bolt in. Of course they’re all looking for the 5 lug hubs but for me the big deal is that the MPV knuckles have the same caliper mounting tabs as the E-spec 323F V6 knuckles and the MPV does come from the factory with 2 piston calipers.

So in theory we ought to be able to bolt the MPV knuckle/hub/caliper assembly straight onto our chassis. Spline count is yet to be determined, but I’m going to have a look at one this weekend. I have the dimensions of the E-spec 323F V6 knuckles thanks to Marcdh and I will compare and report.

The only issue I’m still having is that I don’t want to convert to 5 lugs. The Kia Sephia uses the same wheel bearing as the MPV and has 4x100 hubs. Nobody has a listing for the Kia or the MPV front hub itself, but they have the same bearing so one should press right into the other. I hunted through the CP.com forum and this postsays that the Kia Sephia hubs have the same 26 splines as the mazda hubs. I will also confirm this on the weekend.

So with this, we should be able to take an MPV steering knuckle, press out the 5 lug hub, press in a Kia 4 bolt hub, slap on a rotor (I have identified a few that will work in different sizes) manufacture an adapter and bolt on the caliper of choice and slide it right into your MX-3.

My first goal is to put a 2 piston caliper into a stock 15" wheel as inexpensively as possible. My secondary goal is to put a Wilwood 4 pistion caliper on a 12" rotor into a 17" wheel. This will be more expensive but UBER powerful braking will result.

I will report further on the weekend.

Does anyone know where I can find a list of cars spline counts?

[300zxrb26dett]

One thing for you- I had a Kia Sephia spindle and hub from the BG 94-97. I remember I tried to fit a corrado G60 rotor on the Kia hub and the hat on the rotor will not sit all the way down flush on the face of the hub because its slightly bigger then the escort hub I had next to it. The G60 rotor fit on the escort hub perfect though.

I know its not a BG rotor but, it may still present the same problem if you have to use the Kia hub with a similar size rotor. I see on rock auto the 01 sephia front wheel bearing has 2 different sizes. one is the same as all the BG's and the other is bigger and the same as the probe/mx6/3/6/MPV ect......

just FYI

[wytbishop]

Yes I saw that too about the bearings, but both options have the same ID so the hub shaft should press in regardless.

The 01' Sephia has a 57mm hub pilot (as opposed to the 55mm hub pilot on the BG) and the 06' Mini CooperS has a 64mm pilot so the rotor will definitely fit. Otherwise the height and thickness are nearly identical to the BG rotor and the diameter is nearly the same as the MPV rotor.

It really depends how the Kia hub fits in the MPV spindle and if it has the same number of splines as the BG axle. According to driveshaftstore.co.uk all the Sephias and MX-3's (and all BG's) have 26 splines at the hub. There's a high end wrecker in my area who has an MPV knuckle I'm going to go look at it and take a few measurements this weekend.

[_-Night-Shade-_]

This could be good!

[wytbishop]

Nothing to get too excited about yet. The idea came from a guy putting the MPV spindles into a 323...which should be a slam dunk, but I am still expecting some issues.