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

[wytbishop]

The calipers should be virtually identical to ours. I believe the miata rotors are slightly thicker so the caliper will be a little wider. But they are made to accept a 10.9" rotor.

There was an ebay auction last year where someone was selling "adapters" that would allow you to bolt this caliper to any protege/323 and the guys on clubprotege saw it and did some digging and it turns out that the miata calipers bolt right on to the 323 spindles with a little spacing to get the rotor centered properly. If it fits a 323 it'll fit an mx3.

Go to CP.com and look in the BG suspension forum for the "Big Brake" thread.

The next step is miata 10.6" fronts.

[wytbishop]

OK the calipers arrived on Thursday. I pulled out an old junky rear spindle assembly I had laying around with the rotor and caliper all rusted on and whatnot and did a little comparative photography.

The stock caliper on MX-3 spindle with MX-3 rotor. Note that the entire pad is in contact with the rotor...



The Miata caliper on the same spindle with the same rotor. Note that the caliper is much farther from the hub and only about half of the pad is in contact with the rotor...



The calipers are virtually identical. The E-brake cable bracket is at a slightly different angle but really that's it. The big difference is the mounting bracket. It's taller to accommodate the larger rotors on the Miata...



The only issue to be overcome is this...



with the caliper centered on the rotor, the bracket is approximately 4mm out of alignment with the spindle. A couple of standard flat washers are all that are required.

[onlytrueromeo]

holy jebus...thats easy.

Good work!

[solo_ryder]

Very interesting work! Can't wait to see the outcome on this.

[wytbishop]

I can't take credit. This is 100% clubprotege.

I'm excited cuz it fills the wheel really nicely. It's going to look and work very well.

[onlytrueromeo]

I again wish I hadn't just spent the money on new mx3 calipers!

Oh well, your work has given me a new idea for my future, albeit its random, but I should thank you nonetheless.

[wytbishop]

Oh and I was looking at stuff today and I have another KL31 TB with the original linkage that I want to use but the brake reservoir is in the way so I think I'm going to fab up a remote brake res and mount it on the strut tower.

Tricky, but fun!!

[Ryan]

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

[onlytrueromeo]

Who wants to run 14" wheels

As long as they fit the 15" ones, sounds perfect to me. 14" has too much rubber on our cars IMHO, made for smaller, skinnier tire for gas mileage and comfort.

Bumping up to a 15 or 16" wheel, slightly wider, will give you increased contact patch, sidewall stiffness and better handling at the expense of more rolling resistance and more noise/vibrations/harshness.

[fowljesse]

Did you get it to fit so that the pads are in full contact?

[wytbishop]

Once the Miata 10.9" rotors arrive it will fit like a glove. I'll have to massage the dust shield a bit and put some washers behind the bracket to get the spacing right but that's it. Easy as pie.

The hardest part was finding the calipers without buying them from the factory. The sport suspension parts are not easy to get even new. Roskauto for example sells them on a send-in recon basis only. Other places that sell them usually don't include the mounting bracket and if they do they want $150+ each. So I searched the wreckers databases until I found a set.

[Mooneggs]

so what's the benefit if the caliper and pad are the same size?! it's a bigger rotor so I understand a little more heat dissapation but I'm dissapointed that the caliper and pad don't cover a bigger area

[onlytrueromeo]

The pad is bigger, look at it!

[Mooneggs]

oh snap I was thinking the pic was with the miata rotor... once the miata rotors are on that's going to be sick... no more stupid small rotors in the rear!

[wytbishop]

Egggggssssactly