Assembling the brakes - page 3

Here is a view of the full assembly. The brake caliper and wheel adapter have been installed. A screwdriver between the rotor vanes provides plenty of security for tightening the wheel adapter nuts to 100 ft lbs. Before the brake assemblies, I had to put a wrench on the rear of the hub casting, and support the wrench with a jackstand.

I ground just a smidgen off the inside tips of the calipers, for extra insurance that they would not scrape the rotors. The caliper mounting bolts had to be tightened with channel lock pliers, since there was no room between the fender and the bolts for a T50 brake socket. They have not worked loose though. The plates did need to retorqued slightly however.

The next step would normally have been to install the brake hose brackets. I drilled and tapped a 3/8 hole into the trailer frame through the fender skin to do this. Then I attached the hose to the caliper, and attached the slightly modified hose bracket to one of the bolts in the backing plates. Finally I ran the hard brake line down and around the trailer frame to a "T" fitting on the drivers side. From there I ran a line up in the direction of the actuator. Now, since the system can be bled with the wheels on, the wheels are installed.

Here is a view of the clearance between the caliper and wheel. Having the wheel adapter just makes this feasible, since it brings the wheel outward 1". This 1" is just enough to locate the caliper on the edge of the larger inner part of the wheel. There is about 3/16" of clearance between the caliper and wheel. That was some tight engineering, considering that I used two pens and a tape measure to measure the ID of the wheels in several places and hoped for the best. I actually had planned on grinding more from the caliper, but I was very relieved when the assembly fit so nicely.

Great stopping power, and they look pretty cool too!