Phoenix from the flames - Porsche Boxster with an Audi 2.7T
Discussion
The 996 GT3 doesn't run aluminium bells, these were aftermarket, based on what they used on cup cars I think. No OEM cars use an aluminium drum for a handbrake from what I can see, things like the R35 GTR that use aluminium rear bells have a steel insert for the handbrake. I've noticed the Girodisc brake upgrades use aluminium bells with aluminium handbrake drums (much thinner than mine). The handbrake will work fine but if the car was driven with the handbrake on it would probably make short work of the aluminium (which is why I assume OEM's don't do it). I rarely use the handbrake, I might ask for the MOT tester to check the brakes on the road rather than yank it up on the rollers.
My father-in-law, Valdemar came from Brazil at the end of November. He's been helping me out in the garage, he's never worked on a car before which surprised me. He's has been on his hands and knees with his head up inside the arches, on his back, helping me with a gearbox, the whole lot. Brilliant going for 78, I hope I'm still capable at that age, when I want to stop and come inside he's moaning, I can't keep up with him. It's been nice to spend a bit of time with him, when I go to Brazil he's always very busy.
I got him to help me out with my idea for the rear brakes, he's an engineer so it's right up his street. It took ages to explain, I don't speak much Portuguese so it was all google assisted, it took a while as he's not familiar with cars so he wasn't getting what I wanted to achieve and why.
Once we were on the same page, he knocked up some engineering drawings, it was good for me to see how he accurately measured everything up, I must confess I'm a bit of a by eye merchant. We've been learning a bit from each other. We went to my mates fathers house to use his lather. Turns out it wasn't large enough to take the brake bells we were modifying but we drilled the holes for the caliper brackets and made up the spacers on his lathe.
Luckily my friends dad knew a guy with a larger lathe and he put a word in for us, we were allowed to use it. Thanks to both of them for sorting it out as I was out of ideas. We didn't have much time but I didn't mention it to Valdemar, luckily he absolutely flew through it, all the measurements were in his head.
The modified bells mounted onto the back of the disc, I now have a handbrake drum.
Perfect fit over the hub. He knows what he's doing.
This is the bracket and spacer combination we designed. We went with spacers both sides of the bracket as the bolt heads would foul the caliper and the hub wasn't flat on the other side. I'm pleased with how it's turned out. I just need to sort out brake lines and get rid of the Lotus logo but otherwise the rear brakes are good to go on.
I got him to help me out with my idea for the rear brakes, he's an engineer so it's right up his street. It took ages to explain, I don't speak much Portuguese so it was all google assisted, it took a while as he's not familiar with cars so he wasn't getting what I wanted to achieve and why.
Once we were on the same page, he knocked up some engineering drawings, it was good for me to see how he accurately measured everything up, I must confess I'm a bit of a by eye merchant. We've been learning a bit from each other. We went to my mates fathers house to use his lather. Turns out it wasn't large enough to take the brake bells we were modifying but we drilled the holes for the caliper brackets and made up the spacers on his lathe.
Luckily my friends dad knew a guy with a larger lathe and he put a word in for us, we were allowed to use it. Thanks to both of them for sorting it out as I was out of ideas. We didn't have much time but I didn't mention it to Valdemar, luckily he absolutely flew through it, all the measurements were in his head.
The modified bells mounted onto the back of the disc, I now have a handbrake drum.
Perfect fit over the hub. He knows what he's doing.
This is the bracket and spacer combination we designed. We went with spacers both sides of the bracket as the bolt heads would foul the caliper and the hub wasn't flat on the other side. I'm pleased with how it's turned out. I just need to sort out brake lines and get rid of the Lotus logo but otherwise the rear brakes are good to go on.
Brilliant!
Did you anadize them black, or is that a black paint? (I tried heat resistant paint on my rear drums on previous car, still burnt off, blame the painter not the paint)
I must say though, that larger lathe gave me chills - 4 years of apprenticeship and another 2 years after working with one of those very lathes. And it was worn out.
(Keep the Lotus logo, rename the thread!)
Did you anadize them black, or is that a black paint? (I tried heat resistant paint on my rear drums on previous car, still burnt off, blame the painter not the paint)
I must say though, that larger lathe gave me chills - 4 years of apprenticeship and another 2 years after working with one of those very lathes. And it was worn out.
(Keep the Lotus logo, rename the thread!)
Peanut Gallery said:
Brilliant!
Did you anadize them black, or is that a black paint? (I tried heat resistant paint on my rear drums on previous car, still burnt off, blame the painter not the paint)
They were anodized to start with but I just painted over the areas we'd machined. Probably won't stand the test of time but it's not that important to me. Did you anadize them black, or is that a black paint? (I tried heat resistant paint on my rear drums on previous car, still burnt off, blame the painter not the paint)
shalmaneser said:
Those are some monster brakes!
Would it not be easier to just space the existing calipers away from the hub and use longer bolts? That technique is used by a lot of manufacturers when fitting bigger brakes...
From memory, the original rear discs are 20mm thick, these discs are 30mm thick so the rear calipers were too small. Also these calipers have larger pistons, and a larger surface area on the brake pad. Would it not be easier to just space the existing calipers away from the hub and use longer bolts? That technique is used by a lot of manufacturers when fitting bigger brakes...
I bought a set of Yellow Speed Racing coilovers during Black Friday. I went for their Club Performance version which has adjustable compression and rebound. I'm looking forward to playing around with them, the standard suspension isn't brilliant, so I'm hoping I'll be able to to improve comfort as well as improve the handling.
Fitting them is proving to be a slog, I don't think the suspension has ever been apart. I've started ar the rear, the drop link/pinch bolt didn't want to come out, I think this is a fairly common Porsche issue. It got plenty of hammer action and still wouldn't budge.
Plan B was to cut the drop link off so I could get a socket on the other end, then I used my impact gun whilst hammering the other end to work it out. I can probably expect the same battle for the other 3 hubs.
I also couldn't get the rear drum off, I was struggling to wind the handbrake mechanism back in through the wheel bolt hole. I ended up breaking a shoe, the lining came off it. I hate drum brakes with a passion, I spent hours and hours trying to fit new shoes, fighting with the various springs and punching myself in the face by accident a few times. I work on this car for enjoyment, there wasn't much to be found in this job, launched tools around the garage in frustration a few times and the air was blue.
The old brakes.
The new ones. The handbrake works fine and everything has bolted up like it should. I need to order a banjo fitting for the caliper before I can connect it up.
It fits fine behind the wheel so pleased with that. Those Kumho tyres will be replaced with something decent next year.
Fitting them is proving to be a slog, I don't think the suspension has ever been apart. I've started ar the rear, the drop link/pinch bolt didn't want to come out, I think this is a fairly common Porsche issue. It got plenty of hammer action and still wouldn't budge.
Plan B was to cut the drop link off so I could get a socket on the other end, then I used my impact gun whilst hammering the other end to work it out. I can probably expect the same battle for the other 3 hubs.
I also couldn't get the rear drum off, I was struggling to wind the handbrake mechanism back in through the wheel bolt hole. I ended up breaking a shoe, the lining came off it. I hate drum brakes with a passion, I spent hours and hours trying to fit new shoes, fighting with the various springs and punching myself in the face by accident a few times. I work on this car for enjoyment, there wasn't much to be found in this job, launched tools around the garage in frustration a few times and the air was blue.
The old brakes.
The new ones. The handbrake works fine and everything has bolted up like it should. I need to order a banjo fitting for the caliper before I can connect it up.
It fits fine behind the wheel so pleased with that. Those Kumho tyres will be replaced with something decent next year.
Good work on the brakes. Having rebuilt and replaced the handbrake mechanism on a 986 I feel your pain (literally).
Will you need to adjust the front/rear brake balance? I am no expert as to how the brake bias would be affected, just the rears look huge.
Respect due to your father in law!
Will you need to adjust the front/rear brake balance? I am no expert as to how the brake bias would be affected, just the rears look huge.
Respect due to your father in law!
I'm not sure how the brake balance will pan out. The fronts are the same diameter discs but the calipers are huge 8 piston jobbies with a lot of pad area so I'm expecting it'll be fine. I made the decision to start off with OEM brake pads all around so I've got some room there to upgrade one end to something with a higher coefficient of friction if I need to balance it out.
The Brembo 8 piston calipers I bought were in piss poor condition when they arrived. In hindsight I should have just returned them and bought a different set but they'd come from Latvia so I thought it would be hassle. There was a seized bleed nipple that took a load of thread out with it, 3 of the 4 brake pad pins were seized and needed cutting and pressing out, load of corrosion behind the steel guide plates making the pads too tight and a few seized pistons. I removed 14 of them with an air line and needed to help a few with screwdrivers. The last 2 were properly seized and I did wonder if I'd be able to get them out at all. I connected the caliper up to a different car, bled them and used the brake pedal to push them out, even then it took a while, I was launching myself 2 footed on the pedal but they both finally came out. I spent about £100 on parts to refurbish them and loads of hours messing about with them. Lesson to be learnt there.
Decided to go with red paint, this hasn't been easy with the awful weather. It's not a brilliant paint job but I'm not too bothered with stuff like this.
While I was fitting the coilovers I noticed a load of surface rust inside the strut towers, interestingly the offside is worse than the nearside, I'd have expected it the other way around. Again, the 987 is worse for rust than the previous 2 986's I've had.
I took the rust back to bare metal the best I could, treated it with a rust converter and then used some black stonechip to cover it. I don't think I'll be winning any concours awards anytime soon.
Making up some new brake lines.
I wanted to upgrade the brake master cylinder to a larger 997 GT3 one. It's a common modification on a standard braking system so definately worth while with my larger calipers. I had ordered one from Autodoc months back, they were only £80 but the order wasn't fulfilled, looks like the price on the part has gone right up since then, ended up paying £220 from my local motorfactor. Simple to fit as the system was already drained.
Before with the standard brakes.
After with the 8 pots fitted. They are not the best looking caliper with the strange lump on the front. apparently it helps with vibrations. I'm still waiting on stickers for the calipers. I'm running OEM Audi brake pads curtesy of Richard Hamilton on the Boxa.net forum. He fitted them to his RSQ3 and couldn't live with the sequels and went for some EBC pads instead. It's worth trying them out on mine as I might need to upgrade to something with more bite if the brake balance is an issue. Even if these pads don't squeal on my car my brakes will make themselves known, the discs are floating but they aren't spring loaded like most road car discs so I'm expecting some clunking.
There's not much room to spare behind the wheels, I've had to start using the guide pin thing that screws into a wheel bolt hole and comes with the tool kit when I remove or fit a wheel to stop me clouting the calipers. I'm still waiting on some brake banjo fittings so can't put fluid into the system and take it for a test drive.
Decided to go with red paint, this hasn't been easy with the awful weather. It's not a brilliant paint job but I'm not too bothered with stuff like this.
While I was fitting the coilovers I noticed a load of surface rust inside the strut towers, interestingly the offside is worse than the nearside, I'd have expected it the other way around. Again, the 987 is worse for rust than the previous 2 986's I've had.
I took the rust back to bare metal the best I could, treated it with a rust converter and then used some black stonechip to cover it. I don't think I'll be winning any concours awards anytime soon.
Making up some new brake lines.
I wanted to upgrade the brake master cylinder to a larger 997 GT3 one. It's a common modification on a standard braking system so definately worth while with my larger calipers. I had ordered one from Autodoc months back, they were only £80 but the order wasn't fulfilled, looks like the price on the part has gone right up since then, ended up paying £220 from my local motorfactor. Simple to fit as the system was already drained.
Before with the standard brakes.
After with the 8 pots fitted. They are not the best looking caliper with the strange lump on the front. apparently it helps with vibrations. I'm still waiting on stickers for the calipers. I'm running OEM Audi brake pads curtesy of Richard Hamilton on the Boxa.net forum. He fitted them to his RSQ3 and couldn't live with the sequels and went for some EBC pads instead. It's worth trying them out on mine as I might need to upgrade to something with more bite if the brake balance is an issue. Even if these pads don't squeal on my car my brakes will make themselves known, the discs are floating but they aren't spring loaded like most road car discs so I'm expecting some clunking.
There's not much room to spare behind the wheels, I've had to start using the guide pin thing that screws into a wheel bolt hole and comes with the tool kit when I remove or fit a wheel to stop me clouting the calipers. I'm still waiting on some brake banjo fittings so can't put fluid into the system and take it for a test drive.
Escy said:
The decals I ordered a few weeks ago finally arrived, wrong colour, ordered white but black looks fine. Think I might just leave the rears saying Lotus.
Weird bits look fine to me, though strangers approaching you on petrol station forecourts asking what's with the calipers may get wearing. The heaters aren't good. they'd take a while to produce warm air and when it was sat idling it would start to go cold again. Recently, I wasn't getting any cold air at all. It's just air trapped but all 3 Boxster's have been a bit iffy with the heaters so I've decided to add a small auxiliary coolant pump to try and sort it out. It's getting quite tight for space in the engine compartment, it's tucked up above other coolant hoses and mounted off a spare lug on the charge cooler, I knew it would come in handy which is why I hadn't cut it off.
When I first bought the car I knew there was some dodgy looking brake pipes, these are hidden behind an undertray, I bet loads of 9x7's brake pipes look like mine and owners and MOT testers don't know. I've been making up brake pipes for the new brake calipers so replaced these also. The bottle jack in the photo was to support the block, they were so corroded I thought I was going to snap the bolt that holds it.
Once all the new pipes were made I had to bleed the brakes. The system was completely dry so I would have had no chance without a pressure bleeder, even then it took a few goes to get the air out of the master cylinder.
When I first bought the car I knew there was some dodgy looking brake pipes, these are hidden behind an undertray, I bet loads of 9x7's brake pipes look like mine and owners and MOT testers don't know. I've been making up brake pipes for the new brake calipers so replaced these also. The bottle jack in the photo was to support the block, they were so corroded I thought I was going to snap the bolt that holds it.
Once all the new pipes were made I had to bleed the brakes. The system was completely dry so I would have had no chance without a pressure bleeder, even then it took a few goes to get the air out of the master cylinder.
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