Disc brake conversion (70 Dart)
Just curious, why does this chart compare '73 OEM
front brakes to Wilwood
rears ? Weird comparison or did I miss something ?
Apples and Oranges...obviously fronts have more impact on braking capability.
I'm definitely
NOT an
engineer or
rocket scientist, but is it a coincidence that all HP cars have an multi-piston brake caliper...must be a reason for it.
View attachment 1715206662
It compares front to fronts. The calculator I used was set up for calculating front and rears. The calculations are all the same, it just was labeled differently so I used the “rear” calculator for the wilwood specs to get a side by side comparison. I changed the labeling on most of the fields, but I guess I missed that one. It’s just a label on that field, it doesn’t change any of the calculations.
As for multi vs single piston brakes, you apparently haven’t actually read this thread very well.
Fixed, multi piston calipers are generally more efficient than single piston sliding calipers. With the single pistons some of the clamp force is lost to flex in the sliding mechanism and uneven clamping on the pads. Less of that force is lost on a fixed multi piston caliper because there’s less flex and more pistons.
But that’s in GENERAL. It doesn’t mean that
every fixed multi-piston brake caliper is better than
every floating single piston caliper. Which is why you still have to look at the clamp force. If it’s within 10 or 15%, you can safely assume that the fixed multi-piston caliper will actually put more force to the pads. But if the difference is much more than that, you can’t safely make that assumption anymore, you have to actually test the calipers and see what you get.
In this case, the OE calipers produce 24% MORE clamp force than that particular set of wilwoods. You can’t safely assume the wilwoods are that much more efficient. And even if you did, that would mean paying twice as much money for the same brake force.
