Merkur XR4TI Caliper Adapters for 11.75in rotors & JVAB hats $20 for a pai

I had to make a few for a project, and now I have a bunch of spares. Think of it as an upgrade to a good system.
Made from 3/8in water jet mild steel. Drilled and tapped for 7/16-NF hardware.
These work with the JVAB Wilwood brake kit, and 15in wheels (leaves ~7/16-1/2in of clearance between the caliper and wheel). This ups the rotors size from 11in to 11.75in. It allows for a wider selection of rotors to be used, these can be ordered from any performance shop. This also allows the use of the caliper bridge bolt and spacer, resulting in a firmer pedal and less pad taper. The bolt holes are also spaced correctly the ford knuckle and the Wilwood caliper.
They will need spacers made for the caliper offset, as this appears to not be exactly consistent across the different knuckles. 0.475in spacers centered the calipers up for me, but your results may vary.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2015 04:14PM by Robert Culbertson.

I love mine!

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Robert.

"You are way too normal to be on Rally Anarchy." Eddie Fiorelli.

The JVAB rotors are 11.3" OD not 11.. Nice that people can get cheaper off the shelf rotors..But that size means the rotors are awfully close to the wheel--much higher likelihood of rock damage on the backside...
Whatever.

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
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is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

John, the rotors may be 11.3, but the calipers sit so far down them that you have to remove the bridge spacer AND file the bolt heads down AND grind the pads for clearance. The effective diameter is 11in. The rotors are also machined by one place in the US, who also can't be bothered to return calls or emails. So....

Wheel scrapers take about an hour to make, instant wheel and caliper protection.

Quote
Robert Culbertson
John, the rotors may be 11.3, but the calipers sit so far down them that you have to remove the bridge spacer AND file the bolt heads down AND grind the pads for clearance. The effective diameter is 11in. The rotors are also machined by one place in the US, who also can't be bothered to return calls or emails. So....

Wheel scrapers take about an hour to make, instant wheel and caliper protection.

I didn't have to do any of that.

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Grant Hughes

Quote
NoCoast

Quote
Robert Culbertson
John, the rotors may be 11.3, but the calipers sit so far down them that you have to remove the bridge spacer AND file the bolt heads down AND grind the pads for clearance. The effective diameter is 11in. The rotors are also machined by one place in the US, who also can't be bothered to return calls or emails. So....

Wheel scrapers take about an hour to make, instant wheel and caliper protection.

I didn't have to do any of that.

Huh, I guess you got lucky. Both sets that I worked on required those modifications to work. Maybe you got lucky with your choice of pad and rotor size? I can tell you that both sets had the same issue of the bolt heads and the hat material occupying the same space as the brake pads. The mismatch in the diameter and the position of the caliper meant that there also wasn't enough room to run the caliper bridge support. The rotors also collapsed on the inner diameter since 8-10mm of it is unsupported by the vanes.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2015 11:55PM by Robert Culbertson.

I had to grind my pads. I don't remember what else I had to do. There was something funny with the spacing but it may have been on the back. The front kit had more clearance than the back. The front kit would fit mustang 10 hole rims. Not so on the back. It looks awfully close to that racing rim....any idea if a saab 15 spoke wheel would fit on there?

Ya know, come to think of it, I may have just let the bolt heads machine themselves on the brake pad and just kept a very close eye on them to make sure it was machining and not spinning.

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Grant Hughes

John, don't get me wrong (I see how my above post wasn't exactly PC and friendly, stupid internet not being able to catch my exaggerations and voice in text). Your kit works well for what it is, but there are some issues that are just part of that design. The adapters I made just get around these issues, but they do bring the caliper closer to the wheel.
Will the adapters work with SAAB wheels? I have no idea.

I have had similar calipers on my Evo, and I do remember having to grind a notch in a set of pads once. There's supposed to be a notch in the backing plate so the bridge bolt holds them in nice an tight...but I don't think all mfgrs had that notch.

Have also had to grind pads for the OEM Evo rear brakes, those were the CL brand, and I think it was to make clearance for the bolts on 2-piece rotors that were OEM size.

Dave

Bumping this back up since I just tripped over the adapters last night.

Price is OBO.
John, you want some?