Diy: Skyline Front Big Brake Install

[PM-R33]

This DIY write up is on how to install a front big brake kit on a Nissan Skyline. Most models are pretty much the same in terms of brake upgrades with only minor differences. The particular brake kit I will be installing is the Wilwood kit that I put together for the group buy. Most larger aftermarket brake kits for a Skyline will be very similar so this should be helpful for anyone doing an upgrade.

Items required

Rags

Plastic container to catch old brake fluid

Loctite

New brake fluid

WD40

Hammer

Flat head screwdriver

Assorted spanners and sockets (mainly imperial for the Wilwoods)

Flare nut spanners

Tin snips or angle grinder

Black spray paint

File

Toque wrench

Allen keys

5/6-24 tap and accesories

Wilwood Kit Contents

Wilwood Billet Superlite 6 Piston Calipers

Wilwood Billet Caliper Adaptors

Wilwood 330mm x 32mm Slotted rotors

Wilwood Aluminium hats

D41 20mm Brake Pads

Hel Braided Brake Lines

WARNING

Installing a brake upgrade such as this can be dangerous if done incorrectly. I hold no responsibility for your actions. This is merely a guide and if you do not feel comfortable following it seek a professional.

PREPERATION

I suggest getting the calipers, rotors, pads and brackets ready first prior to ever touching the car. There are two reasons for this. The first is that your hands are clean and therefore it is safer to handle everything and the second is so you can make sure you have all the tools necessary prior to pulling your car apart. Having it all laid out on a towel inside makes for a comfortable way to get everything ready. There is nothing worse than having your car pulled apart in a million pieces and then realising you didnt buy something you needed.

ROTOR PREPERATION

So lets first start with getting the two piece rotors ready.

The first problem with a lot of two piece rotors is the threads in the hats get filled with paint during powder coating. This makes it nearly impossible to get the bolts to go in. Do not force the bolts to try and go in. If there is a lot of resistance you will need to tap the threads. This is not as hard as it sounds.

For the Wilwoods a 5/16"-24 hand tap needs to be used on each hole. Gently guide the tap into each hole until it catches. Do this from the inside as this is the direction the bolts will be going in. Do not force it in because you may end up cross threading. Once you feel it going in just use some pressure to go through. You don't need to go all the way since the bolts only go in about 3/4 of the way. You will see that the holes are no longer black inside but now silver. I also suggest having something placed underneath to catch all the aluminium shards that will get cut out.

Once all the holes are done align the rotor and hat to ensure all the holes line up and that the hat sits flat on the rotor. Then begin to insert the bolts by hand in a star pattern so equal force is applied in all areas. I found the easiest way to do this is to sit the rotor on its side and hold the hat with one hand and the bolts with the other. Remember that the bolts go in from the rear. Once they are all hand tightened and everything appears to sit correctly you may begin to remove one bolt at a time, apply some Loctite to the bolt and then tighten them with an allen key.

One again do this in a star pattern so equal pressure is applied to all bolts. Don't fully tighten them yet. Now get a torque wrench and tighten them to around 29Nm.

Once the rotors are done we can move on to the calipers.

CALIPER PREPERATION

For the calipers themselves the only thing that needs to be done is to apply the shims onto the brake pads and insert them into the rotor.

I would first suggest trial fitting the brake pads in to see if they sit correctly. Do this by undoing the long bolt that holds them in place on the top of the caliper. Once removed simply slide the pads in from the top. You will feel them slightly lock in around the edges. Here you can also notice what area of the brake pad comes in contact with the caliper pistons, that way you can see where abouts to apply the shims.

Remove the pads out from the caliper and apply the shims. These are just stick on ones that have a plastic backing on them that is just removed. Once stuck onto the brake pad place the brake pads back into the caliper and position the long bolt back into place. For the time being do not fully tighten the bolt as we will do this once the calipers are on the car (just in case you need to remove them).

Next thing is to make sure the bolts supplied go into the caliper adaptors without needing to tap them aswell. In this instance these were fine with only a slight resistance in two of the four holes; they didnt need to be tapped though.

That basically covers all the preparation needed. If everything appears to be good you can begin to jack up the car!

VEHICLE INSTALL

Once the car is off the ground and both front wheels are off you can begin removing the factory brake setup.

You can begin by either removing the brake lines or by removing the calipers. I choose to remove the calipers first to ensure everything else went on correctly without losing brake fluid. This would allow me to easily put everything back together if I had discovered that something didnt fit correctly or if I had wheel clearance issues.

Before removing anything, spray the brake lines and the bolts holding the calipers on with plenty of WD40 and let it soak in for a few minutes. If you havnt had your brakes off for a long time these bolts can be pretty tight and are easily rounded. I also recommend using proper flare nut spanners to detach the brake lines. These nuts are very easy to round. You have been warned.

Once everything is soaked remove the caliper and brake lines from the car (as said I left my brake lines on till the last minute). I wont go into to much detail on the brake line removal due to my other DIY. So just have a look here for more information regarding the brake lines.

Braided Brake Line Install DIY

Once your calipers are free from the car slide the rotor off. It can be slightly rusted on so just give it a bit of a forceful pull and it will come off.

Here is a comparison of the RDA rotors I had on there and the Wilwood ones.

This reveals the dust cover for the rotors. Unfortunately due to the larger rotors, this will get in the way. There are three options. The first option is to trim the edge of it back with some tin snips, the second is to trim the whole thing off and the third is to remove the hub and take the whole thing off. This third step can cause more dramas than it is worth so I choose not to go that route. Instead I decided to leave the dust cover in place and simply trim the edges with some tin snips. It is surprisingly easy to cut.

Once it is cut off, place your new rotor on to ensure there is proper clearance. Use some of your lug nuts to hold the rotor in place as it can move around quite a bit.

Once it is cut I filed back the edges so it wasnt sharp and sprayed it with some black paint to avoid it rusting. This isnt really required but it just neatens it up a bit and avoids possibly rusting. I would also suggest cleaning up the hub a bit. You can hit it with a steel wire drill bit or some sand paper if you are keen. I just cleaned it up with some wax and grease remover and it seemed to be allright. If it feels a bit rough then do a proper tidy up of it.

Now it is time to move onto the caliper adaptors. In the wildwood kit they supply you with metric black bolts to go into your hub and imperial gold bolts to go into the caliper. For the time being just hand tighten them into place (dont worry about washers and shims for the time being) so you can bolt the caliper on. This step is to ensure that your wheels do not foul on the brakes. Last thing you want is putting it all together, thinking you have finished and discovering that the wheel hits the caliper.

Hand tighten the bolts going into the hub, place the rotor back into position if you have removed it and now begin by sliding the caliper on top of the rotor. It will be a very tight fit so a bit of force might be necessary. Once in place align the caliper bracket at the rear of the caliper and hand tighten the remaining two bolts.

Place your wheel into position and check for any clearance issues. Mine had plenty of room.

If everything is good you can begin getting everything correct for proper installation. You will notice that without using the shims, the rotor will be impossible to rotate by hand. This is because the caliper is not correctly aligned due to the caliper adapator.

Every car will be a little bit different but for mine I found that the three shims were just slightly not enough. So instead I used one of the supplied washers and two shims. This gave a perfect amount. I reused the factory spring washer as a replacement for the washer that I just used.

These shims will go between the caliper adaptor and the hub only, you will see straight away how it moves caliper into position.

Once fitted test correct alignment by rotating the rotor by hand. It should be fairly smooth to rotate. There may be some resistance from the brake pads but it should be possible to rotate it as many times as you want. If not and there is a large resistance, then you may need to use slightly less or slightly more shims. Have a look at the caliper adaptor and see if it is straight. A larger amount of shims will push the caliper angle towards the drivers side and less shims will push it at an angle towards the passenger side.

If everything is aligned properly remove each bolt individually and apply some loctite to the area where is sits in the threads. Have a look where that is by looking at the remaining bolt. Then tighten up to around 60Nm.

Now tighten up the long bolt that holds the brake pads in place with an allen key and a spanner that I mentioned to leave undone at the start.

The last thing to do is to install the brake lines. Once again refer to the other DIY for more information.

And thats it! Have a breather for a while and do the other side. The other side will take half the time now that you know exactly what to do. Then fill the brake fluid back up and bleed the brakes. Remember that there is bleed points on each side of these calipers for better bleeding.

Here is a nice before and after shot for comparison.

WARNING

Before driving the car triple check that every bolt is tightened! For the first drive go around the block very slowly testing the brakes to make sure they work! If at any point in time you lose braking use the hand brake to slow you down.

If everything is fine then go out somewhere to bed the brakes in. There are a few different methods so I wont go into that, just do whatever you have normally been taught.

Phil

[PM-R33]

One other thing that I wanted to mention was weight

My factory calipers with pads (that were well worn compared to new) came in at around 4.2kg each.

The Wilwoods with brand new pads that are twice the size of normal pads came in at around 3.7kg each.

My RDA rotors of 296mm x 30mm that were once again worn came in at around 9.6kg each.

The Wilwood 330mm x 32mm two piece rotors fully assembled came in at around 8.5kg each.

The other extra weight came in at the two extra bolts, washers and shims, however due to removing some of the factory dust shield, those weights roughly cancelled out.

So all up, not only is it a much larger brake kit, it also comes in at a total weight saving of around 3.2kg of unsprung mass!

[WYTSKY]

Awesome tut as always mate, Well done. Looks tough.

[Nur33]

Nice work Phil how much did they set ya back, awesome detail in the tutorial, will be interesting to know how they perform against the likes of my AP's and Kingy's Brembos when he puts them on. Where they very difficult to bleed up?

At least you have plenty of clearance by the looks of it, i had to put 20mm spacers on my front wheel and file the f**k out of my caliper to make them fit.

I Got 370x36mm Fronts and 330x32mm Rears they work awesome but my rims don't stay clean for long

[PM-R33]

Very nice, those are huge lol.

They were $1850 delivered from the group buy. Yep plently of clearance. Bleeding was the same as normal.

My street tyres are the limiting factor so looking forward to getting some semi slicks next to see how they truely perform. Should go allright.

[Nur33]

Hit Up Tire Rack in America for tires they are the cheapest around buy far, Kingy and i both got a Set of 4 Advan AD08's 275/35 R19's for $1500 Delivered. You would be lucky to get 2 of them for $1500 in Aus, fast delivery as well only took a couple of weeks.

[PM-R33]

Cheers will have a look

[Tweaky]

Just got my Attkd 8 piston front upgrade kit today & the only thing i think i may have a problem with , is the new caliper hitting the inside of my front rims. At the moment with the standard 4 spots on , there is only 3 to 4 mm gap from outside of caliper to inside of rim. The rims already have a spacer on them so they don't hit the calipers. With the new 356mm x 32mm rotor , that would mean the new caliper would sit out further then the current one which is on the car , causing this problem. Did ur caliper sit out further then ur standard one or did they sit exactly in the same place ? How could i rectify this problem if it happens ? I will know on the weekend when i start doing the job if it is ok or not ! Any advice would be much appreciated

[PM-R33]

The caliper will obviously move outwards with bigger rotors. That's what the caliper adaptor does.

Your only option would be to fit bigger spacers or buy new wheels.

[Tweaky]

The caliper will obviously move outwards with bigger rotors. That's what the caliper adaptor does.

Your only option would be to fit bigger spacers or buy new wheels.

I had a funny feeling that would be my only two options , replacing rims is an expensive task & think Mrs would crack it big time Lol ! Can u buy wheel spacers at certain thicknesses or do u have to get them made up by an engineering place ?Just answered my own question they have them on Just Jap

Edited May 3, 2011 by Tweaky

[Jap_star]

any issues with spongyness with the standard master cylinder? fitted similar sized brakes not long ago and dont like the pedal feel. looking at going a BM57 to get it back to normal

[Duncan]

Just got my Attkd 8 piston front upgrade kit today & the only thing i think i may have a problem with , is the new caliper hitting the inside of my front rims. At the moment with the standard 4 spots on , there is only 3 to 4 mm gap from outside of caliper to inside of rim. The rims already have a spacer on them so they don't hit the calipers. With the new 356mm x 32mm rotor , that would mean the new caliper would sit out further then the current one which is on the car , causing this problem. Did ur caliper sit out further then ur standard one or did they sit exactly in the same place ? How could i rectify this problem if it happens ? I will know on the weekend when i start doing the job if it is ok or not ! Any advice would be much appreciated

it won't necessarily be a problem. The ATTKD calipers are narrower front to rear than the factory ones by a few mm so it may not hit.

I'd recommend taking the old caliper and disc off (leave the brake line attached), and dummy fit the new ones with wheel over. You may be pleasantly surprised

[Tweaky]

it won't necessarily be a problem. The ATTKD calipers are narrower front to rear than the factory ones by a few mm so it may not hit.

I'd recommend taking the old caliper and disc off (leave the brake line attached), and dummy fit the new ones with wheel over. You may be pleasantly surprised

The other factor which comes into play is the rotor thickness. Current rotors are 25mm thick & the upgraded ones are 32mm. So there will be 7mm more , which i think will make the new rotor hit the rim once fitted. The wheel currently has a 10mm spacer on it , to keep it from hitting the caliper. Thinking of buying a 25mm spacer just in case , so the job doesn't go to a halt if things don't work out .

[PM-R33]

any issues with spongyness with the standard master cylinder? fitted similar sized brakes not long ago and dont like the pedal feel. looking at going a BM57 to get it back to normal

Yet to drive it yet. Will hopefully today and update.

[PM-R33]

FIRST TEST DRIVE

So I went to take the car for a first drive attempt and realised that the brakes were barely working and therefore still had plenty of air in them damnit.

So I bled the front brakes again and again until I thought all the air was out. I also suggest using a rubber mallet to give the calipers a bit of a hit to get the air out of any trapped areas. Trust me, you think you have all the air out but you don't. Just keep working at them.

Anyway once they were bled properly and my girlfriend hated me for making her bleed the brakes with me (thanks love!) I went for test drive number 2. It was pretty late at night and not many cars on the road so was a good opportunity to see how they went.

Driving out of my suburb I noticed that the pedal had a bit of a different feel to it. The grab point of the brakes was slightly lower down. Which I suppose could be due to the stock GTST master cylinder (something I will look into if need be), however nothing that was bad. After about 10 minutes of driving I was completely used to it. I would prefer it to be higher though so if a master cylinder upgrade would fix that I might go down that road. But like I said, it isn't bad.

There was a slight rattle noise from the calipers which I knew straight away was those tubes over the long bolts that lock the brake pads in place. I noticed that they spun freely while putting them together and figured they would make noise. It wasn't that annoying but I think I will just remove those tubes; don't really know why they are needed in the first place.

So I got up to a bit of open road, got up to some speed and started bedding the pads in and having a bit of a test out on how they went. I wasn't expecting a huge amount of difference due to my old brake setup being pretty good and really the limiting factor of my setup would be the street tyres (tyres do most of the braking afterall), however I was wrong. As soon as I stood down on the brakes WOW completely different!

It's hard to desribe but the pull from the brakes feels heaps, HEAPS stronger than before. Not even jumping on the pedal, simply just squeezing the brakes makes the whole car dig into the ground and you can really feel the front dive under brakes. I wasn't game enough to actually stomp down on them because I knew it would lock the wheels up with ease. I have hit my old brakes hard plenty of times and felt the G-force towards the windscreen, but this was much, much stronger. I honestly wasn't expecting it and did the same thing a few times over, watching how fast the speedo needle went back the other way and listening to the tyres squeeling against the road. Was actually quite fun!

There wasn't any shuddering or bad noises just a slight squeel from the new brake pads at extremely low speeds which is expectable. So overall that was a relief. Don't need to make any adjustments on the shims. Even if they were slightly out the brake pads would wear slightly unevenly for the initial period and then be all good after that.

Really looking forward to getting some heat into them through the hills to see how far they can be pushed. My old brakes would start fading on high speed down hill runs. Hopefully these bad boys hold out a lot more.

Overall very happy, can't wait to try them with some sticky rubber

[DVS JEZ]

Awesome write up.

So far i have found during fitment that there is not enough clearance between the pads and the rotor. So i took the shims back off the back of the pads to get a bit of clearance. The way i see it is during the bed in period i would prefer some clearance to ensure the brakes arent over heated and glaze up.

Then once the pads have worn abit i can fit the shims to the pads.

[PM-R33]

Yep that's a good idea. Mine weren't that bad. Needed a little bit of force to get them over the rotor but once they were on and the shims adjusted accordingly I could spin the rotor with my hand which was good.

One thing I will do however is after about another week or so of driving i'm going to take the wheels off and just go over every bolt again with the torque wrench to ensure they have not come slightly loose.

[Tweaky]

Hey Guys

Installed my Attkd front brake upgrade kit over the weekend . These are 8 pot calipers with 356mm rotors . Just thought i would add a before & after pic of the factory setup & the Attkd setup.

[Checkbuzz]

Hi Guys

I have been installing a K Sport 330mm 8 pot kit on my ECR33 and I would like to add a couple of points that may save you money and headaches down the road:

1. Buy yourself a dial indicator with a magnetic base stand ($90 Repco) and check the new disk rotor for run out (should be <0.05mm) and oscillation (should be <0.15) once you have cleaned the hub and fitted it to the car using wheels nuts and about 30NM of torque (Google anything you don't know here)

2. If run out is out of tolerance rotate the disk by one wheel stud, refit and measure (mark original position first) often run out can be brought into tolerance by simply rotating the disk until you find the spot where run out is at it's lowest.

3. To fix any remaining excessive run out you must clean the hub face up until it is shiny using a wire brush (preferably pneumatic) and fine emery paper. The hub cannot be too clean; as you can imagine it only takes a tiny bit of rust scale to put the edge of the disk out by 50 microns!!! (i.e. 0.05mm)

4. If you can't get it within tolerance check hub play (<0.05mm) and run out (<0.02mm) replace hub or wheel bearing if out of tolerance

5. If you do not do this be prepared to replace your disks after about 5000kms due to DVT caused by the excessive run out (symptom = pulsating brake pedal and/or brake shudder)

6. Both of these measurements if not within tolerance can also cause brake shudder and/or vibration at high speed

7. Excessive oscillation can be sometimes brought within tolerance by wrapping plumbers tape around the centre of the hub and refitting the disk

These tolerances, tests and remedies are documented in the Nissan work shop manual and/or K Sport supporting doco.

The tolerances are tiny but quite critical to on going good brake performance

[PM-R33]

Interesting, might give that a go to see how they are. Cheers.