The car was originally equipped with manual front disc brakes. I had these brakes on the car from 1992, when I bought the car, until the summer of 2004. I then installed a brake kit put together by Ken McIntire of McIntire Machining. This is a great setup but it’s not cheap. I did it because my stock manual front disc setup was just terrible. I’m sure the stock setup would have been improved with new rotors/pads, braided lines and a fluid flush but I just didn’t want to spend a few hundred dollars on “stock” stuff. So I shelled out and got a Ken’s kit with big Wilwood rotors and massive aluminum calipers.
I did hit a couple of snags:
- I was accidentally given two of the same hand caliper. They are right and left handed and you need to have the bleeder screws at the top. When installing the system I grabbed one caliper, made sure the bleeder screws were on top and then installed the 2nd caliper without checking. Well, when I went to bleed the brakes I found out that the side I didn’t check had the bleeder screws on the bottom. A quick call to Ken and he got me the correct caliper.
- The 16×8 Vintage Wheelworks V40s hit the calipers. Just barely but they touched. Ken told me to get some spacers and that’s what I did.
- Not really a snag but the system required a LOT of bleeding. The front calipers each have 2 bleeder screws and you need to bleed BOTH bleeders (so that’s 4 bleeders for the front of the car). I think I’ve got it just about completely bled and the pedal is really solid now.
I also changed over to a power brake booster when I installed the kit. The whole setup works great now. Anyway, if you have the money this is a great way to go. The parts Ken machines are top notch and you take a lot of weight off the front end of the vehicle!
Finally, I replaced all the brake hardline with stainless steel lines and replaced the rear rubber line with a braided line. I went to my local circle track race shop and got a line plus adapters and a t-fitting.
