1982 Lada Niva

Today i was finally able to get the white elephant out of the garage so i'll have space to work. First thing i did is to lay down some cardboard on the ground and place the axle housing on it after looking at it i know the brake discs will hang lower then it so i put it on some wooden blocks. Then i slide the axles in and placed the brake calipers, this show me what to do next, the easiest way is just to make a thick bracket and weld it to the axle housing, the caliper mount is so offset that i don't have a straight shot to the bearing flange and making an offset bracket is a hassle. So i made a CAD prototype bracket and test fitted it, next i'll make one of thin aluminium to make sure it fits well and then i'll make them from some 1/2 plate. Can't wait to have the little niva back on the road.
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I am going from memory from more years ago than I like to admit. Circle track dirt car, we did sort of the same thing with rear disc brakes. I believe there is a particular angle for best braking as far as where your brackets are located. Maybe one of the racing guys will see this and have some input.
Jeff
 
I agree with JSH. I am in no way any type of authority on the matter but i did ask a ford brake engineer specialist once when discussing doing a rear swap to disc in my ram 4x4. Within his explanation one thing I remember him saying was amongst other potential problems the incorrect "angle of attack" (his words) could/would induce a bad wheel hop and lessen braking ability. I couldnt explain the whole concept as to why but listening to him made sense so please make sure to do a bit of research into this so you gain the Max safe Braking possible
 
That goes through several ideas, but in the end, sums up my knowledge. Front axle, the brakes are generally the opposite side of the knuckle, from the tie rods. Rear axle,- independent suspension, is placed by the forces, exerted on the mounting points. Solid axle, can be any where.

Whether its placed on the front or rear, or towards the top, depends on the bleeder port, it needs to be at the highest position of the hydraulics.

On thing I am not sure of, looking at it only from a cooling issue, is it better to have the caliper in the major airflow (I'm assuming the rear side of the axle, with a rim that has lots of openings in it. Or is it better to have the caliper in the least air flow, opening up more of the rotor to catching air? My thinking would be the second, since most calipers do not have any type of fins, or other cooling features built into them, so the MFG is not as concerned about the caliper retaining heat.
 
I appreciate all the advice, i've been modifying and racing cars on the street before i even had a driving licence and the first rule in racing is your car needs to stop faster than it can go so i've done many brake upgrades and conversions most of them DIY using van and truck parts and the only real rule i've found is to place the bleeder on the top, i've had to switch caliper sides because van had the caliper on the front of the rotor and i had space on the back it always worked. In my opinion the hardest part of upgrading the brakes is to make the OEM wheels fit becouse i'm all about that OEM look.
 
I had wondered about wheel clearance. All that work I was pretty sure you had checked. The off set of wheel centers is critical.
I recall a story a fellow put some after market wheels on and the car would not move. He fooled with the brakes for quite some time before he figured out the wheels were against the calipers,lol. Funny now but I am sure not at the time.
 
great quote......I'm gonna use that!
-brino
That is from experience, back in 2007 when i was starting to mess around with DIY turbocharging, i found myself with a snapped axle on the brakes with both feet missing a corner went down the embankment nearly missed the bridge and finally stopped there. That car resemble a banana after that, non of the doors worked it was so bent the roof looked like corrugated sheet metal too bad i lost all my old pictures couple years ago.
 
That is from experience, back in 2007 when i was starting to mess around with DIY turbocharging, i found myself with a snapped axle on the brakes with both feet missing a corner went down the embankment nearly missed the bridge and finally stopped there. That car resemble a banana after that, non of the doors worked it was so bent the roof looked like corrugated sheet metal too bad i lost all my old pictures couple years ago.
I am glad you survived that one.

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