Disk Brakes with 14" Vector Wheels

[Moparman01]

I ran into an issue installing front disk brakes on my '69 General, the 11 inch rotors with the calipers do not clear the inside of the Vector wheel, they are rubbing all the way around and also snag on the wheel weights. I was told by my mechanic buddy who did the install that the Vector wheel is different inside than regular 14" mags or other aftermarket wheels and that 11 inch disks will never work. Aside from the calipers rubbing, i also can not find the right brake hoses to fit my application!?!? I've gone thru part store books left and right and the "banjo" end hose for the calipers i have just don't seem to exist. I'm now not sure exactly what i have for brakes, when i got them i was told they were for B-body Mopars, i got them from a Mopar parts guy i've known for years, i hate to think he'd rip me off but it's possible i guess. Although, everything fit good up untill it was time install the hoses and wheels. So, i'm not sure which way to go right now. A set of 15" Vectors are just not in the budget right now, they seem to be hard to find and the ones i have found (ebay) are insanely priced. I could order a brand new aftermarket brake set from somewhere like SS Brakes for 14" wheels, but i'm affraid even if i do the calipers that come with the kit will not clear the wheels as well, and i'd be out $600! I know there are alot of General Lee's here with the origional American Racing 14" Vectors, if anyone has disk brakes please lemmie know what i need to get to make them work on mine!! Thanks

[bull]

I've never heard of any disc brake calipers fitting inside 14" wheels. There's an outside chance the Dart 10.87" setup will work but I doubt it. I've got the Dart setup on mine but with the 11.75" Fury rotors and there's very little daylight between my calipers and the 15" wheels.

[Mopar Nut]

I just installed Baer disc brakes on my Charger and my 14" wheels fit fine.

[Moparman01]

Yeah my Dad's 70 Cuda has 14" Rally's up front with disk brake conversion kit from The Right Stuff, they fit great so i know disks will work with 14" rims. The problem is, i have read on a couple different brake sites that not all 14" wheels are compatible with disk brakes, magnum 500's are one of them, is there any truth in that?

[Dino]

Yeah my Dad's 70 Cuda has 14" Rally's up front with disk brake conversion kit from The Right Stuff, they fit great so i know disks will work with 14" rims. The problem is, i have read on a couple different brake sites that not all 14" wheels are compatible with disk brakes, magnum 500's are one of them, is there any truth in that?

Yes, there is no standard size when it comes to the inside of the rims.  You can measure 5 different wheels and get 5 different results.  My kit has the 10.75" rotors and the warning that came with it says it 'may' fit some 14" wheels but they actually need 15's.  I honestly doubt they will fit in my road wheels but that's okay since I'm going to 15" rims anyway.  Or I may get 17" wheels and get different brakes alltogether.

[Cooter]

We run into this with the '58 Plymouths and the F. Look cars. Rule of thumb is if the wheel was manufactured, or manufactured for DRUM braks, Disc's WILL NOT FIT...If the 14" wheel was manufactured for Disc brake cars then your ok...

[BrianShaughnessy]

Would anything like a 1/4" or 1/2" spacer help?     

Plenty of good aluminum billet spacers on ebay.   Mustangs have the same bolt pattern so just search on that.  I run 1/4" billet mustang spacers on the front to clear the Cragars with the Viper brakes. 

[resq302]

Factory 4 piston Bendix calipers work fine on my 14" road wheels.  Granted, they are not the Vector wheels in question so I guess it all depends on the application.   

[Moparman01]

Would anything like a 1/4" or 1/2" spacer help?     

Plenty of good aluminum billet spacers on ebay.   Mustangs have the same bolt pattern so just search on that.  I run 1/4" billet mustang spacers on the front to clear the Cragars with the Viper brakes. 

Spacers might work, i was just told about them today actually so i'm gonna pull one of the wheels off and try it. My fathers auto parts store has 5/16 spacers in stock, gonna throw them in and see what happens.

[HPP]

Whos kit is it? I'm unfamiliar with an 11" kit. Most common ones out there are 11.75 and 10.87 in stock discs and 10.5" in a number of aftermarket units. The 10.5 and 10.87 were designed specifially to have a diameter to fit inside a 14" wheel. 11.75 absolutely will not fit in a 14" wheel and require a 15" wheel minimum.

Alternately, yes, way back before disc brakes were everywhere, wheels were made to fit flat on a drum face. If you have drum specific wheels, they may not have the arch in the spokes to allow caliper clearence. I thought Vectors came out late enough to have disc clearence built in to them, but they may not. It was probably around the mid 1970s that manufacturers quite making dedicated drum wheels. There was a time when disc brakes and radial tires were new fangled crap that people didn't want to deal with.

So what part does not fit, the diameter or the offset? If offset, the spacers will work. If diameter, then only smaller rotors and caliper adpaters or larger diameter wheels will resolve the issue.  Since your friend said they were off a B body, did you ask him what year and model? He might have given you the large diameter, 11.75 units off a late 70s B body.

[Moparman01]

It's the Dia. that isn't working. The disks might be 10.87", with them on the car it is hard to measure obviously but using a tape measure and a couple straight edges i came up with roughly 11", not very accurate way to measure i know. I didn't use a kit, the parts came from a buddy of mine that was supposed to fit or came off a B-body, everything does fit just fine. The rotors are brand new parts store units. I have one if the wheels off right now, the caliper is rubbing the inside of the wheel about an inch deep toward the inside of the wheel, although it's a not a very heavy rub. Doesn't need much more clearence, about an 1/8 of an inch would probably take care of it. Another buddy of mine told me to grind the tops of the calipers down, not sure if i like that idea or not. If i went to a 10.5 inch rotor, will the stock calipers work with the smaller rotors?

[HPP]

No, the stock calipers won't work with a 10.5 rotor. The 10.5 rotors are the size aftermarket companies like Wilwood and Baer use to match their caliper brackets that hold their calipers. The stock bracket that holds the stock caliper would not hold the caliper in the correct position to match an aftermarket rotor either radially or laterally.

How much space is between the outer edge of the rotor and the bridge of the caliper? If you have more than .125" of space there, you could try slotting the mounting hole of the caliper bracket and move the caliper closer to the center of the rotor. Heck for that matter, you might try loosening these up and pushing them down a bit to see if that gains you anything. These holes are a bit bigger than the bolts that go through them and there may be enough slop in there to get you the room you need.