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Wilwood



I've used a lot of Wilwood brakes on hot rods and race cars. Just saw the announcement for new brake kit for Packards.

jack vines

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I haven't used them but I have talked to the Summit racing tech department about them. From what I learned they are a pretty good setup if memory serves me they are 11 inch rotors and 4 piston calipers which should be head and shoulders above a stock drum system. When i reach that stage of the project I will be getting them.

I looked at this kit in their site also, it looks pretty complete. One question I have though, would it be an improvement over the stock setup if the brakes were kept manual? I'm not really thinking of adding power brakes.

I would say yes. A properly sized disk as always going to be better than a drum. You wouldn't have to worry about brake fade and the chance of the brakes going away when you hit a good puddle are slim to none. In the aftermarket world competition cars have been using manual disk brakes for a long, long time as an improvement over factory drums.

The one thing I'm still curious about on this kit is part numbers and how many kits are made. Unless things are different since the last time I looked, they list the same kit and individual items as covering many years -- both junior and senior. As those who have installed other kits have found, one size or kit does not fit all years and models.

I will put the link for the Summit racing web page and the Wilwood page. It would seem that as per the Wilwood site they have many different years and models covered. Summit only shows one kit though. I spoke to the Summit tech department about the kits and from what they said it will fit the car as long as the assembly will fit the used wheel. I would venture a guess that an 11 inch rotor and caliper would work just fine with a 15 inch rim. My guess is Packard brakes must be similar to another make and model in order make a kit like this Profitable to Wilwood as Packard owners are a pretty small percentage of the population especially ones who would consider an aftermarket disk brake kit. Unless I hear otherwise I will pick up the kit and see how it all works out but I am still several month away from that stage of my project.

wilwood.com/BrakeKits/BrakeKitAdvisor.aspx?year=&make=Packard&model=110+Six&option=

summitracing.com/parts/wil-140-12724/overview/

I can tell you this from engineering my own disc brake conversion back in 2001:

The spindle has to be machined to accept a different inner wheel bearing.

The steering arm has to be ground or machined for clearance for the rotor.

Flexible brake hoses of the correct length have to be used.

You MAY have to use a proportioning valve depending on what you do with the rear brakes and what booster/MC you are using.

Clippers and Senior Packards have different wheel bolt patterns, so that may be an issue. I used Clipper wheels on the front of my 55 Pat.

A steel adapter plate must be used to mount the calipers.

Other than that...cake!

Craig

As stated in another thread I put the Kanter disk setup on my 38 Jr. Haven't had a chance to test them out yet but the install was a snap

36pack 120 coup. did any one warn of wheel chater on a disc brake system.as disc brakes will pull harder on the front end. i went with a 78 trans am front end with disc.power steering with rack and pinion.power booster master cyl.and 92 camaro rear end.with drum braks.to match the front disc. i am running a 383 stroker smc.with a turbo 350 trans. i will need good stopping power, good luck, roger

Before doing this make sure there is enough braking torque without using a power booster. Most disk brakes use boosters because they do not have self-servo action. A drum brake leading shoe or duo-servo design has servo action which increases the braking torque due to the "leverage" of the shoes. Take a look at a good brake theory book such as the "Brake Handbook" to dig into this more. Drum brakes do fade more than disk brake when hot. Part of this is due to the servo action, which magnifies change in shoe friction.