Capri 260mm Front Brake Conversion
Hub Modification:
The standard hub needs some modification to fit the new disk from the wheel side. This is achieved by turning down the hub in a lathe so that the hub will fit inside the new disk.
The dimensions I used are as follows:
Front flange: turn edge down to a diameter of 135mm
Original disk mounts: turned down to a diameter of 83mm
Longer wheel studs are available from Rally design.Standard +13mm (47mm long M12x1.5 Ford) 80p each
Fitting new wheel bearings:
I chose to replace the wheel bearings at this time. I removed the old bearings, but left the outer races in place for “truing up” during turning the hubs down. After the machining work, I carefully removed the old outer races using a suitable drift.
To fit the new bearing races, I
had a special tool tuned up. This allows the race to be guided in carefully
using a vice.
Fitting longer wheel studs:
Studs are fitted by pressing them in using a vice and spacer tube as per photos below:
Callipers:
These are sourced from a MK3 Granada (not 2.9 24V) or a Sierra with ABS, which uses the 260mm diameter x 24mm thick, ventilated disks.
Disks:
260mm x 24mm ventilated from Sierra XR4i or Series 2 Escort RS Turbo.
Brackets, bolts and spacers:
CapriSport designed this conversion, and as such are the only supplier of brackets. They are made from 10mm thick mild steel, and have 4 holes, of which 2 are tapped to M10. The other 2 holes are 11mm clearance holes. The Tapped holes are for mounting the bracket to the strut.
The calliper carrier is an odd shape, and as a result, requires spacer washers fitting between it and the mounting bracket. These spacer washers are aprox. 5mm thick, but could be as small as 3mm depending on how well the calliper carrier aligns with the disk. It is important to get the carrier absolutely parallel with the disk, so the pads will sit flat to the disk etc.
On my car, the spacer needed between the struts and brackets are 3mm, and the spacer between the brackets and calliper carriers are 5mm.
The picture above shows how the bolts fit to the strut and calliper setup.
The circled bolt requires a small groove to be made in the original calliper mounting lug on the strut. This is to allow enough clearance for the head of the bolt.
The bolts are M10 x 30mm cap head.
Important: The bolts MUST be high tensile 12.9’s
Flexi hoses:
These can be bought from CapriSport, but you can easily make your own with off the shelf parts from Rally Design.
Firstly you need some brake hose. It’s the Euroquip 600 hose, and 2 metres will be more than enough.
Rally Design do a ready-made kit for inner wing to strut. The strut to calliper is the one that needs making.
For the calliper end to the strut, for each calliper, you need:
The swivel end allows you to screw the male end in to the calliper, fit the calliper, and still allow you to fit the hose from the inner wing.
The Picture above shows the correct layout for the flexi hoses.
Master cylinder and servo unit:
There are a few combinations of calliper and master cylinder that can be used. The combination I chose is the Capri 2.8i servo unit fitted with the 23.8mm master cylinder from a MK2 Granada 2.8i. This should work well with the MK3 Granada callipers with the 60mm pistons as Ford used a 23.8mm master cylinder on the Sierras when fitted with the 60mm piston callipers.
I am told that the 22.2mm Capri 2.8i cylinder works quite well, albeit with more pedal travel. Other master cylinder options are the 24 or 25mm Land Rover cylinders, but for this, you need to fit a Capri 2 litre servo unit, and as there is only one outlet for the front circuit, a splitter is required. When using the 23.8mm MK2 Granada cylinder, use the Capri 2.8i fluid reservoir.
The right hand photo above shows the modification to the vacuum line from the inlet manifold. The original metal pipe needs cutting to allow a cut down flexible pipe and vacuum fitting from a Capri 2.8i to be fitted to it when fitting in a 1600, as the pipe originally bends back upwards to the servo and it won’t fit to the vacuum port on the 2.8i servo.