Rebuild/install thread: Endless Big Brake Kit from WRX onto BRZ

[mav1178]

A friend of mine is semi-parting out a WRX, and I was able to secure the Endless Big Brake Kit off his car.

The calipers are the mini-6 pot calipers, and rotors measure 326x30mm.

I'll be taking apart the calipers and having them rebuilt, as well has cleaning up and reanodizing the rotor hats as well as the calipers.

Stay tuned...

On WRX:


Stock vs Endless:


Stock front rotor vs Endless:


-alex

[mav1178]

Disassembly of the calipers:

Caliper:


Taking apart the calipers:




Removing brake pistons on a 4/6-piston caliper setup often requires compressed air and a block of wood. I won't go into details about this too much, but if you've never rebuilt a 4 piston caliper before, beware that you have to try to loosen all 4 pistons. This often involves pushing out one piston, reinserting it, then finding a way to push out a second piston. There are a few writeups online that can be found on how to rebuild brake calipers.


The Endless caliper halves uses a steel tube for fluid transfer. After I removed the pistons from one half of the caliper, I removed this tube to push out the pistons from the other half of the caliper.



Bare caliper:


I then took apart the halves of the caliper for cleaning and reanodizing. There are 4x 6mm bolts and 2x 8mm bolts holding the caliper halves together.

Reanodized calipers:

The new "blue" is a slightly different shade than the original color. It's fairly close, and with some brake dust on there it will look the same.

I mostly wanted the front of the caliper and the rotor hats to match...

Waiting for parts to come in from Japan for rebuild.

Rebuilding calipers:

Endless caliper rebuild kit includes a total of 4 caliper piston seals, 4 caliper piston dust seals, and one tube of silicone grease.


There are three different piston sizes, it's best to line up the seals accordingly before you start. First, the larger caliper piston seal goes in, then the smaller dust seal.


It's best to apply some grease onto latex gloves first, then apply it to the seal:



Installation of the seal is fairly straightforward, push one edge of the seal in and use index fingers to guide it in the groove. You can even use some brake fluid at this stage to make it easier, but that's not necessary.


Repeat above for remaining pistons and also the outer dust seal.

After this is done, the caliper pistons can be pressed in. There was enough silicone grease applied when the seals were installed to push in the pistons with ease. A bit of brake fluid can also be used to lubricate them.


All 12 pistons pushed in:


I also took the opportunity to clean up the hardware that's being reused.

Brake kit hardware (less bobbin pins):


The brake pad retaining clips need to be reinstalled. I had to purchase new hex bolts since the old ones were destroyed while removing them. Cost for heat-treated bolts were around $3-4 at King Bolt in Covina, CA.

Apply a small amount of ThreadLocker Red (high temp) to the bolt, and install the clips.


Caliper hardware reinstalled:

Caliper lettering sanding & reassembly:

The caliper originally had shaved letters that were exposed. I knew I couldn't replicate the look 100%, but if I could get the letters fairly close to the look then I would be happy with it.
To sand, I started by masking off the letters completely. A small razor blade was used to cut out the lettering, creating a surface to sand with.


I used 3M Emery Cloth sandpaper (100 medium grit) to shave the letters. I simply tri-folded the sandpaper and used the pressure of my thumb to slowly remove the anodize. This wasn't the cleanest way, but it was pretty good considering the metal had all sorts of imperfections in the surface.


Here's a closeup; the edges are hard to get to without damaging the main body of the caliper, so I left it as-is. It won't be as clear once I have it on the car anyhow, brake dust will just cover it up.


Once both outer halves are done, it's time to reassemble the caliper...


As with most bolts that are in critical areas, apply a bit of high temp ThreadLock Red to the bolt.


Reassemble the bolts, and much like torquing down an engine head assembly or your wheels, you want to spread the load out as evenly as possible. I went from the innermost bolts outward, in an alternating fashion.



...aaand we're done with the calipers!

Caliper bleeder valves (Speed Bleeders) and fluid transfer tube:

As shown in a previous photo, the Endless calipers uses a tube to transfer brake fluid between caliper halves. This is a fairly common design for aftermarket big brake kits..

To start, I used some of the Speed Bleeder thread sealant I have on hand to coat the threads on the flared fitting ends.


Since the tube doesn't flex on either side, it's best to slowly thread in both sides as equally as you can. Use a 10mm flare nut wrench and turn each side a turn or two, then do the other side.



Finished fluid tube on one side:


To make life easier, I picked up some Speed Bleeders to replace the Endless bleeders. It's the same thread/size as what would go on the stock BRZ brakes, SB1010-SS (or Russell part #639560), but you'd obviously need a total of 2 sets for the front calipers (2 bleeders per caliper)




Finished up the caliper bits:

Replacement rotors:

The Endless rotors have a color system built in to the side. You can clearly see the colors as well as the directional curved vanes.


At 450C/842F, the green will fade. At 630C/1166F, the red will fade. The goal here is to maintain ideal temperatures between 400-600C for a track-oriented compound, but not overheat the brakes. At the same time. the brakes should also not be overcooled to prolong disc and pad life.
More info on this paint: http://www.apracing.com/Info.aspx?In...&ProductID=976

Replacement bobbin pins:


Installation is fairly straightforward: install bobbin pins, use threadlocker on pin screws (recommended), torque in cross pattern to ~12ft-lb... torque wrench is not shown, ratchet used for illustration purposes.





Finished rotor assembly:

Completed caliper/rotor assembly:

Rebuild of caliper and rotor complete. Now waiting for pads...

Replacement pads: Project Mu HC+

Ordered custom Project Mu HC+ pads for the calipers.

Old Endless pads versus new Project Mu HC+:

New brake lines + brake install (finally)

(I am skipping several steps in this last part. I am assuming you will know how to safely remove a brake line with a flared wrench, also assuming you know how to remove the stock brake calipers & rotors)

Finally got around to installing the calipers this week. First, a complete picture of all parts ready to go on the car + the brake lines.
It should be noted that I ended up using a set of Goodridge lines sourced from @FRSport.com



First to be installed (after removal of stock rotors and calipers) is the caliper adapter bracket. There's a couple of 10mm hex bolts that secure the bracket to the spindle, as well as the caliper to be bracket.


The rotors are next to go on. The calipers are then bolted on, then the pads inserted, then the pad retaining clip. It is a multi-step process but fairly straightforward.
Brake lines are also bolted on at this time.


After install the calipers are bled, starting from the rear to the front. I went RR/RL/FR/FL in sequence.




With Work Wheels on:

-alex

[Sportsguy83]

Wow the comparison of front rotor vs endless is incredible!

Good things come to good people :-)

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

[mav1178]

Test fitting today with track wheels.

-alex

[B L U E S L A T E]

Sickness. Can't wait to see they come together.

[mav1178]

Added pics to second post.

-alex

[Anthonytpt]

Looking good! How're they performing?

[mav1178]

Originally Posted by Anthonytpt

Looking good! How're they performing?

No updates yet, I just got around to taking everything apart today.

I might not be able to refinish/reanodize the way I want, because several steel parts of the caliper can't be taken apart, so it might prevent the calipers from being refinished.

-alex

[OrbitalEllipses]

Originally Posted by mav1178

No updates yet, I just got around to taking everything apart today.

I might not be able to refinish/reanodize the way I want, because several steel parts of the caliper can't be taken apart, so it might prevent the calipers from being refinished.

-alex

Are you talking about the pad plates on the inside of the caliper? Those are secured with threadlocker and SHOULD be removable. You'll probably need new screws as the heads of the old screws will likely strip out.

[mav1178]

Originally Posted by OrbitalEllipses

Are you talking about the pad plates on the inside of the caliper? Those are secured with threadlocker and SHOULD be removable. You'll probably need new screws as the heads of the old screws will likely strip out.

No, those are already removed. Where the caliper bolts to the adapter bracket for the suspension spindle, it's steel inserts pressed into the aluminum... similar to what you'll find when you redrill the bolt pattern of a wheel and steel inserts are pressed in.

These can't be removed and may prevent me from refinishing the caliper surface.

-alex

[Guff]

Wow, this is interesting! Can't wait to see more!

[mav1178]

Reanodized calipers:

The new "blue" is a slightly different shade than the original color. It's fairly close, and with some brake dust on there it will look the same.

I mostly wanted the front of the caliper and the rotor hats to match...

Waiting for parts to come in from Japan for rebuild.

-alex

[mav1178]

Calipers rebuilt! Now waiting for bobbin pins to come in.

Post #2 updated with rebuild pictures.

-alex

[mav1178]

Calipers and rotors rebuild complete, post #2 updated with latest pictures.

Goal is to secure some pads in next couple of months...

-alex