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Re: Brake Rotors

To: rpalmer@ames.ucsd.edu
Subject: Re: Brake Rotors
From: "Spontelli, Ramon" <rs11@ElSegundoCA.NCR.COM>
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 07:10:00 -0700
>  Suppose your wheel bearing was a little loose.
>  Now you clamp the binders on hard and hit a bump,
>  or turn, or otherwise apply a lateral force.
>  Instead of the wheel bearings taking the load,
>  the rotor will take the load, causing it to break
>  (not brake).  Sound plausible?

Bob,

I think you might have it here, except for the wheel bearing part.

A couple of years ago I started having a problem with the right-front
spindle.  A tech inspector noticed it first:  "Hey, you've got a problem
here, and it's not the wheel bearings either."  What I had going on was
noticeable play if you grab the wheel and rock it top-to-bottom, but
none when you rock it left-to-right.  It wasn't bad enough for them to
say I couldn't run that day, but clearly I needed to watch it and fix it
if it got worse.  I watched it.  It got worse.  And when I finally tore
into it I found that the distance piece that goes onto the spindle first
had eaten into the upper and lower portions of the stub axle carrier.  I
tried shims, but couldn't get them to stay in place, and the fix was to
replace the stub axle carrier.

Five or six months ago, I started to notice the same type of play on the
left side, and immediately put replacing the left-side carrier on my
to-do list.  Since this is the side that broke the rotor, it looks like
this job just jumped to the front of the queue.

By the way, I called Dale Akuszewski yesterday afternoon and asked about
vented rotors.  He does have them in stock at $240.00 for the kit.
Apparently there's more to it than just the rotors; some
washers/spacers, "a whole bag full of stuff" as he said.  The number is
909/799-2099 if anybody is interested.  I checked the SCCA SOLO II rule
book last night, and the vented rotors would be an unauthorized
modification in the Street Prepared classes--go straight to Prepared
class and run against guys like Barry, Tom, et al . . . nooooooo, thank
you!

Ramon

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