Arizona Performance / Wilwood Front Brake kit Install

rmjsupra

New Member
Mar 11, 2009
143
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0
Moorpark
www.rmjmotorsports.com
****This is simply a write up of my install; I have over 8 years of auto mechanic experience and am not responsible for any damage to your car or brake system that may occur. If you do not have experience with this, I recommend you take it to a professional. **** Sorry had to throw that in, now time for the fun.

Unfortunately I do not have a billion pictures of every little step, but this should be good and AZP offers a great install page as well. Any questions, please let me know.

I installed these over 3 months ago and have just been busy, but here it is.

First off I must say that Arizona Performance’s instructions on their website, are very good and clear. I ordered their kit for the MKIII Supra and went with the SL6 Billet Superlite caliper from Wilwood. I ordered them with the Thermlock Pistons and stainless heat shields. This is a hefty upgrade, but hey why not, it will shine for endurance on the track, ok it was overkill, lol.


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The kit includes, Aluminum hats, thick aluminum brackets, all the necessary hardware, Wilwood 13.06” x 1.38” GT Slotted and directional vaned rotor, and the Superlite caliper (forged Superlite 4-piston is standard with the AZP kit).

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Everything is packed neat and nothing was missing. First do the obvious, jack up the car securely and remove your wheels. Take a good look at the stock brakes, how the stock brake line snakes through (take a picture if necessary). Loosen the brake line from the caliper and then tighten it slightly to prevent leaking, DO NOT DISCONNECT THE LINE YET. Pop the bolts off the caliper and remove it from the spindle. Wait to disconnect the complete line at this point as it will be removed later.

I used a small shallow bucket to place the caliper in so it keeps the mess off the floor. Be sure to monitor your brake fluid reservoir, if it gets to low you will bring air into the system, keep it at least half full until you are ready to bleed.

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Once the OEM caliper is off, time to trim the dust shield off. I went to Harbor Freight and bought a pair of tin shears for $7.00, this works great. Trim the lip around the bolt that hold the heat shield on so you can easily get a wrench in there (third picture below). Just followed the AZP instructions. When you are ready to remove it use pliers and be careful, edges are sharp. Once it’s off you are ready to start mocking up the new kit.

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I suggest dry mounting everything first to verify fitment. Mount the rotor to the hat and get the hat to rotor bolts on snug. Carefully slide the assembled rotor over the studs and have a pair of open ended 12x1.5” lug nuts handy to thread on to a good snug fit, (do not torque the lug nuts down) to hold the rotor in place.

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Next bolt up the caliper-mounting bracket to the caliper and then to the spindle, (AZP labels them for you and the brackets comes with the bolts in place so you know where they go. You can clean the marker off later with brake cleaner). Again mount everything up and lightly torque the brackets.

You may encounter a casting issue on the upper caliper bracket bolt. AZP shows it clearly on their instructions. A simple light grinding of the area with a Dremel will give you the clearance necessary for the head of the bracket bolt. I did not have this issue, my spindle casting was fine.

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Once the caliper is in place, remove the bridge bolt. Take a measurement from the outside face of the rotor to the inside face of the caliper (where the pad would be) (while caliper is mounted). Measure both left and right side of the rotor. You want to be as equal as possible on this, if needed shim the caliper to center the rotor. Once you have your measurements, slide the pads in and spin the rotor by hand to make sure the movement is good. You will feel very light friction, but you should be able to rotate the rotor without it fighting you.

Once this is all good, you can remove it, make sure you take note on how your test fitting was all setup.

Torque the 5/16-18 Rotor to hat bolts to 180 INCH pounds; I used RED Loctite on these. The 7/16-20 bolts for the caliper to bracket, torque to 47 Foot pounds, I used RED Loctite on these. Finally the bolts from the bracket to spindle are M12; use the factory torque specs for these.

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Last edited:

rmjsupra

New Member
Mar 11, 2009
143
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Moorpark
www.rmjmotorsports.com
Get the caliper ready as well. The brake line inlet is threaded to 1/8-NPT (national pipe thread). This is a tapered fitting and has no torque value. Use some Teflon tape, you are not mummifying it so do not over do it. Also make sure the tape does not go past the last thread, if it touches the brake fluid it will dissolve and will clog your brake system. Get the fitting snug and the give it an additional ¼ turn. MOST LIKELY YOU WILL STILL SEE THREADS on the top, this is normal on a tapered fitting. If needed later during bleeding, you can tighten it a bit more if there is leaking (1/8 of a turn at a time).

With everything in place, the OEM brake line is still connected. For the new line you will reuse all the OEM clips. There are three U shaped clips and three C ones. The C’s go on the bottom of the fitting, take note of this when removing them.

First unbolt the brake line, break the chassis fitting loose (hand tighten to prevent leaking), and then un-do the caliper fitting again. Snake the line up to remove it, leaving the chassis fitting attached. I reattached the line to the chassis and OEM caliper to minimize the leaking so I could do the next step.

Hand tighten the –3 AN side into the Wilwood caliper fitting. Snake the new line exactly how the OEM line was (PLEASE BE CAREFULL NOT TO BEND THE LINE TO TIGHT, YOU WILL DAMAGE IT INTERNALLY) (FSM will show how it is snaked as well). The areas for the OEM clips on the new line (with black rubber back) can be shifted by hand up and down the line so you can put them in the correct position. Once you get it snaked correctly, have chassis end ready at the chassis to swap it with the OEM line. Undo the OEM line and thread the new braided line into position. Make sure there are no leaks, put on your line clips.

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At this point have a buddy steer full left and right and verify there are no kinks in the line and no obstructions.

Time to bleed, you should have mounted the Superlite caliper with the crossover tube towards the bottom, facing the bleeders up. Make sure you brake reservoir is full and have your brake fluid handy to keep it at the proper level.

I used a turkey baster to remove a lot of the old fluid and filled it with Wilwood EXP600 Fluid (bled 3 bottles through the system). I bled the rear brakes first to try to get all the old nasty fluid out.

Now time to bleed the new Wilwood's. Start with the passenger side, bleed the outside bleeder first then the inboard body bleeder. Remember that the bleeders use a ¼ wrench, they are small flared bleeders and do not require too much torque, get them snug to seal or you will damage them. When you are done, pressurize the brakes, check for leaks, verify your bridge bolt is tightened and inspect your work.

Once you have bleed the system, test the pedal and start the car, test the brake stationary first make sure the pedal response is good. Time to bed in the Wilwood Pads. The bedding procedure is very important. If this is not done it can lead to pre-mature pad wear and glazing. The Bedding procedure uses heat to transfer a thin layer of pad material onto the rotor. The procedure below is taken from Wilwood’s website, please find an open road and verify the braking system works well with no leaks before you begin:

Once the brake system has been tested and determined safe to operate the vehicle, follow these steps for bedding of all pad materials and rotors.

1. Begin with a series of 8-10 light stops from approximately 30 MPH down to 15 MPH allowing 20-30 seconds for cooling between each stop.

2. Progress to series of 8-10 moderate stops from around 45 MPH down to 30 MPH allowing the 20-30 second cool down period between each stop.

3. Proceed with a series of 8-10 hard stops from 55-65 MPH down to 25 MPH allowing 20-30 seconds of cool down time between each stop.

4. Drive at a moderate cruising speed, with the least amount of brake contact possible, until most of the heat has dissipated from the brakes. Avoid sitting stopped with the brake pedal depressed to hold the car in place during this time. Park the vehicle and allow the brakes to cool to ambient air temperature.

At this point you are all done and enjoying the much improved brakes. Remember that AZP provides a Wilwood mid-aggressive street pad, a bit better than HAWK HPS pads. If you are an avid canyon runner, mild road racer, or auto crosser the BP-20 Wilwood compound may be better. Wilwood offers about 8 different compounds for the Superlite from street to full race.

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Overall the kit is great I installed it 3 months ago and daily drive my Supra 40 miles a day and have done a grip event on Horse Thief at Willow Springs with this kit. The improvement is more than worth it. It makes the car feel lighter and more confident. I also have TEIN Super Street coilovers on it but nothing else has been done to the suspension or brake other than that.

Arizona Performance’s quality in their materials is second to none. The hats and brackets are simply machined beautifully and strong. AZP uses all grade 10 hardware (from what I could see) and the kit was engineered to fit as easy as could be done. The Wilwood calipers are very light and the Superlite design has over 30 years of racing evolution behind it. The Wilwood GT rotors provided are the top dog Road Race style rotors they offer, used on SCCA, Honda Challenge etc. Lastly is the weight savings. The Wilwood caliper weighs in at about 5.2 pounds, which is way lighter than the OEM Toyota caliper. The Wilwood rotor combined with the Aluminum hat also offers big weight savings. I think the total weight of the kit for left and right is 45 pounds.

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Love the kit and recommend it to everyone, especially those making big power.

Let me know if you have any questions.
 
Last edited:
Apr 6, 2005
339
0
16
Alpharetta, GA
Looks great, and you'll enjoy the performance improvement. Perculiarly, I've yet to understand why the need to completely remove the dust shield? Seems like a little additional trimming should suffice.
 
Apr 6, 2005
339
0
16
Alpharetta, GA
I have the JK BBK which is essentially the same kit. Installed with minor trim to the dust shield, that is, not completely removed.

rmjsupra;1337420 said:
The rotor is bigger than the dust shield and you need the room to put the new caliper in. Also there really is no need for it.
 

arz

Arizona Performance
Nov 14, 2005
955
0
0
Mesa, AZ
www.ArizonaPerformance.com
AWESOME install thread!!! Maybe I should hire you to write them for me.

Seriously this is great you touched on a few things I completely forgot and I will definitely direct people here to ask questions so all can see.

Thanks for the kind words and all the others you have helped.