Cheap and easy (sort of) 11" brakes

[Strugglebucket]

WHAT YOU NEED:

1) Calipers from any Sterling ('87-'90). Sterlings were ugly luxury cars with acura v6 engines in them. they are kind of rare but you can usually find at least one in the honda section of a pick-n-pull.

2) Rotors from any Sterling or 1st gen Acura Legend excluding the 86/87 sedans. I would recommend the Legend rotors as they are easier to purchase and are avaliable slotted. THE ROTORS WILL NEED TO BE RE-DRILLED TO THE 4x100 PATTERN.

and that's it. everything bolts right up into place and fits perfectly. use the accord caliper bracket bolts as the sterlings are too long. the only downside to this setup is you must use sterling pads which are expensive since they don't make a whole lot of them. here's some pics, sorry they're dark:

stock lx-i
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/luby555/DSCN0861.jpg
with re-drilled sterling rotors and sterling calipers
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v357/luby555/DSCN0864.jpg
thanks to old blue accord for all his help with brake part documents :rockon:

[Vanilla Sky]

what bolt pattern? if these are 4x114, then i'd bet that we can hub swap and get what we need so that we don't have to redrill the rotors every time we need to replace them. this would only be benificial if you're eating up rotors, say if you're racing the car. a little machining, and you have yourself a 4x14 hub. you'd have to get new wheels, but then you can use the wheels off of 4th-6th gen accords.

[Strugglebucket]

yeah, you could probably swap a hub and use dual pattern wheels or something. as a matter of a fact, i'm pretty sure you could swap the entire front suspension from a 1g legend if you wanted.

this is just the quickest and easiest way that found to get bigger brakes. rotors should last a long time if you buy good ones and break in your pads correctly.

[Oldblueaccord]

Good deal dude looks like a nice setup. Simple for any one to figure out.

Any cross over as far as other calipers then the sterlings?

Whats the minimium wheel size I would think 15" ??

Also what pad are you using # wise if its like a D503 then thats the type r prelude pad I think ours are a D409. You might use a D503 pad anyway if I remember right the size is so close a little grinding and it work. That way you could get all kinds of performance pads for it.

EDIT: http://www.buybrakes.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=7294-D405D&Category_Code=

Axxis pad I think this would work I used the (im an idiot its a D405) pad that rockauto listed and put it in buybrakes search. Theres no crossover Honda/Acura pad/rotor that I saw on there website.

EDIT: caliper
http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductDetail.aspx?mfrcode=A1C&mfrpartnumber=171755

Have to put your zip good price all around the parts

I 'm at work so I dont have my info with me.


wp

[A20A1]

Sterlings aren't honda/acura cars though?

[Strugglebucket]

i tried fitting the 14" lx-i wheel and it was just a bit too small, so i think 15's should work. 16's definately work. the sterling pad is really close to the accord pad but it's just just enough different so the accord won't work. it also has this wierd little wire spring on the back instead of seperate hardware like most pads.

[Oldblueaccord]

BTT

just for those that missed it.





wp

[epic1400cs]

When you made the 4 hole on 100mm circle, did you drill yourself or sent them to machine shop? I am just wondering because the centre of the disk seems to sit tight on the hub bearing flange thing then I may get away from paying for machine shop to drill holes. But on the safeside, I should pay for pro to do preceice job I suppose.

And as far as I remember, the Stering is from Rover UK but at that period, Rover and Honda was working together - design from Rover and technology from Honda kind of partnership.

[Strugglebucket]

i would definately have the holes drilled proffesionally. they have to be perfect.

[epic1400cs]

Thanks. Yeah thats what I thought, too. By the way how is the effect of this upgrade - I am sure it will be much better feel. Is there any brake pedal travel issue due to the big caliper piston or it is hardly noticable?

[Strugglebucket]

well as you might guess from how rusty/dirty the parts in the pics are, this was just a test to show that the parts would fit. i probably won't be trying it myself any time soon because i already dumped a bunch of money on oem sized brake parts before i began this project.

i imagine there might be more pedal travel due to what appears to be a slightly larger piston but it's hard to tell by just looking at it. next time i'm at the junkyard i will check to see what size the sterling master cylinder is.

[epic1400cs]

I have checked the diameter of the master cylinder on both Rover and Accord.

Rover 827 & 825 incl Sterling 23.8 mm (both -89, 89-, both ABS&nonABS)

Accord 86-89 with no ABS 22.2mm
86-89 with ABS 23.8mm

These figure are UK spec so I am not sure the size of master cylinder of our car in US. As far as I can see, my car is with ABS so the master cycinder is the same diameter as the Sterling, hehehe.

[lostforawhile]

has anyone actually tried this yet? there is a sterling sitting down here at the yard. I wonder if those rotors would fit inside of an acura 14 inch wheel?

[Strugglebucket]

i don't think anyone's actually run them. the 14'' lx-i wheel wouldn't quite clear the caliper, so i dunno about the acura 14". the old legend sedans had 11" brakes but they used the same caliper as the accord, which extrudes less than the sterling caliper.

if you want the acura wheel, you might try swapping the whole hub from a legend. that's something i've been meaning to do, along with the rear discs from a legend. i just had a baby though so i don't have much time to play in the junkyard lately:lol:

[lostforawhile]

i don't think anyone's actually run them. the 14'' lx-i wheel wouldn't quite clear the caliper, so i dunno about the acura 14". the old legend sedans had 11" brakes but they used the same caliper as the accord, which extrudes less than the sterling caliper.
if you want the acura wheel, you might try swapping the whole hub from a legend. that's something i've been meaning to do, along with the rear discs from a legend. i just had a baby though so i don't have much time to play in the junkyard lately:lol:well I have teg 14 inch factory wheels,I'm going to see if this guy will sell me the calipers cheap and discs cheap. I will have a set of assembled knuckles when I take these old ones off,so I can play with them. do you know of any machine shops that will do these conversions? no one around here will do it and I don't have the equipment too.I wonder if the sterling master cyl will bolt up? I don't think this master will have a problem anyway. the 89 teg with rear discs runs the same master. I am a bit worried about brake balance though. maby a rear disc prop valve. the front would have so much braking power that the faster lockup in the back will be offset by the front.

[Strugglebucket]

i wound up going to a metal fabrication shop in vacaville, ca but i don't remember the name. the first machine shop i went to wouldn't do it. i know that a lot of the kits from fastbrakes.com come with redrilled rotors, so it can be done safely as long as it's done right. machine shops are weird about certain things.

i think my ideal setup would be to swap the front and rear hubs from an acura legend. probably still be slightly more front-biased on the accord than on the legend due to the legend being heavier in front, but it'd be close. i think it's better to have the brakes balanced as close as you can by matching the actual hardware rather than using a prop valve so you're not increasing the amount of pressure/travel you need on the pedal to reach the same threshold.

[epic1400cs]

For the wheel size of the sterling, original is 15 inch.
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/r800v6/Technical%20information827.htm
In UK we have Rover 820 which is lower grade of sterling(sterling is 827). 820 has 14 inch wheels and the brake roter dia is smaller as far as I know.

[lostforawhile]

i wound up going to a metal fabrication shop in vacaville, ca but i don't remember the name. the first machine shop i went to wouldn't do it. i know that a lot of the kits from fastbrakes.com come with redrilled rotors, so it can be done safely as long as it's done right. machine shops are weird about certain things.
i think my ideal setup would be to swap the front and rear hubs from an acura legend. probably still be slightly more front-biased on the accord than on the legend due to the legend being heavier in front, but it'd be close. i think it's better to have the brakes balanced as close as you can by matching the actual hardware rather than using a prop valve so you're not increasing the amount of pressure/travel you need on the pedal to reach the same threshold.I was talking about using the factory prop valve from one of the cars with rear discs,the sterling brakes would have a lot more front bias with the bigger brakes and using the rear disc valve would send more to the rear to help balance it a bit better. has anyone tried fastbrakes to see if they will do the conversion or they aready have a rotor available?

[Strugglebucket]

see if you can talk to Oldblueaccord. i think he was looking at some of the fastbrakes stuff. i was trying to pull up his thread on the teg type r rotors/calipers but i can't seem to find it.

not the one i was looking for, but here:http://3geez.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48957&highlight=type+r+calipers

[Oldblueaccord]

I was talking about using the factory prop valve from one of the cars with rear discs,the sterling brakes would have a lot more front bias with the bigger brakes and using the rear disc valve would send more to the rear to help balance it a bit better. has anyone tried fastbrakes to see if they will do the conversion or they aready have a rotor available?

As long as the piston size is the same the prop valves work. I increased the size of the rotors not the caliper bore so eveything is well.

The rotors that fastbrake sells are now cast with the 4 x 100mm pattern. He used to redrill them. You can too if you want but his rotors are $35 I think.


wp

[AZmike]

Increasing the diameter of the rotor and moving the caliper out to a larger radius increases brake torque for a given pedal force or fluid pressure. This will alter the brake bias if no other changes are made.

[lostforawhile]

Increasing the diameter of the rotor and moving the caliper out to a larger radius increases brake torque for a given pedal force or fluid pressure. This will alter the brake bias if no other changes are made.thats why i was thinking of using the prop valve off a first gen teg or something like it. the first gen legend had the 11 inch brakes,I wonder if that valve would fit in? the valve off a car with rear discs sends more pressure to the rear then a car with rear drums. this would balance out the front a lot better. the back brakes don't do a lot anyway.

[AccordEpicenter]

this should be stickeyed

[Oldblueaccord]

Increasing the diameter of the rotor and moving the caliper out to a larger radius increases brake torque for a given pedal force or fluid pressure. This will alter the brake bias if no other changes are made.

You convinced me I started to write something differant but its clearly stated.

http://www.3geez.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52661

this might shed a little light on it as well.


wp

[chainz]

Nevermind... I was thinking about 11" rotors off a VW Corrado, but I see someone mentioned that here:
http://www.3geez.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53188