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Thread: PFL Brembo upgrade - possible alternative to FL hub carriers?

  1. #1
    elnevio's Avatar

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    PFL Brembo upgrade - possible alternative to FL hub carriers?

    In my quest to Brembo-equip the Fridge, I have come across brackets that change the caliper bolt spacing from 135mm (PFL) to 160mm (FL & Brembo). They are specifically designed for the Evo 1-3, which has the same PFL bolt spacing.

    These are from a company called Racefab in NZ and cost me NZ$200, including postage to the UK, i.e. about £112. I also didn't get clobbered for VAT or import costs.

    They come as a pair, each with a set of bolts and washers. They are made out of steel plate that is very solid (looks about 6/7mm thick) and painted black, in what looks like heat-resistant paint.

    This is one of them.



    A little bit of work is necessary for them to fit the Fridge due to the suspension set up, but I wonder if they would simply bolt on to the VR-4, thus doing away with swapping hubs etc. I have some PFL calipers somewhere, or might be able to offer them up to the VR-4 caliper mounting points to have a look.

    That won't be for a couple of weeks, I would have thought, but this may represent a relatively cheap and easy option to upgrade your PFL to Brembos, without the need to swap hubs, or potentially mess with ABS sensors, and so on...

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  2. #2
    Davezj's Avatar

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    nev before fitting them to the fridge, can you draw round them on a piece of paper and draw in the holes as accurately as possible to make a template for the bracket, we could have them made up as copy, quite easily and a great way of doing an upgrade, much less hassle.

    Howeven, when i was doing the brembo upgrade i looked long and hard at making a bracket for the brembo swap, but i could not see any possible way of doing it on the VR4. you could fit the brembo disk and you could place the brembo caliper over the disk but to fit a bracket to them it looked like the caliper would be pushed to far out to the past edge of the disk to make it work.
    but that was a long time ago, and memory is not what it used to be.

    are the fridge brackes exactly the same as the VR4, or are they smaller, i seem to remember you saying they were the same as uk spec galant front brakes not VR4 spec front brakes. or it could just be my memory again.

    i think i still have pictures of the brembo comparison somewhere. i know they are on a thread on here somewhere.

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  3. #3
    elnevio's Avatar

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    Well, I believe that PFL discs and calipers would bolt straight onto the RVR. That would possibly be my next route if the Brembo conversion doesn't work. With these brackets, the manufacturer said that they will fit either 320 or 330mm discs, and that I need 17" wheels. Obviously we know that it can also depend on the style of 17" wheel - but I have three sets of Evo-fit wheels to choose from!

    I think that the Fridge may have the 274mm discs (original spec wheels are 15"), as compared to the 295mm of the VR-4.

    I'm a bit uneasy about copying the brackets for general use though, given what Racefab have put into them - time, research, jigs, etc.

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    I wonder if these brackets will allow GTO calipers to be bolted on. They're cheaper, easier to source, and are four pot as well (same as the Skylines I believe).

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    Quote Originally Posted by wintertidenz View Post
    I wonder if these brackets will allow GTO calipers to be bolted on. They're cheaper, easier to source, and are four pot as well (same as the Skylines I believe).
    So they bolt onto facelift carriers? What size discs do they use?

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    I believe they do - but I haven't had a set in my hands to test with yet.

    The 1994 upwards cars use 314mm fronts and 395mm backs - the pre '94 cars use the same size brakes as ours. (See http://www.stealth316.com/2-brakeupgrade.htm)

    However even if you could get the pre-facelift 4 pots on the fronts it would be an improvement, as you would have more clamping force.

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    Gly's Avatar

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    no GTO brake requires a different bracket (also you have to use the gen-1 gto 4pots as the length of caliper legs? gets longer on the gen2)

    any brake upgrade ment for a evo 1-3 or 6th gen vr4 with bolt to a prefacelift as long as you can get the rotors in 5 stud or redrilled in 5stud,
    you may need to trim the dust sheild depending on were the caliper ends up.


    the FTO-GTO brake brake caliper kit http://www.freakyparts.co.uk/FTO-Bra...r-GTO-calipers will fit the PFL aswell,

    i have gto calipers i was gonna do this with in my box of spares, and a diagram for a bracket that would be close to brembo 320mm rotor fit,
    i was gonna tweak to use the gen2 gto rotors 314mm?
    which is a common mod for the evo boys, but those that did make the gen1 gen 4pots with gen2 314mm gto rotors are no longer in production
    and no one wants to share the bracket design. pity coz it would have been a direct fit for the PFL


    but i wont be doing it now as i dont have the 25st anymore.

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    Davezj's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by elnevio View Post
    Well, I believe that PFL discs and calipers would bolt straight onto the RVR. That would possibly be my next route if the Brembo conversion doesn't work. With these brackets, the manufacturer said that they will fit either 320 or 330mm discs, and that I need 17" wheels. Obviously we know that it can also depend on the style of 17" wheel - but I have three sets of Evo-fit wheels to choose from!

    I think that the Fridge may have the 274mm discs (original spec wheels are 15"), as compared to the 295mm of the VR-4.

    I'm a bit uneasy about copying the brackets for general use though, given what Racefab have put into them - time, research, jigs, etc.
    nev if you can do me a paper template of the bracket i can tell you for definite if the brembo calipers will fit PFL hub carriers with this bracket as i have both as spare parts. however i don't think they will.
    just to check fitment honestly.

  9. #9
    Davezj's Avatar

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    i will post up the picture i took when i was look at this issue many years ago.
    i came to the conclusion that the holes in the caliper and hub carriers were to close a match with out a bracket to make it possible to fit a bracket without pushing the calliper to far out away from the centre of the disk.

    but i could be wrong.
    i will give myself a propt to upload the pictures.
    @Davezj pictures.

  10. #10
    Davezj's Avatar

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    nev does the bracket have a step change in hieght on the back side of the bracket or is a flat bit of metal.


    anyway, here are the pictures i was talking about. which is why i did not think it would work. but as i say i could very well be wrong.

    by the way you can ignore the pics with the bolt in place i was just seeing if an offset bracket could be used, but it push the pad/disk placement to far off to make it work.

    brembo brakes 002.jpgbrembo brakes 009.jpgbrembo brakes 006.jpgbrembo brakes 005.jpgbrembo brakes 004.jpgbrembo brakes 003.jpgbrembo brakes 001.jpg
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    Last edited by Davezj; 07-07-2014 at 04:53 PM.

  11. #11
    elnevio's Avatar

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    I should have brought them with me and popped over, seeing as I am nearby this week! Oh well...


    There is a pair of open sided spacers that come with each bracket that are the same width as the plate - and at the time of writing this I have just remembered that Racefab sent me a pic of one bolted up to a Brembo caliper, as well as one of the kit:




  12. #12
    Davezj's Avatar

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    that certainly fits the caliper to the hub carrier so you are half way there, the only thing that needs checking now is how far the pads hang over the edge of the disk if at all. but my guess is they will as the holes are about 10-15mm further out from the centre of the hub, but it will be interesting to see if it does hang over or not. the standard brembo disk is 320mm diamiter, so if they do hang over by only a little then this could work well.

    there was that other bracket pgrade kit that was being sold for pfl hub carriers but that needed 360mm disks to make the brackets work. however these brackets look more compact so hopefully if it is needed at all only a marginally larger disk would be needed.

  13. #13
    elnevio's Avatar

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    I was giving it some thought, and wondering what difference there is in the distance between the centre of the hub and the Brembo caliper mounting bolts, between the facelift hub carrier and the bracket solution here? Does anyone have some facelift hub carriers that they can measure the distance on?

  14. #14
    Davezj's Avatar

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    this was the big brake kit i was thinking about.

    http://www.clubvr4.com/forum/showthr...rake-Group-Buy
    Last edited by Davezj; 07-07-2014 at 08:59 PM.

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    Davezj's Avatar

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    this is another discussion thread on the 360mm big brake conversion on a PFL hub carrier.

    http://www.clubvr4.com/forum/showthr...pre-facelift-s

    but the bracket is never shown in the pics.
    Last edited by Davezj; 07-07-2014 at 09:00 PM.

  16. #16
    elnevio's Avatar

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    I've not reiterated it in this thread, but these brackets are designed such that the calipers fit under Evo 17" wheels using 320 or 330mm discs.

  17. #17
    Davezj's Avatar

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    this does sound promising nev.
    but the thing i was looking at was the fact that the brembo pads come right to the outside edge of the disk. so pushing the caliper out by 10.15mm means they will over hang the edge of the disk.
    i see what you are saying about the distance between the centre of the hub and the centre of the caliper mounting holes on pfl and fl. if the fl distance is shorter then this will be beneficial to the location of the brembo caliper.
    this is why i say send me a paper copy of the bracket and i will check it for definite. i could just do a visual check and sort of put the brembo caliper in the corect location with respect to the new bracket and a pfl hub carrier and brembo disk, to see what the overhang will be if any on a 320mm disk. it is just a little hard to position everything .

    due to the shape of the spacer behind the bracket it must be really tight in there. maybe for the very reason.
    this is really sounding promising.

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    I've been looking into fitting Evo X rotors to my legnum with Evo 4-9 calipers lately, and while designing an adapter to space the caliper out appropriately (the Evo X rotors are 350mm instead of 320, so need to go out a further 10mm), I've found that what I came up with looks almost identical to the RaceFab adapter. Did you ever fit these nev, and if so, what size rotors did you use, and how much space was there in between the outside edge of the rotor and the caliper?

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    Also, am I right in thinking that the RaceFab adapter requires the bolt holes in the hub carrier to be tapped with a thread?

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    Quote Originally Posted by wintertidenz View Post
    I wonder if these brackets will allow GTO calipers to be bolted on. They're cheaper, easier to source, and are four pot as well (same as the Skylines I believe).
    Better use brembo evo 7-9, lighter and bigger in disc size

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