944 disks on bus beam - how I did it

[a_67vdub]

I'm stoked, the beam is in the bus. I built the same beam for my bus that is on iltis74's website. His website rocks. I had Nick Sison (nsracing) make my bearing spacers. I also used Jeremy's side plate drawing, and Rizzag's spindels, so thanks Iltis74, nsracing, Jeremyrockjock, and rizzag!

To get the porsche hub to fit on the bus spindle I measured both the bus drum from the inner bearing to the outer bearing and the hub from inner bearing to outer. The difference I came up with was about 1/2". After a lot of measuring and head scatching, I decided to make two spacers per spindle. Here's a drawing:

One goes in the hub behind the inner wheel bearing and is .350" thick. If I were going to make these again I would probably make it .300" thick and the outside diameter would be 2.320" dia. It was a little tight getting it in the hub, but I figure since the bearing race is a press fit it should be tight. The reason I would make it a little thinner is that I had to trim the grease seal to make it work.

The other spacer goes on the spindle and is .200" thick. There is also a .100" chamfer on the inside to clear the radius on the spindle. This one was also a little tight. If doing it again I might make the inside diameter a hair bigger (when I say a hair, I'm talking maybe .002-.003). Also remember that if you change the thickness of one spacer you need to change the thickness of the other to compensate. According to my measurements the hub should be spaced out .550" total. This could change depending on your caliper bracket.

Here's a close up of the caliper bracket and the inner spacer:

I made the caliper bracket out of 1/2" steel plate. Here's the drawing:

I measured the backing plate holes in the bus spindle and measured the caliper mounting threaded holes that are on the porsche spindle and drew it up in autocad. I then printed it to scale and took it down to the local steel shop (Phillips Steel, Long Beach). They have this sweet machine that is a flame cutter that uses some kind of optical deal that follows the edge of paper and cuts parts out (this is also how I got my sideplates cut). I only had the shop cut out the outside shape and the big hole. The rest I drilled myself. When I tapped the threads for the caliper to bolt to, I screwed up, by thinking I could get away with using a standard size drill bit to tap a metric hole. It's supposed to be 14mm, but I ended up going to 16mm to cover the screw up. It ended up costing double the amount that I was trying to save by not buying the metric drill bit. I had to clearance the caliper bracket in a couple places to clear the caliper and pad, but it was no big deal. You can see where I clearanced it in the pic.

Feel free to ask any questions, I'll do my best to answer. But, keep in mind that I am no professional, nor do I care to be one. I've put sooo many hours into this, that I would have been better off (financially) buying one from somebody already done up and ready to go. It is definitely rewarding to do it yourself, though.


Thanks for looking,
Steve

[Rescue912]

Whoa, nice work. Thanks for the detailed drawings...
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[ScrapJunkie]

Looks nice, any pictures of it in the bus?
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[a_67vdub]

Thanks! No pictures yet. I'm still hooking up linkages and cables. I need to bleed the brakes too. Then I'm turning the bus around in the garage so I can IRS the back.




Steve

[NAES]

Congrats, that's a grip of work but it looks really nice.

Doing it yourself is always nice.
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Are these pictures and dimensions of these bearing spacers backwards??? I thing the large spacers should have the chamfer on it, right??? and the outer one be the straight one. Anyone have some insight on this

[bill may]

nice photos. i have gathered the 944 rotors,hubs and calipers. i have the spacers and brackets on the way. which wheels are you going to use? is there a way to use the 944 rear brakes with stock RGB's??? anyone know?
what grease caps are you using on 944 hubs?
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[a_67vdub]

Damn near 4 years and my bus is still in the same stage as it was in my last post...

Anyways, it can be confusing as to what is "inner" and what is "outer". The spacer that goes by the inner wheel bearing is actually the "outer" spacer. The spacer that goes on the spindle is the one with the chamfer and is closer to the centerline of the bus, which makes it the "inner" spacer. Hope that clears it up.

Bill I have no idea how to use Porsche brakes with rgb's. I'm irs'ing mine. Also, not positive, but I think Porsche grease caps should fit? I'm going with Fuchs.

[eric m]

How much width does the does the 944 front discs add over the stock drum setup?

[TinCanFab]

[eric m]

[TinCanFab]

Do you have the brakes installed yet? On my setup, the WHEEL hit the caliper, not the adapter plate. This is because I am running 62 and earlier BUS wheels, they have a very deep offset and the "slots" in a stock early bus wheel are made in such a way that they rub. What wheel are you running? That is key because obviously the stock 944 wheels don't rub at all.
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[eric m]

No i don't have the brakes mounted yet. I'll be running 15 randar wheels. i'm just gathering parts to hopefully do it all in one shot.

[eric m]

[eric m]

After years of sketchy drum brakes ,I finally had enough and decided to go for it and convert over to discs. This thread really helped inspire me . With most aftermarket kits in the $1200 range , I decided to go with the 944 N/A front discs. I luckily found some in a local junk yard for $100. Russ @ old speed made the caliper brackets and supplied the wheel adapters . He is a great guy and gave me the information I needed to make them work with the adapters . After it was all said and done I probably have a little over $500 in the whole setup. It did end up pushing the wheels out 5/8" on each side but the stopping power is amazing . Best money I have spent on my bus by far !

[lowrider56]

Awesome work and attention to detail. Thank you for sharing.