GoWesty "best on market" bigger front brake kit? Early spindles!

[shagginwagon83]

Just saw this on GoWesty's site:
https://gowesty.com/products/gowesty-bigger-brakes


From site:

New offering! We now offer a Bigger Brake Kit for all 1980-85 Early Vanagons. No more spindle swappin', or fussin' around required!

Our Bigger Brakes are properly engineered from the ground up, no corners cut. We feel the GoWesty 'Bigger Brake' system is simply the best front disk-brake system on the market for the Vanagon.

I think the price is pretty attractive! I am thinking I could have my friend turn down my front OEM rotors and then only pay $600 to upgrade!

As far as I know, only Small car and GoWesty have early spindle offerings.
_________________
"Jo Ann" - '83.5 Westfalia EJ22e w/Peloquin
Instagram: @joannthevan

[markswagen]

when they come back into stock.

prices are better than they used to be, if you needed the hub and bearings, it was what, $350 extra.
_________________
markswagen {mobile mechanic} san diego area all early VW's cared for.

619 201 0310

[vanagondan]

Our early big brake kits at Small Car Performance fit the early spindles with very little modification.

https://smallcar.com/vanagon-bus-upgrades/driving-...grade-kit/

[crazyvwvanman]

But why does your link say different bearings for aircooled than water cooled?
Water cooled began with some 82 model year van but the bearings didn't change until early 84 model year.

Aircooled and water cooled overlapped for 1.5 years and after that almost 1 year more of watercooled still used the early bearings.

Mark

[Mateo83]

[calsurf]

Seems promising. Looking forward to someone providing a review. What rotor is that? I hope it's not another GW proprietary item.

Found my answer-"Unlike the Audi-based alternative (among several others), this kit does not rely on another production vehicle to keep this system’s components in stock. We went straight to one of the largest OEM manufacturers for these components and had them made specifically for us. Starting with their most common and reliable single-piston caliper drawing, we developed the biggest and most robust package that could be shoe-horned onto the Vanagon platform. Every component in this kit (with the exception of the brake pads) is batch produced piece-by-piece for GoWesty. This ensures that replacement parts can always be manufactured at the low volume levels that a small company like ours requires."

[skills@eurocarsplus]

[vanagondan]

[ALIKA T3]

[vanagondan]

[therastavan]

Everything on the GoWesty big brake kit is proprietary except the brake pads, so not sure what they mean by "this kit does not rely on another production vehicle to keep this system’s components in stock" because we have to rely on GoWesty to keep this system's components in stock, and since this is already their 3rd Gen big brake kit, and they have discontinued their previous 2 big brake kits, who knows if they will stock these parts once we hit their Gen 4. Having said that, their price is significantly less than competitor offerings and their replacement rotor prices are reasonable. Still, the best way to go is to do a Porsche big brake upgrade using Epytec adapters and Mercedes 312x28mm rotors but cost will be over twice.
One Samba member said their GoWesty big brakes still had fade issues on downhills but not nearly as much as original brakes.

[ALIKA T3]

[82westyrabbit]

I ordered a set. This has been on my list for a few years. I hope I can get them before I really need new brakes. I’m glad I saw this thread. John

[Kdj]

Can't even order them on their site. "this kit does not rely on another production vehicle to keep this system’s components in stock" Out of stock!

[82westyrabbit]

We will see if they show up. Have they sold any yet or are they checking to see if they get enough orders to make a run of them. Yes I would prefer if they used a rotor from a production car. I am sure I could have made a home brew big break kit. I hope this works so I don’t have to. John

[calsurf]

Pulled the trigger on these. The "Fireworks23" coupon code was too tempting. Lord help me in my weakness!

[vanagondan]

Does anyone know what the piston diameter is on the newest version of the GoWesty front brake kit?

[11BC2]

[Altoona]

[Kdj]