Before everyone jumps up and down and starts shouting I have done a search and haven't found anything on the following question (happy to be corrected).

I am looking at the possibility of putting sierra front brakes on the back end of an indy.
There are several reasons for this:

firstly I want to be the first to do it if it hasn't been done before

secondly I want to be able to fit 13" rims and I understand they fit over the front discs but not standard rear on sierra

thirdly i know people will think it's overbraked but i intend running a vauxhall 2ltr which is a heavy engine (click me)and at 200bhp+ think the extra stopping power will help.

Has anyone thought of/tried this before?

Any info greatfully received.

Andrew.

Couple of points - I can't believe that there's more clearance using front brakes, the discs are slightly bigger and the calipers are gargantuan and quite heavy too. My donor came with 14's and I there wasn't a whole bag of clearance on the front then, I guess it would probably depend on the design of wheel you're going to use.

Secondly, and probably more importantly, if you're using the front calipers, they're not going to have any provision for a handbrake, so that would be something else you'd have to consider. It's by no means insurmountable, but it would be quite a lot of additional cost and complication. There's a thread about this elsewhere on the forum, so see that for more details.

Just an observation, but wouldn't a heavier engine at the front usual produce greater requirements for the brakes at the front of the car? I guess there's ways of dialling these things in and out, but how much potential for that is there going to be on an MK?

Kingr

If you do manage this then having adjustable brake bias for the rear will stop the rears from overbraking.....so that's that problem sorted.

secondly my old Rover 75 had a seperate calliper just for the hand brake. I think it was or is a BMW idea but there may be a way to put std rear callipers on the rear just for the handbrake.

Andy

im just going to put my old sierra calipers on front and back and will use sierra handbrake until after sva then there will be willwood dynalites all round with no handbrake. If i do fit 1 it will be a hydraulic 1.

Ned
won't work mate.
one way to run 13" wheels is to use something like Fiesta front discs and calipers on the rear and a second (willwood single pot) caliper for the handbrake, you would have to fabricate the brkts to suit..

I stand to be corrected, but as far as i know, you wont get through subsequent MOT's with a hydraulic handbrake, may be better to use Willwood spot calipers for the handbrake.

Wadders

i]Originally posted by carnut
im just going to put my old sierra calipers on front and back and will use sierra handbrake until after sva then there will be willwood dynalites all round with no handbrake. If i do fit 1 it will be a hydraulic 1.

ned... an xe engine is a lot lighter than say a pinto, my mate built an mk last year with pinto and standard 2l sierra brakes and it had more than enough stopping power. Remember they were designed to stop a one & half ton car not one weighing 600kg!