4 boxes. Front calipers, Rear Calipers, Front rotors, Rear rotors. I forgot to get a pic of the packaging. REALLY well packaged.
13" Rotors front and rear, 4 piston caliper in the front, 2 piston caliper in the rear. You can't see it in the picture, but they come with adapter brackets and brake lines.
Front rotor is a work of art IMHO. It's a two-piece, center-mount, open slot rotor with convergent vanes. The center mount design allows air to be drawn in from both the front and back sides of the center of the rotor. No other rotor has that design feature that I'm aware of. The open slot design means that the rotor slots actually go all the way through the rotor into the vanes. Rotors are directional and have a left and a right side. A very cool design that they discuss in detail on their website.
Rear rotor is VENTED! I wasn't expecting that. Rotor face slotting is a groove only and doesn't go all the way through to the vanes. Like the front, the rotors are directional and have a left and a right side. I don't think the rear rotor uses the convergent vanes like the front does. Regardless, it's a GREAT rear rotor. One of the best I've seen. It may be the only BBK with a vented rear rotor. I'm not sure.
11/24/16 Installation update
Ok, so I finally got these installed a couple of weekends ago and have put some miles on them. I'm REALLY happy with them. Quality is top notch. Aesthetics are great. Performance is great. Customer service is great. I couldn't be happier. The fact that this is a front AND rear upgrade is really important. The braking balance of this car, from what I can tell, is perfect. Very stable, but when running full brake pressure to the rear line, I still have no instability in braking. Installation was pretty straightforward, which I'll go through later. As I said before, THIS UPGRADE REQUIRES Z32 REAR DRUM BRAKE CONVERSION FOR THE PARKING BRAKE. Ok, on to the install pics.
Like always, safety first. I like to work on the whole car at once, so I jacked up both the front and the back and put it on jack stands. NEVER LIFT A CAR WITH A JACK AND THEN WORK ON IT THAT WAY! Always use jack stands. ALWAYS. I have personally had a jack suddenly fail when I was trying to lift a car. It's scary. The car comes down FAST. Don't be lazy, be safe. Ok, now that the PSA is over, and the car is safely supported, remove all of the wheels. Since I knew I was doing all of the brakes, I used my vacuum bleeder and removed ALL of the brake fluid from the whole system. I pulled a vac on every caliper until I wasn't getting any more fluid out. This saved a lot of mess and cleanup. You don't HAVE to do it that way, it's just my preference. Ok, now that all of that is done, you're ready to get started.
I started on the rear. I didn't take any pics of the conversion to rear drum, as that's been covered a million time and isn't directly relevant to the RB brake install. When you remove the rear brake caliper, make sure you keep the stock caliper bracket bolts. They will be used to attach the adapter bracket to the hub. Then the rear dust shield must be trimmed to fit. I forgot to take a before picture, so here's my best attempt to hold the cut off piece up there.
Outer part of the shield removed.
Here you can see that you also need to trim it back so that the adapter bracket will fit. PLEASE NOTE I'M HOLDING THE ADAPTER BRACKET UP THE WRONG WAY! THERE IS A NUMBER ENGRAVED INTO THE BRACKET THAT IS SUPPOSED TO FACE OUT! The bracket comes attached to the caliper with two large hex hey bolts. You'll need to remove the bolts and the bracket to install the bracket first. Otherwise you won't be able to get the rotor on.
Adapter bracket properly installed with shield cut back and drum brake rebuilt with Projet Mu pads.
Close up showing the engraved number facing OUT!
OK, before I go on, I want to make a suggestion to future readers. In hindsight, I wish I had just cut the whole shield off altogether. With the shield still on, it limits air-flow into the center of the rotor. This is mostly a street car, so I'm not too worried about it, but when I do track days, I'm going to be paying close attention to rear rotor temps to make sure they're getting proper airflow.
A second point that some may notice is that I had to also trim the actual backing plate for the drum brake so the bracket would clear. I've discussed this with RB and they're going to modify the CAD drawing for the bracket so that in the future this won't be necessary. I was using a cut-off wheel on an angle grinder, so it wasn't too big of a deal for me. But if all you have is tin-snips, cutting this back would be nearly impossible.
OK, now on to the rotor install. As I said before, the rear rotors are vented. It was one of the contributing factors in why I chose this kit over the other options. Also, they're obviously slotted. This is a typical "shallow" slot that doesn't go all the way through. What's nice is that the slots have the same ElectroDeposition Paint (EDP) coating as the other surfaces of the rotor. This means the slots won't rust like a typical zinc plated rotor will eventually. From the racing brake website, "EDP offers better resistance to corrosion with uniform surface coverage on both edges and recesses (inside vanes). Better appearance and more environmental friendly." Ok, on to the installation, but first a quick reminder. Make sure you have the manual adjuster closed down so that you can get the inside of the rotor over the parking brake shoes. Secondly, and this is important, THERE IS A LEFT AND A RIGHT SIDE ROTOR! Yes, the rotors are directional, and if they're installed on the wrong side of the car, they won't pump air properly and the rotor won't be properly cooled. In the following photo, you can see there is a Left and Right sticker on the rotor, there is also an arrow showing the direction of rotation for when the sticker peels off. The instructions also illustrate which direction they should be installed.
Outside
Backside
The rotor should easily slide onto the hub over the rear parking brake. I like to put anti-seize on the face of the hub so they don't get stuck together. Make sure to thoroughly clean the surface of the rotor as well as the inside portion of the hat for the parking brake with brake clean to ensure that all of the machining oils have been removed. Now you should have this.
I couldn't get any good pictures of the next part due to clearance, but you then install the caliper over the rotor. THERE IS A LEFT AND RIGHT FOR THE CALIPERS AS WELL! Like most calipers, you have to install the bleeders (there's two, an inboard, and an outboard) so that they're facing up. There are two hex key bolts that you had to remove to get the adapter bracket off of the caliper. You'll simply re-install those bolts through the caliper, into the bracket and tighten it down. Now you should have this.
Lastly is the brake line itself. You don't HAVE to use RB's line I you already have SS lines for stock style brakes with banjo fittings on the end, as they'll fit fine (mine did anyway). That being said, they came with the kit, and I'm going to sell my old setup, so I used the RB lines. There's not much to say about installing brake lines. Remove the old ones, install the new ones. One thing I missed was that the 45° banjo fitting is threaded onto the brake line. You have to make sure you get that nut tightened down as well or it will leak brake fluid. RB supplies all of the hardware you need as well, so no concerns about banjo bolts or crush washers.
After you get the caliper installed, you may notice the pad seems to over-hang a little bit. This isn't something to worry about. I talked to RB about it, and the EDP coating wears off easily and has no negative effect on the pad. It had worn off and that part of the rotor had bedded in with the pad by the time I was done bedding in the brakes. Here's what I'm talking about.
OK, the next part doesn't have anything to do with the Racing Brakes themselves, but was part of the brake install for me, so I'm including it. I LOVE speed bleeders. If you don't know what they are, they are a replacement bleeder screw. Inside they have a check valve. This allows you to quickly, and easily, bleed the brakes yourself. Even if you have help, it makes the process go MUCH faster. Once nice little touch on the RB brakes is that the dust cap is attached so the bleeder, so you can't loose it. Anyway, here is the RB stock bleeder.
This is the speed bleeder installed with the back of the packaging so you know which one you need if you decide to do this as well. You don't HAVE to get the Stainless Steel bleeders. They make coated ones that are about half the price. I just HATE rusted in bleeders, so I always spend the extra money for the stainless.
Also, remember that there are TWO bleeders for EACH caliper (inboard and outboard). They come in packs of two, and you'll need 8 bleeders for the whole car, or 4 packages. Threads are M10 x 1.0. If there's a long and a short version, get the long ones.
Repeat for the other side. Also, DON'T FORGET TO READJUST THE PARKING BRAKE TENSIONER AND CABLE NUT ON THE BRAKE HANDLE INSIDE THE CAR SO THAT YOU HAVE A PROPERLY WORKING HAND BRAKE!!! I can't stress enough how important this is. You're replacing most of your braking system here. If there's a failure or you make a mistake, the hand brake may the deciding factor between a wreck, or just soiled shorts.
Ok, now for the front. I have to skip some pictures here because part of the work that needs done, I had done in the past when I upgraded to the Q45 fronts. First, remove the brake line. I left it attached to the caliper and just unhooked it from the strut and body bracket and brake line. Then the caliper. Don't bother with the slide pins like you would when replacing pads, just pull the two caliper bracket bolts out of the hub and the whole caliper will come off with the brake line. The rotor should just come off of the hub now. Now you have to make a decision. the dust shield either needs trimmed, or removed. I removed mine way back when I did the Q45 upgrade. To remove the shield, you'll have to remove the dust cap, spindle nut, and the hub. Then the shield should come off of the spindle. Re-install the hub, spindle nut and dust cap. I don't remember the torque spec., but make sure you tighten it to the correct torque if you decide to do it that way. If you decide to just trim, then just start trimming it until the rotor will fit on the hub without touching anything. If your removed the shield, you should now have this.
Ok, now for the adapter bracket. Like on the rear, you have to remove the bracket from the caliper with the two large hex key bolts, and make sure that the engraved number is facing OUT. Unlike the rear, you will use bolts that RB has supplied. In my kit, the bolts were too long and stuck WAY out. RB has corrected this for future kits and were great about sending me replacement bolts and paying for return shipping on the bolts that came with the kit. It should now look like this.
Ok, now install the rotor. Like the rear, I like to use anti-seize on the hub face before I install the rotor so it doesn't get stuck on later, and once again, make sure to thoroughly clean the surface of the rotor with brake clean. Also, like the rear, there is a left and right side. There is a sticker, as well as an arrow showing the direction of rotation engraved into the rotor hat. DON'T MIX UP THE LEFT AND RIGHT SIDES! Here is the rotor installed.
Now for the caliper. Like the rear, slide the caliper over the rotor and thread the two hex key bolts you removed earlier through the caliper, into the bracket. Here you can clearly see the two large hex key bolts on the inboard side of the caliper.
And here is the caliper installed. Once again, remember there is a left and right caliper. The bleed screws MUST FACE UPWARDS!
Finally, connect the brake line to the caliper with the supplied hardware. Repeat for the other side. Install speed bleeders if you're going to. Now double check all of your work. I like to go back and re-torque every bolt/nut/screw to make sure I didn't miss anything. ESPECIALLY on brakes. Make sure you got ALL of the 3 of the brake line connections tightened on the brake lines. Now bleed the brakes. Like always, start with the caliper furthest from the mastery cylinder and work your way closer. IIRC, it should go; Drivers Rear, Passenger Rear, Passenger Front, Driver Front, in that order. If you've never worked with dual bleeder calipers before, then you'll need to know that you ALWAYS bleed the OUTSIDE bleeder FIRST, then the inside. Now install the wheels, torque to spec, lower the car and enjoy the view.
Last but not least, you need to bed the pads into the rotors. I'm not going to bother re-typing it, but they have a bedding procedure they recommend. Here's the pad bedding instructions.
I want to finish with a statement about RB Performance Brakes. There were some minor hiccups that I encountered a long the way, which I mentioned in the post. What I want to make clear is that this company has been GREAT to work with. I often say that a company is defined less by it's mistakes, and more by how it handles them. They've handled themselves beautifully. Communication was great, customer service was top notch. Taking my feedback and using it to improve their product, is especially noteworthy, in my opinion. I couldn't be more happy with this product. If you're considering a brake up grade, don't hesitate at all to contact these guys or buy their product. You will NOT be disappointed!
