# Caliper bracket clearance



## fairwayhit (Jan 15, 2020)

I’m doing a disc brake conversion and the brackets seem to have quit a bit of space between the caliper. 

Is this important? 

I could take a big hammer and try to beat the bracket down to tighten the clearance up a little. I just don’t want to do that if this isn’t important. 



























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## PontiacJim (Dec 29, 2012)

Hmmmm. The factory fit is usually tighter and right up against the caliper. My thinking is that when you clamp down on the brakes, the rotor is going to want to pull on the caliper and that left side of the caliper is being held in place by the caliper/brake shoe pin. I would be concerned that this gap will possibly allow the pin to bend/fatigue over time and could become a problem.

I would not throw out the baby with the bath water because of it. I would make a spacer/shim that will fit between the caliper and bracket to take up that space - moreso on the top where the greatest pressure will be from tire/rotor rotation.

So I would bend a length of mild steel, or find an angled piece of mild steel, and get it to wedge/fit down into the gap spanning the width of the bracket - 4 inches?. To attach, I would use one of 2 methods. Drill a small hole in the angle that goes through the larger flat piece on the bracket and use some JB Weld and a roll pin in the hole to secure it. The other would be to drill and tap a small hole and use a hardened machine screw and some JB Weld. I think the correct roll pin, based on matching drill size, would be easiest.

These are what I would do and I am no expert on brakes or metallergy. You may want to first contact your brake kit supplier and see what they have to say. They may already know of the problem and have a fix. But, I would not run it as is either.


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