We're excited to introduce our new Wilwood Front Disc Brake upgrade for Volkswagen Vanagons. We've taken our well proven front disc brake kit and adapted it to fit Wilwood Dynapro Lug Mount aluminum calipers. This kit is specific to upgrading an existing Small Car Big Brake Kit.
About the calipers
The Dynapro Lug Mount calipers are crafted from premium grade forged billet aluminum. They are four piston calipers with a significantly larger piston area than stock calipers. They've been designed with fluid volume displacement in mind to keep your brake pedal travel as short as possible. Best of all, these calipers are readily available nationally.
How much does this kit improve braking?
We've done the real world testing necesary to ensure this front brake kit is the top performing Vanagon big brake kit available. Through testing the kit has performed excellently with a stock proportioning valve and stock rear drums. If upgrading rears to discs you may need to add an adjustable proportioning valve. A rear Wilwood kit is currently under development and when that is released we will provide proportioning information.
Since the pressure applied by the brake fluid is dependent on how hard the pedal is pushed the best way to compare brake system performance mathematically is to hold pressure constant and look at a percentage improvement due to disc and caliper geometries. The table below compares various brake kit effectiveness to early stock Vanagon front brakes. When Volkswagen switched calipers in 1986 they improved on braking performance but there was still room for improvement. Additionally, origonal replacement parts for stock setups are getting hard to come by. That's where our brake kits come in.
Note: Values in table consider piston area and rotor diameter. Pressure, friction coefficient, and cooling are considered constant throughout this analysis.
Note: Need spacers? Here is a link.
Why are four pistons better?
Increasing the piston count allows for the overall size of the caliper to be reduced while significantly increasing piston area over stock calipers. This means that our Wilwood front disc brake kit fits some 15 wheels unlike the competition.
What about pedal travel?
We've found through testing that the stock Vanagon master cylinder and booster handles the increased displaced volume well. Your brake pedal will feel similar to that of a stock late Vanagon.
Fitment:
Vehicle: This kit will fit all Vanagons. Please select your Vanagon type to make sure you get the correct mounting hardware.
Wheels: The list below describes the spacing and lug length required to fit various wheels over this brake assembly.
Note: "Lug length" refers to the length of the bolt that is threaded into the hubs to serve as the lug.
Note: Need spacers? Here is a link.
Kit Contents:
- Wilwood Dynapro Lug Mount Calipers
- Wilwood Brake Pads
- Anodized Aircraft Grade Aluminum Brake Caliper Brackets
- Necesary Hardware
Need a full kit? Click the link here.
Installation instructions
!IMPORTANT!
It is essential that you follow the Wilwood brake bedding process for these brakes. Not following the bedding process will lead to dangerous feeling brakes. Click this link for the instructions.
