We attempted to mate up a Customer Supplied Yukon 5.5" hub kit to our Super 16 BBK and it was a no go. Yukon deviated from Warn by deleting the rotor hat spacer that moved the rotor back towards the knuckle by just increasing the flange thickness by 3/16" more than how Warn did it. Great, good idea but that screws up putting it all together with that brake kit because there isn't enough room between the rotor and mounting bosses on the knuckle that the saddle bolts to. That is the start of me being dumb.
I use that knowledge to my "advantage" since I have the Warn original so no big deal, thinner flange and I want bigger brakes on the TJ-6. I mock it all up on the test fixture, good to go. I send out the hubs and rotors, clock the pattern over and have it drilled and tapped for 1/2-20 at the flange and 1/2" clearance holes in the rotor hat. That lets me use any common length screw in stud instead of the limited length press in versions in case I need longer studs because why not, I'm good at this, right? Turns looking somewhat like this after a fair bit of effort to trim down the bolt bosses on the saddle to move it inward.
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Looks good, I'm all happy and proud of myself for just how cute I can get with shit that others don't do. That pic has two things that are the start of me kicking my own ass. Below shows where the problems start.
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First problem is the rotor was within a business card thickness of rubbing on the grease boot. The second problem laying on the ground didn't show up until much later. First problem, alright I'm a smart guy, I'll just make a spacer out of 1/8" aluminum and move the spindle out, that will move the rotor out, I'll use some of my fancy special spacers between the caliper saddle and knuckle, piece of cake, so I do and now I've got rid of the grease boot problem.
I sneak a few minutes here and there, some contemplation and come up with a semi-permanent method to mount the lower shock mounts and still be able to drive it to paint, then adjust afterwards when it is all put together. I just extended the lower inner flange, drilled it, bolted it up to the lower control arm bolt and tack welded the corners. (at my assumed ride height)
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I'm pretty happy about all this until I cycle the steering lock to lock and discover that the caliper body just touches the shock mount at full lock. Well, crap, that's not gonna work since the caliper moves inward as the pads wear. Now I'm starting to realize that being cute is not all it is cracked up to be.
I spend some hours doing parts research and I find that Wilwood makes a rotor ring for a two piece rotor that is the exact size of the one I'm using. Great, lots of dimension checking to make sure the mounting bolts for the hat won't hit my caliper saddle and I order a pair in and they're cheap, sub 70 each delivered.
All good until I try to find a shallower rotor hat to move the rotor away from the shock mount. They have one blank option, they actually have two hats that will work but only one can be bought as a blank. It is painful at 155 bucks each. I get two and send them out to get machined to fit, open up the center bore and drill the 5.5" bolt circle of 1/2" clearance holes. That adds another 50 bucks to each hat cost.
Looks something like this. Anyone see the problem yet?
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I had been using low head screw in wheel studs to keep the head height down to stop the knuckle bolts that hold the spindle on from hitting the heads of the wheel studs.
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The head diameter means they won't fit next to the inner wall of the new rotor hat. I order up some 1/2-20 socket head cap screws and finally get the new rotor mounted up to the bearing hub. I install it onto the knuckle so we can start figuring out what it is going to take to make the caliper saddle center up.
Hub goes on, turns just fine, everything is wonderful except the caliper saddle needs a spacer of 1/8" to be centered. Aha! Remember the 1/8" aluminum spacer I made, just remove that from behind the spindle and the saddle will be nicely centered so back apart it comes, we bolt it all up without the spacer and it's all perfect, well except for the part where the rotor won't turn because my fancy ARP knuckle bolts are now exactly 1/8" too long and hit the heads of the socket cap screws that hold the rotor to the flange. Yep, I'm getting my ass kicked but I'm still standing and not down for the count. We pull the knuckle bolts one at a time, cut them down, reinstall and it is good. Looks about like this.
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We got it done but it sure doesn't always pay to be cute and do shit just because you can.
