redtopz

Well I thought I escaped LS with no damage, but I was just removing my race wheels/tires to put my stockers on and I saw this:

Lancer033

mine did that when i first installed them. Did the zip tie thing and it worked for AutoX. Might want something a little more heat resistant for track days.

MySR71

I'm not familiar with Wilwoods, but can the fitting coming off the caliper be rotated so it points upwards instead of downwards? That would bend the hose into an s-shape like the stock setup. See picture below. It would, I think, raise the brake line up away from the lower a-arm.

FredSM

Geez, Bill. I guess aluminum loses against braided stainless. At least the line didn't fail on the track. That could have been ugly. Just replaced a failing rear line myself a few hours ago.

Is the wheel damage superficial? How 'bout the control arm. You think it's junk? I just hacked into my rear upper arm on purpose to clearance it for 11" wheels. Not quite that large a divot, though.

FM

AU N EGL

Geezzzz

Luck you did not rupture that brake line going into a fast and hard brake zone

kmagvette

Is (was) that an exceedingly long brake line? Hard to tell from the picture but sure looks that way. If it is, then in a tight right hander the line needs to find someplace to go as the gap between the caliper and frame is reduced...man, that could have gotten ugly.

L98Terror

Duh!!!

redtopz

I'm an idiot. Thanks for the help.

I'll be replacing the control arm and obviously the brake line. Wheel damage is superficial. I'm surprised you had to groove your control arm for 11" wheels. Probably because when they widen wheels its all on the inside. Another option is to get some ARP studs and use a small spacer on the rear wheels to push them out a little.

MySR71

No problem although you'll have to try and see. Again, I have no experience with Wilwood brakes.

I did look at the Wilwood website. Figure 4 of the following install instructions may have been misleading (if you can indeed rotate the fitting and it works better). The figure also needs to flipped over as the hardline ends pointing downward on the car but not the figure.

http://www.wilwood.com/pdf/ds586.pdf

The figure shows something like what you have. Granted they do have a lengthy section saying it is the installer's responsibility to route the lines safely.

I hope you are able to find a good solution.

davidfarmer

as seen in MySR71's photo, the lines are supposed to make an "S" shape, with keeps them tidy get still allows them to extend. Your calipers may make this setup difficult, HOWEVER, one of the reasons I think most people should stay away from SS lines is that I seem OEM replacement SS lines installed incorrectly on a regular basis. People pull the old lines off, and don't bother to properly route the replacement lines. Often it's not the lines themselves I blame, but the human error.

so if you ever see me recommending AGAINST SS lines, this is the primary reason!

0Bobby @ LG Motorsports

Bill, brake lines are on the way!

vms4evr

Redtopz. That sucks man. But you were very lucky you didn't blow that line on track. It could have been very ugly.

This is how my Stoptech SS lines are installed on an 02 Z06. Stock brakes, front pictured. No zip ties or anything holding them in place.

trackboss

Your control arm is likely ok. You can clean it up with an angle grinder and flap wheel to smooth things out and remove any stress risers. It's actually very common for the wheel to contact the rear leg of the a-arm for not just the corvette, but many cars with wide wheels. It usually happens in the paddock and not on track.
The line re-orientation as mentioned above is a good idea. Your caliper probably uses a straight an-3 fitting. You can get the line with a 90 or 45 on that end and direct the line to be clear of obstacles when the wheels are turned in any direction and the suspension cycled. Good idea to zip tie a length of rubber hose over the line where it is near the control arm or anything that it might rub.

redtopz

Sweet, nice service!

I removed all my wheels after a couple sessions and had no brake line damage at that time. I think I know what happened (see below). I have already re-oriented the lines into an S shape like your photo and it works fine with these calipers .

Interesting. My wheel definitely cut the grooves in my control arm. Its an 18x11 CCW in front. I don't think it happened in the paddock because I never turn the wheel more than one revolution so my cooling ducts don't get squished. Must have happened on the track and only on the right side. Now that I think about it, it probably happened when I was going down turn 9 loose and correcting the wheel hard right to save a spin. Yep, that's probably what happened and I went back in the paddock after that and called it a day with one session still to go. It seems like I would have heard scraping if it were happening regularly on the track or in the paddock and it has never happened before. Thanks for the info.

0Todd TCE

One of the common mistakes made when hoses are fit is that they mount them and look them over while they install the brake kit. Sounds ok. But....often the installer fails to check them at ride height. A lot can change from full droop to ride height.

Most of the Wilwood kits come with a 90 degree fitting for the caliper. This causes some issues for folks- a lot of people are not comfortable or have a good 'feel' for NPT thread and are leery of tightening it "too far". The flip side of that is that when they do choose to change or index it they need to turn it CCW. Bad deal as this loosens the thread interference.

Personally I use nothing but straight NPT fittings to the caliper and all the TCE kits come with 90 (or 45) degree hose ends. This allows infinite adjustable locations for the hose.