I've borrowed the shop press from the neighbours workshop and having been pressing out 9 drive flanges, bearings and races for past 9 hours (gotta do it properly
)
So here is the situation. Car: st185/crate
My plan is to use the st205 discs as they are an off the shelf part from the local parts store for a reasonable price with wilwood superlites. Commonly for a st185 big brake kit, a spacer is used behind the disc to space out to clear the lower ball joint. Spigot diameter is 55mm, as on the st205, 215 and 246 with a 5x100 pattern. 54.1mm on the 165 and 185
My issue has always been to ensure everything is pretty much perfect on the car, as such, I want the discs to be hubcentric. As I have st205 rear discs (the easy conversion part), i placed them on my celica st20x drive flanges and the disc is hubcentric when the disc is flat against the drive flange. NOW.. the spigot on the drive flange tapers up, so there is only 8mm of 55mm spigot for the disc to fit onto. But the disc bore also tapers up to the top, leaving approx 2 - 3mm of actual 55mm disc bore to fit onto the spigot. This doesn't allow the st205 front disc to be hubcentric (fark.. grr.. you get the picture) movement is upto 1mm.
So with teh st215 rear drive flange, I'm comparing with the front drive flanges and the rear drive flange sits out 10mm more than the front. Lightbulb! Possible use of st205/215 rear drive flanges in place of the standard front st20x/21x drive flanges and it will then clear the lower ball joint while being perfectly hubcentric. bell height of st185 disc is 46mm, bell height of st205 is 58mm. No need for extended length studs either (hmm.. maybe i've wasted money already.. sigh)
the diameter of the drive flange is the same front and rear (like 38mm - need to check again), length is the same, looking at the drive shafts, i'm pretty sure they use the same cv joint front and rear (to confirm but they use the same cv boot, then again toyota and its not like celicas are bespoke with custom parts, its toyota.. they're going to use one thing on most everything like swaybar links on a corolla are same as gt4s).
So now to the question: The rear drive flanges have the holes for accessing the brake shoes. Do you see an issue using the rear drive flanges as front drive flanges (if they clear the internal bell diameter), or are the rear drive flanges weaker because of the holes, potentially failing if they are used up front. I've already spent a lot of time researching thus far and had concluded that the st20x front drive flanges would keep things hubcentric, but this seems not to be the case. I don't want to bore out discs and hot press a extra spigot ring to keep hubcentric. At the end of the day, i'd rather spend up first with cheap consumables later. Yes, bell and rotor was considered, as well as different brakes, discs and various other combos., but then again, I like a challenge and would like to keep things in the toyota family instead of bespoke solutions.
Pics up soon. I'll take some extra measurements as well if someone has some front discs which they can then measure the internal diameter on please.
Cheers
Dave
and it is nearly 6am.. i should sleep, but then again, if I resolve this in the next 15 minutes, i'm going to stay up, call a wreckers 2 hours away and drive up and get the other rear drive flanges they have, sinply because i have the press at my house now, i'm back at work next week and my time is going to reduce again.
