LS Delorean Miata front brake adapter kit, optioned with Wilwood hardware

[FABombjoy]

Wanted to post a quick review of the brake adapter product sold here:
https://www.lsdelorean.com/services-1

It's a brake adapter kit that opens up options, and has the added benefit of bringing sanity to the rotor mount.

Foremost, buying in to the Miata ecosphere means all manner of nice OEM options & several aftermarket. If you hit up local track days you could probably find someone willing to give you the stock brakes from their NA or NB. Parts are plentiful & available at any auto parts store.

What I really like is that this kit hangs the rotor on the wheel studs a rational car, rather than requiring dismounting of the spindle nut and risking bearing damage just to get to the rotor bolts. Once the kit's caliper brackets are on, you slide the new hub / bearing assembly on to the spindle, torque the big nut, and its done. Future rotor service means just removing the tire. Hub nuts are of limited use and safe rotor service means replacing that nut, and they aren't cheap.

I have 16" aftermarket wheels in front and opted for a Wilwood rotor/caliper kit. Specifically the Miata NA/NB kit p/n ‎140-11704. This comes with black calipers & plain rotors as I don't see the need for cross drill or gas slots for street driving on modern pads. This kit requires a 15" minimum wheel, and while there are Miata kits that require a 16" wheel, at their price point I think you approach a point of diminishing returns on a street car just to "fill the wheel" so to speak. This Wilwood kit was around $640 delivered which included hardware, pads, brackets, rotors, tophats, etc. Crazy cheap for a brake kit.

The Wilwood brakes bolted to the adapter kit with 0 issues. The process went 100% by the book. Wilwood calipers have NPT fittings, so I connected them with:
-A straight 1/8 to -3AN
-An 18" -3 brake hose
-A -3 to 10mm metric to adapt the stock hard line. Earl's 592032 -3 to metric adapter actually fits comfortably right in to the frame tab nut and looks like it belongs.

Bleeding the Wilwood calipers is different compared to stock as there are tiny 4 bleed screws. You ignore the lower bleed screws and follow the order in the manual for the uppers. What tripped me up is that the bleed screws are long and will wick leftover fluid from the bleeding process. I kept seeing a spot of brake fluid between the bleed screw and the housing which would reappear after a day. Eventually I put my vacuum pump on the bleed screw and forcefully extracting the bit of brake fluid from around the threads.

Normally the DMC->Miata kit is provided with hubcentrics but I had to get creative for my wheels. I did CAD & 3D print my own custom parts to adapt my wheel adapters as well as speedo dust cap, all in PETG. I also adapted & spaced the stock dust shields but the sizing & distance is not optimal for the new rotors and will revisit this at another time. Mainly I wanted something there to keep dust off of the suspension and radiant heat shielding of the ball joints / tie rod ends.

A few pics: https://imgur.com/a/sFNAAn3

The only issues encountered were:
-The new hub to spindle clearance is tight. I hit the spindle with a scotch bright pad first, then used a large socket & soft mallet to help the inner races slide on the spindle & seat the hub into place.
-The tether point for the speedo cable needed some manual manipulation to clear the Wilwood hydraulic port which isn't in the same location as a Mazda caliper, and to point my single-piece speedo cable a bit more in line with stock. Easy enough. The good news is that its far more substantial than the OEM "bent coat hanger".

In 2016 I'd installed the spaced caliper / vented rotor kit w/ EBC Redstuff pads, and now have this Wilwood kit w/ the street pads provided with the kit. There is more bite, a more linear pedal feel, and I don't feel like I have to stand on the brake pedal for a properly hard stop. The total package dropped a substantial 5lbs per wheel - from 27lbs total to 17lbs total - while increasing the rotor size from 250mm to 280mm. The Wilwood pads have about twice the area as stock.

Photo dump:
https://imgur.com/a/sFNAAn3

[Josh]

Thank you for the kind words and comprehensive review! Happy to see those wilwoods on your car. They look great with the new wheels.

[FABombjoy]

Is it possible to get edit permission on my own post? Me no writey goody.

[Drive Stainless]

Is the front hub completely custom, or is that a Miata part also?

[Ron]

Is it possible to get edit permission on my own post? Me no writey goody.

It allows you to edit for a ~couple of minutes. After that, a mod or admin has to do it.

[FABombjoy]

Is the front hub completely custom, or is that a Miata part also?

It's actually the rear hub from a Ford Escort, so another off the shelf part. I was able to get Timken remans with USA-made bearings for less than $70 for the pair. You could roll the dice on cheaper options too.

Due to aftermarket wheels I needed to press in longer studs but stock wheels would be fine as-is. Extended studs are also a part-house part, found them without any real trouble.

It allows you to edit for a ~couple of minutes. After that, a mod or admin has to do it.

Someone needs to put you in charge here

[mark w]

does this kit widen the front track ?

[FABombjoy]

I believe there is a +3mm offset change, basically negligible. I run 205/45-17 tires and the wheels & adapters were fairly centered over the bearings with no fender rolling.

No changes were necessary post install, with no signs of rubbing at full lock during high speed figure 8 testing

[dmcman73]

I have the same kit from Josh, but I am using stock Miata calipers that I got dirt cheap (like $5.00 each caliper) from a junk yard and rebuilt them. I purchased the rotors for $15.00 each as well and they are slightly larger and are vented. As Famboy pointed out, I made this change because of 1. To change the rotors from the bolt on ones that the originals use (it's madness to have to remove the entire hub to change the rotor) to the over the hub rotors 2. The abundance of parts and after market parts for the Miata brakes and 3. For the Vented setup of the rotors without make any major changes and locking myself into a specific vendors setup.

The Escort hubs that replace the Delorean stock hubs went onto my spindles with no fuss, I didn't have to use scotch bright on mine.

Everything fits on perfectly including the new caliper brackets. The only thing that is missing from the entire setup is the rotor dust shield, you don't use the original ones as they are too far from the new rotors and just look silly on the car. Josh has been running without dust shields on his own car for years with no issues. Other owners I know that have converted their classic cars to use disc brakes have also been running their setup without dust shields for years with no issues at all.

It's a really great setup and allows you to get all your brakes parts locally, even purchase brake pads and rotors from Autozone and you get lifetime warranties on them and never have to pay for brake pads or rotors for your car again.

[Drive Stainless]

I have the same kit from Josh, but I am using stock Miata calipers that I got dirt cheap (like $5.00 each caliper) from a junk yard and rebuilt them. I purchased the rotors for $15.00 each as well and they are slightly larger and are vented. As Famboy pointed out, I made this change because of 1. To change the rotors from the bolt on ones that the originals use (it's madness to have to remove the entire hub to change the rotor) to the over the hub rotors 2. The abundance of parts and after market parts for the Miata brakes and 3. For the Vented setup of the rotors without make any major changes and locking myself into a specific vendors setup.

The Escort hubs that replace the Delorean stock hubs went onto my spindles with no fuss, I didn't have to use scotch bright on mine.

Everything fits on perfectly including the new caliper brackets. The only thing that is missing from the entire setup is the rotor dust shield, you don't use the original ones as they are too far from the new rotors and just look silly on the car. Josh has been running without dust shields on his own car for years with no issues. Other owners I know that have converted their classic cars to use disc brakes have also been running their setup without dust shields for years with no issues at all.

It's a really great setup and allows you to get all your brakes parts locally, even purchase brake pads and rotors from Autozone and you get lifetime warranties on them and never have to pay for brake pads or rotors for your car again.

The page says:

Kit includes: Brackets, spacers, hubs, dust caps, hub-centric rings, brake lines, and hardware.

Are the hubs included or do they need to be purchased separately? I'm confused since FABombjoy said he paid $70 for a remanufactured pair.