brake bracket fabrication advice

[Scotia1000]

Hi,

I am trying to change my 1980 gs1000 front brakes with a set of Tokico calipers, I have made a rough bracket,  1. is the bracket big enough? 2. stainless or aluminium 6061-7075? (I have no idea what the plate I used was), 3. should I have a spacer made (4) and welded to the plate for bolt #2, any advice please,

[yantosh]

shape looks ok, 6082 is plenty strong, it looks too thin. 

[Scotia1000]

Thanks for reply, I just found a link here where they use 10mm plate,( 6mm does look a bit thin, )but it doesn't show if he uses a loose spacer or its welded on

[yantosh]

spacers bolted in place, can't go anywhere? 

[coombehouse]

I have used 6mm plates before but they were 7075 t6 material which is quite strong. These days I use 8mm thick what ever I can get as it looks more substantial. 10mm can look a bit too chunky unless the bracket is very small or you can machine some fancy slots or reliefs into it 

[clairetoo]

hate to be `that guy' but it doesn't look to me that the calliper is sitting correctly on the disc - since that calliper is for a much larger disc , its more than a bit unlikely that one of the mounting bolts will line up with the mounts on your forks - I have made more than a few calliper  adapter plates , and they have never lined up like that..... I bet the `front' of the disc pad is hanging off the edge of the disc.......

 

[TLRS]

I would go thicker with the plate too. Personally I don't like loose spacers but it's not bad. Accuracy of the spacer size is more important as it will affect the alignment of the caliper.

Are the lugs on the fork flat enough on the outside? Looks like they are meant to bolt a caliper too from the wheelside. If it's too uneven and you bolt everything tight, maybe it'll cause tension.

[Scotia1000]

22 hours ago, clairetoo said:

doesn't look to me that the calliper is sitting correctly on the disc -

These are the things I'm not sure of, I put some tape on the disc and marked out the brake pad where it would sit and it looked to be on all of the disc! maybe I better take a closer look, as you said, it shouldn't line up with one bolt in the original fork, (I would sooner buy a set of plates made up, But I am too far from any engineers, I also have a rear caliper that needs a bracket but that is well beyond me,

 

55 minutes ago, TLRS said:

Are the lugs on the fork flat enough on the outside?

They seem to be, I ground an angle on the plate so it would sit tighter and flater to the main fork leg,

my original calipers have broken nipples, stripped threads, and seized a bit etc,

[clairetoo]

24 minutes ago, Scotia1000 said:

These are the things I'm not sure of, I put some tape on the disc and marked out the brake pad where it would sit and it looked to be on all of the disc! maybe I better take a closer look, as you said, it shouldn't line up with one bolt in the original fork, (I would sooner buy a set of plates made up, But I am too far from any engineers, I also have a rear caliper that needs a bracket but that is well beyond me,

 

They seem to be, I ground an angle on the plate so it would sit tighter and flater to the main fork leg,

my original calipers have broken nipples, stripped threads, and seized a bit etc,

my method to check position is to bend a piece of 2.4mm ally filler rod to the same radius as the disc , tape it to the disc - and put the calliper in place , making sure it is sitting on the welding rod at both ends - then rotate it till it is near the fork leg , and see where it wants to sit

[TLRS]

40 minutes ago, Scotia1000 said:

my original calipers have broken nipples, stripped threads, and seized a bit etc,

A healthy excuse for an upgrade. A lot of folks opt for a newer set of forks, wheel and some fixed (non sliding pin) brakes.

[slayer61]

It's not rocket surgery... 

 

[rodneya]

13 minutes ago, slayer61 said:

It's not rocket surgery... 

 

This way works the best. Bolt the bracket to the same side of the fork mount that the caliper was bolted to instead of the outside. That way it sits against a flat machined surface