Just finished Nautilus upgrade

[Seafire XV]

I just completed the Nautilus upgrade that uses fsvt rotors up front and csvt fronts in the back. I was very happy with the quality of the Nautilus brackets, but a bit disapointed with their instructions. They were good enough, but it would have been nice to have had more photos at each stage of the conversion. Especially regarding the mods to the stock rear brackets. For anyone planning to do this conversion, the fronts are quite easy, just drill the bracket holes on the stock hub and grind away on the upper ear and you are set to go. For the rear brakes, there is more work since you must do alot of grinding on those rear brackets to gain the needed clearance. You will need to do the most grinding on the side of the bracket that will face the inner side of the rotor, especially toward the top. I tried to remove enough material so that I would'nt have to turn the rotors as suggested in the instructions, but no matter how much I workedat it I could'nt seem to get enough. I gave up and had .015 removed from both sides and that did it. Also, instead of grinding away on the inner hat suface, I brought the rear rotors to my local machine shop and had them turned down a total of .020 and that let them sag nice and loose. The brakes feel very good, a bit stronger than stock, which is what I Expected, and the
bigger rotors look nice. I went with EBC red pads to see if they dust less than the carbon metallic Mintex
pads that I had previously. One thing to watch out for with the EBC pads, it seems that you will get the
early caliper pads if you order them for a 98 or 99, so if you have a late 98 or 99 with the later style
calipers, just order pads for a 2000 CSVT and you won't have to let you car sit for a week like I did
while I waited for the correct pads!

 

[MISTILLPHIX]

Pics?

 

[HotRodV6]

I am in the process of gathering parts for the npg front and rear upgrade. My 99 SE has rear drums so I bought a set of complete rear brake assemblies from a 99 csvt. They came from MI so due to road salt they were pretty rusty but I've gotten then all torn apart, got new calipers and pads and grinding the rear brackets to fit over the csvt front rotors was easy, but what have people done to get the rear hub to fit inside the rotor? Like the OP I didn't want to grind the rotor, guess ill take them to a local brake shop and see if they will be willing to turn them for me to make the inside hub larger. Or am I missing something?

 

[mrspindlelegs]

The easier way to get the 278 mm CSVT front rotors to fit on the rear is to grind a little material off the hubs themselves. The rear hubs have a beveled edge. Grind off just enough material to eliminate the beveled edge; this narrows the outer diameter of the hub sufficiently to get the rotors to fit. Here is how I specifically accomplished this task on my SVT:

1. Loosen the lug nuts, jack up the rear of the car, place the car on jack stands, then remove the rear wheels.

2. Remove the rear disc brake calipers, pads and caliper mounting brackets.

3. Remove the old rear brake rotors.

4. Remove the rear ABS sensors. The ABS sensor has a magnet in it so it is likely you will find a lot of rust particulates clinging to it. Clean off the particulates then wrap the sensor with aluminum foil to prevent ginding particles from getting on the magnetic end of the probe.

5. Take a common garage mechanics shop towel and wrap the towel around the inner hub where the toothed ABS wheel is. Secure the towel in place with rubber band. The purpose of this towel is to prevent metal grindings from getting in behind the hub and into the rear portion of the bearing.

6. Mount a standard bench grinder on a sufficiently sturdy surface such that the grinding wheel is at about the same level as the mid edge of the hub. You may have to remove the guards around the grinding wheel to get clear enough access. I mounted my grinder on a combination of a plastic milk crate plus small planks of wood to get the right height and good stability.

7. Turn on the grinder and slowly engage it with the edge of the hub while you constantly turn the hub. Don't rush the grinding; just go at a nice leisurely pace. Keep an eye on the shop towel to make sure it doesn't try to get caught in the grinding wheel.

8. When the beveled edge is gone, stop. Pull back the grinder and check the fit of the rotor on the hub; it should fit loosely just like the old rear rotor did.

9. Go back to grinding the hub only this time, angle the grinding wheel enough to reinstall a beveled edge (removes sharp burrs that could cut you if you are not careful).

10. Once done with all the grinding, get a simple paint brush or another shop towel and wipe down everything to remove all the fine grinding debris that has gotten all over the hub, backing plate, knuckle, strut and suspension control arms. If you haven't done the grinding needed to fit the NPG caliper rear brackets, do this now and then clean-up all the grinding shavings.

11. Remove the shop towel, remove the aluminum foil off the ABS sensor and reinstall it (If the ABS toothed wheel on the hub is all grimy, might as well clean it up a bit while you have the time).

12. Install the NPG rear brackets on the knuckles.

13. Install the new rear rotors.

14. Install the modified caliper/brake pad bracket followed by the pads and the calipers. The caliper pistons will have to be bottomed in their bores due to the thicker new rear brake disc. Check the master cylinder first to make sure it won't overflow when you bottom the pistons (remove brake fluid from the master cyliinder if necessary). Make sure you use some sort of "Disc Brake Quiet" adhesive on the pads to eliminate the possibility of squealing brakes.

15. Pump up the brakes and note if the pedal is firm. If it is not, there is a problem. Adjust the fluid level in the brake master cylinder if necessary.

15. Reinstall the rear tires, put the car back on the ground and then torque the rear lug nuts.

16. Take the car for a spin. Remember to drive the car using proper brake pad break-in procedures.

17. If all goes well, give yourself a pat on the back (but don't forget that that is only 18 inches away from a kick in the butt. LOL).

 

[Chas]

The easier way to get the 278 mm CSVT front rotors to fit on the rear is to grind a little material off the hubs themselves. The rear hubs have a beveled edge. Grind off just enough material to eliminate the beveled edge; this narrows the outer diameter of the hub sufficiently to get the rotors to fit. Here is how I specifically accomplished this task on my SVT:

Not sure why I didn't think of doing that? I normally make sure if something has to be modified, it's the part that is permanent, that way I don't have to do it again down the road. If I ever have to change the rotors on the silver car, I'll do it this way!

Also I might just change it to the Milan kit that I put on the black car. It uses front FSVT rotors for the rear, so no grinding necessary. Also the bracket is a different angle so you don't have to cut the thin metal shroud. But that does cause one slight annoyance - you have to free up some slack on the parking brake line by moving/removing the rubber clip that holds the line to the drag link. Not a huge problem, but kind of a PITA!