Page 1 of 1

NC Wilwood rear BBK

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2019 1:14 pm
by johndcrumpton
Duplicating this post from Miata.net.... Does anyone have experience installing these?
Fronts are on, no trouble. Rears are on and working except for the parking brake cable.

The replacement cables don't seem to be long enough. The other thing that really seems odd to me is that Wilwood specifically indicates that the driver's side cable is the longer of the two, but the OEM parts were the opposite.

The install is being done by Gran Turismo East in ATL... these guys have always been extremely knowledgeable and professional... so I have no reason the think this is just a case of operator error.

Gran Turismo has already emailed Wilwood about this; no response yet. I thought I would see if anyone here has ideas?

"I am having trouble with the parking brake cables on a 2013 Mazda Miata. The Wilwood cables that we have are about 55" and 63". The instructions clearly say that the driver's side cable is longer but when we pulled the factory cables off of the car, the passenger's side was the longer side. Even still we are also having issues with the clevis that connects the parking brake cable to the parking brake lever arm. I am measuring .150" gap on the parking brake caliper lever arm. The factory PB cable is .170" thick and the Wilwood cables are .190" thick, on the clevis.
The other end of the cables is also incorrect for the car. The cylindrical side that attaches to the balance bar is .312" diameter on the Wilwood cable but the factory end is .387"

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

Re: NC Wilwood rear BBK

Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2019 6:59 am
by Brian
Our head mechanic Rocky likely knows this off top of his head but he is out today, and I am out this morning too. But our Supercharged 2007 with same brakes is on the lift in the shop, can have Ryan take a look later today at ours for which cable is longest, etc.

Re: NC Wilwood rear BBK

Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2019 7:09 am
by johndcrumpton
Thanks Brian. From the photos, I'm thinking they may be the wrong cables altogether? The eyelet thing (no idea what that's called... clevis?) where they attach to the arm on the parking brake caliper seems too thick to fit in. And on the other end, the that piece at the end of the cable (also don't know what that's called) is clearly not the same size as the OEM part... but it is supposed to attach to the OEM brake lever?

Re: NC Wilwood rear BBK

Posted: Fri Mar 01, 2019 11:06 am
by Ryan @ GWR
Keep in mind that Wilwood didn't design and manufacture a new cable for the NC here, they used something off their parts shelf that they already used in their kits for Mustangs, etc. so the "correct" cable isn't going to be an exact match to the NC factory cable in every way.

Will try to get under that car today to verify.

Re: NC Wilwood rear BBK

Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2019 9:46 am
by johndcrumpton
It seems to be sorted out. Wilwood said they seem to have a bad run of cables, but it would be 2+ weeks to get a replacement. Gran Turismo is just grinding the ends to make them work. I should have the car back this afternoon and will post some pics of what they had to modify.

Re: NC Wilwood rear BBK

Posted: Thu May 09, 2019 10:04 pm
by UweH848
Same here. Just tried installing the kit and the brake cables are way off. The eyelet is a larger diameter that doesn't fit through the hole in the cross brace. I used a dremel to cut a slot in the brace. Then I discover that the cable is almost 2" too short. See attached picture. I ended up having to fabricate a couple of extension to get things hooked up. Very disappointing on a $1800 kit. Shouldn't have to spend half the day cutting crossmembers and fabricating extensions to get things to fit.

The issue is not that "it's not an exact match" to OEM. The issue is that the cable doesn't fit at all.
UWE__IMG20190426_233844.jpg

Re: NC Wilwood rear BBK

Posted: Fri May 10, 2019 9:06 am
by Ryan @ GWR
It's good to keep in mind that Wilwood did not design brand new cables for the NC because they would never sell enough to justify manufacturing that part just for this car. As they commonly do they found something they had in their catalog already that could be made to work (this same cable actually came in a bag labeled Mustang in the early days of this kit, which caused plenty of confusion). Sure, we'd all like 100% bespoke parts for the kit, but the numbers just don't add up to make that possible.

Regarding that bracket, the way we do it is to cut a thin slot in the bottom so we can pass it through at the narrowest part of the cable and get it up to the hole, see pic: