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SSBC Quick Change Caliper Upgrade - Big Brakes, Little WheelsSSBC Stops Your Fullsize From the February, 2009 issue of 4Wheel & Off-Road By Jerrod Jones Photography by Jerrod Jones
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The SSBC Quick-Change caliper... The SSBC Quick-Change caliper upgrade kit comes with new machined two-piece calipers, pads, and bleeder screws. The new Force 10 Supertwin TK two-piston calipers spread the force of the braking pressure out over a larger surface, therefore improving braking. You are still displacing the same amount of fluid at the same pressure with the same foot strokes at the pedal, but now that force is better applied to the rotor. And for around $900 how could we go wrong? Those other brake kits would cost us upwards of $2,000 and make us run at least 17-inch rims. Yucko! The '88-'98 Chevys never did stop worth a darn. They improved the brakes a little bit in the last couple years of production, but they all pretty much sucked. Many of the aftermarket brake companies recognized this and offer a slew of brake kits, but they are all for 17- or 18-inch wheels, leaving us stubborn-assed little-rim lovers without an answer to our braking woes. Were we doomed to be running around in unstoppable metal harbingers of death? We had already swapped a six-lug 9.5-inch ring gear 14-bolt axle into the back of our Tahoe, at the same time gaining just about the biggest set of drums we've ever seen fit in a 15-inch wheel. The braking improvement was noticed, but we could feel ourselves plow right through those front disc brakes, where over 70 percent of the truck's braking is done. Stainless Steel Brake Corporation had our solution ready to go with a quick-change aluminum caliper kit that would bolt directly onto our knuckle and still allow us to run our 15-inch spinners. The two-piece Force 10 Supertwin TK calipers feature dual pistons and are all it takes to get you better brakes in under an hour. We've had the chance to put a few miles on a set ourselves, and the vast improvement has been long awaited. With many large-caliper brake kits you get more brake pedal travel because more fluid displacement is required, but the Force 10 calipers have a stock feeling to them, starting to engage soon into the pedal travel. After some 40mph-to-rolling break-in procedures, we gave the pedal a little more of a slam and couldn't believe what a difference a new caliper made on the same-sized rotor. Our brakes also got progressively better as we burned the first layers off the pads and put a couple hundred miles on them. It's easy to wear in brakes in Southern California. Who: SSBC
What It Is: Quick-Change caliper upgrade
What It Comes With: Force 10 Supertwin TK two-piston calipers, new brake pads.
How Much It'll Set You Back: Around $900
Options: Slotted rotors can be added to the package for another $200
Options: Slotted rotors can be added to the package for another $200  1. We completed this SSBC...  1. We completed this SSBC kit in under an hour-calipers bled and wheels back on. All we had to do was remove two caliper slider bolts, pinch off the brake line with some hose clamps or Vise-Grips, unscrew the banjo bolt, and pop off the caliper. Once the caliper is out of the knuckle the rotor will slide right off.  2. The brake pads have indicators...  2. The brake pads have indicators to make a scraping sound should the pad wear down to that point. Make sure pads are placed so that the rotor would be pulling that indicator away from the pad should it be touching. In other words, place it so the indicator is on top when the caliper is mounted.  3. The Force 10 Supertwin...  3. The Force 10 Supertwin TK caliper is a two-piece design setup to fit on both the passenger and driver side of the vehicle. Therefore, there are two bleeder screws and two brake hose inlets. There is an Allen head plug for the lower hole and a new banjo bolt for the brake hose (which will go into the top hole). Six copper washers were given-four thick and two thin. Both thick washers are supposed to go on the banjo bolt, and the thin one is for the Allen head plug. And remember to bleed each side from the bleeder screw that is facing up, not the lower one.  4. Though the Quick-Change...  4. Though the Quick-Change SSBC caliper package is a caliper-only kit, you can opt to pay an extra couple hundred bucks and get new slotted rotors from SSBC should you need them. Whenever installing brake rotors, try to get as few fingerprints on them as possible. They should be cleaned and wiped initially with brake cleaner, but after they are installed there is a backing plate that keeps you from wiping the back of them, so watch the finger oils on the rotors. A cleaned rotor actually does make a big difference over a dirty glazed-over rotor.  5. It might have been due...  5. It might have been due to grime or rust buildup on the knuckle, but the inner brake pad would not quite fit between where the slider pins thread into the knuckle. It was literally less than 2 mm worth of obstruction, so we got out our grinder and took just a smidgen of metal off each side of the inner brake pad's backing plate, never actually grinding off any of the brake-pad material.  6. Once the inner pads were...  6. Once the inner pads were ground down, we reinstalled them back in the caliper, slid the caliper onto the new rotor, and tightened the Allen head slider bolts.  7. After having a friend help...  7. After having a friend help to bleed the brake system, it was the moment of truth as we slapped a 15-inch wheel over our brakes. And after hitting the fresh powdercoat on the caliper with the black steel wheel and gouging it out (don't do this, by the way) we were able to take better aim and fit the wheel up with ample caliper clearance.
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Stainless Steel Brake Corp.
Clarence
NY
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