Floater setup--yes or no

[68protouring454]

when I road race, i always re pack the bearings and clean the tubes after each race weekend, which is 4 -30 min sessions for practice and qual, and 2 35-45 min races. I always have some oil in the the tubes(with inner seals,which we silicon as well). Never had any bearing issues etc, we also ran our fluid level high but found it to get by the seals and start to wash the bearings out, in sprint races (under an hr) generally with a rear end cooler, you can keep 2.5-4 qts plenty cool.
A floater will absolutely stop knock back, HOWEVER, the rear end has to be straight, we do all our welding with a jig(and a certain procedure) and still get run out to .200-.300 thou, we then heat and squelch till we have under .008. Now once you have a straight housing, now you space your caliper correct and you will have NO knock back.
Most of the time complaints on caliper knock back with a full floater is, either axle run out, or a caliper not spaced properly on rotor.
Now when you get into hard track day, time trial etc use you will now get the rotors so hot the heat gets into the calipers and boils or starts to boil the fluid, which will give you a spongy knock back feeling pedal, now add cooling.
It all adds up to going fast, generally on a protouring car with a d.o.t tire you wont get the brakes hot enough to do this unless you have really cheap brake fluid or race compound pads.
we use gun drilled axles

the zr-1 set up looks nice.

[Ron in SoCal]

^ Tech we can use. Thx for adding to the discussion Jake. Can you comment on the brand/design you're using, how many splines on the axles and if you see any difference in side loads in a floater set up for AutoX vs Roadrace (besides the hotter fluid mentioned above)?

I'm digging everyone's input here. As Todd said, floaters in the PT world are really in it's infancy. I bet there's alot more to be learned from real world use.

[DFRESH]

Originally Posted by 68protouring454

when I road race, i always re pack the bearings and clean the tubes after each race weekend, which is 4 -30 min sessions for practice and qual, and 2 35-45 min races. I always have some oil in the the tubes(with inner seals,which we silicon as well). Never had any bearing issues etc, we also ran our fluid level high but found it to get by the seals and start to wash the bearings out, in sprint races (under an hr) generally with a rear end cooler, you can keep 2.5-4 qts plenty cool.
A floater will absolutely stop knock back, HOWEVER, the rear end has to be straight, we do all our welding with a jig(and a certain procedure) and still get run out to .200-.300 thou, we then heat and squelch till we have under .008. Now once you have a straight housing, now you space your caliper correct and you will have NO knock back.
Most of the time complaints on caliper knock back with a full floater is, either axle run out, or a caliper not spaced properly on rotor.
Now when you get into hard track day, time trial etc use you will now get the rotors so hot the heat gets into the calipers and boils or starts to boil the fluid, which will give you a spongy knock back feeling pedal, now add cooling.
It all adds up to going fast, generally on a protouring car with a d.o.t tire you wont get the brakes hot enough to do this unless you have really cheap brake fluid or race compound pads.
we use gun drilled axles

the zr-1 set up looks nice.

Excellent--thanks Jake--that is great to know. There are more factors to consider that I had not heard about until you mentioned them here in your response.

D

[Cris@JCG]

One more thing I will throw in their Jake.. Caliper mounting brackets.. Speedway welds a gusset plate on the floater they build for Winston Cup.. If the mount is not fully supported & flexes.. it can make you feel something on the brake pedal..

Originally Posted by 68protouring454

when I road race, i always re pack the bearings and clean the tubes after each race weekend, which is 4 -30 min sessions for practice and qual, and 2 35-45 min races. I always have some oil in the the tubes(with inner seals,which we silicon as well). Never had any bearing issues etc, we also ran our fluid level high but found it to get by the seals and start to wash the bearings out, in sprint races (under an hr) generally with a rear end cooler, you can keep 2.5-4 qts plenty cool.
A floater will absolutely stop knock back, HOWEVER, the rear end has to be straight, we do all our welding with a jig(and a certain procedure) and still get run out to .200-.300 thou, we then heat and squelch till we have under .008. Now once you have a straight housing, now you space your caliper correct and you will have NO knock back.
Most of the time complaints on caliper knock back with a full floater is, either axle run out, or a caliper not spaced properly on rotor.
Now when you get into hard track day, time trial etc use you will now get the rotors so hot the heat gets into the calipers and boils or starts to boil the fluid, which will give you a spongy knock back feeling pedal, now add cooling.
It all adds up to going fast, generally on a protouring car with a d.o.t tire you wont get the brakes hot enough to do this unless you have really cheap brake fluid or race compound pads.
we use gun drilled axles

the zr-1 set up looks nice.

[Blake Foster]

Originally Posted by Gonzo

One more thing I will throw in their Jake.. Caliper mounting brackets.. Speedway welds a gusset plate on the floater they build for Winston Cup.. If the mount is not fully supported & flexes.. it can make you feel something on the brake pedal..

the Caliper brackets are billet aluminum and bolt to the housing end as all Bare or Wilwood brake kits do.