I have the Brembo GT brake upgrade and everything about them is nice. The rotors, the anodization on the brackets, the castings, the powder coat finish, the documentation, etc. The bolts that attach the rear calipers to their brackets (right in picture below) were nicely finished and had a shank. The equivalent screws for the front (left in picture below) looked like they came from the bottom of the bargain box at a surplus store. The threads were rough, the finish poor and beat up and there was no shank. They stripped all of the anodization off of the bracket's threads (the rear bracket's anodization looked like new).
WTF? Surely someone at Superlite used the wrong bolts... Nope that's the way the fronts come from Brembo and 99+% of their brakes use them. That said, I wasn't crazy that there was no way lock them (Brembo is clear that no thread locker should be used). What to do? Upgrade to studs!
The Brembo studs are beautifully machined and have a really nice finish. Jet nuts and washers are used to lock things in place. A jet nut is an all-metal, self-locking nut whose primary advantage over a nyloc is that they can be used in high-temperature locations (i.e., no nylon to melt). They are also smaller and lighter. The downside is that they utilize an asymmetrical thread which deforms when torqued making them a onetime use item... that's right, when you take it off you throw it out. Taking the calipers off costs 8 x $5.60 ($44.80), so I don't want to be taking them off and on a lot. With that in mind I'm going to use nylocs until near the end of the build.
According to Brembo tech support the studs should be installed finger tight with permanent thread locker (i.e., Loctite 271) and then the jet nuts torqued to 35 lb. ft. (420 lb. in.) to set the stud.
The following parts can be ordered from Race Technologies.
- 905577 Brembo Stud, Caliper Mounting, M12x1.50 Base Thread, 7/16"-24 Top Thread, 84mm Overall
- WS-7 Brembo Washer, 7/16", Cadmium Plated
- MS-7 Brembo Flanged Lock Nut, 7/16"-20, Cadmium Plated
More details on the Brakes page.