went to local u-pull-it, and measured all the slip-off solid (non-vented) brake rotors i could reach. all measurements rough at best, expect up to 1/10 inch error in some places, more on the larger dimensions, as the rotors were all on the cars with calipers and dust shields still installed. measurements in decimal inches, just to confuse everyone, metric and cavemen alike.
i bet this will look bad, but lets try:
car A B C D E Comments
- ? BMW 735i (sedan) 0.5 11.5 7.0 2.3 3.0 biggest, tall hat, screwed on
- Olds Aurora/Caddy Dvil 0.45 10.8 6.5 1.0 2.8 short hat, second biggest
- MB 380E (sedan) 0.4 10.5 6.6 2.3 2.5 thin, tall hat, screwed on
- -2001 Chrys Concord/NY'r 0.5 10.3 7.3 1.3 2.8 bolt-on hub, drum brake in hat
- VW Cabbie (pickup) 0.5 9.0 5.4 0.9 2.5 front, 4lug, small
we are looking at the rear rotors on all of these except the VW.
japanese/korean cars tend to be drum or vented disks, and usually small.
i saw one volvo like the dans used to use, but it had a vented rotor on one front side, and a solid on the other! the hat was very tall, and the hub integral. i think the dans have covered those well.
in the case of the 3 german cars, you would have to do some cutting to use the original hub, as it is also integral with the upright. the vw is a solid beam rear axle, so it might be easiest to move disk to rear. the MB and BMW are IRS, so you have to worry about the hubs coming apart if you take out the axle CV. perhaps their front hubs can be used instead, though they are also integral. those two also have really tall hats, so you cant get two of them close together.
for the american cars, recent ford taurus/merc sable have rear rotors similar to the olds/caddy, but the hubs are integral.
so that leaves us with two brands with larger, solid rotors and removable hubs. slight difference in thickness and diameter. olds/caddy = $15 autozone/$19 advance, chrysler is $25/$19 respectively. gm looks easier to remove in salvage yard, but chrysler has neat integrated parking brake inside the hat. both are 5 bolt, and the bolt patterns look very close. close enough that you could touch one with a dremel and make it fit with the other. i cant tell from the autoparts websites just how much of the hub you get, but it looks like the gm hub is avail. complete from advance. the chrysler hub seems to only be the outer part. in either case, i would use a used hub. less expense, less friction.
both of these cars have slightly larger (11.0/11.5 inch) front rotors, but they are vented. the metal behind the mags will be 0.1-0.2 inches thinner. the hats look the same. so if you need that extra inch, and have thin mags, that might work.
i think the short hat on the gm rotors should make it possible to stack two of these and get a < 1 inch airgap between the plates (without mags). the gm rotor might fit inside the chrysler one, getting you down as low as you want to go.
allan
