difference between 90-93 and 94-97 brake calipers?
 

Title says it all, I recall it being mentioned before, but did a search and didn't come up with anything. I'm going to be swapping to the 1.8 brakes on my 1990 soon, and was curious if there was any point at all in putting on the 1.8 calipers or not.

thanks!

they are the same, the part numbers changed but the changes we very insignificant that you can swap 90-00 calipers.

90-93 Rear Caliper Body: NA01-26-980A & NA01-26-990A
94-95 Rear Caliper Body: NAZ5-26-980A & NAZ5-26-980A
96-97 Rear Caliper Body: NAZ5-26-98ZB & NAZ5-26-98ZB
99-00 Rear Caliper Body: NAZ5-26-98ZB & NAZ5-26-98ZB

But the "Piston/Caliper Assembly" 94-99 part all = NA75-26-61XB & NA75-26-71XB
The 90-93: NA01-26-61X & NA01-26-71X

^Pretty much sums it up...

Ah, interesting. That's good to know. Thanks!

interesting...

Wha?

Yes, we know “they” say there is no difference in the 1990-93 calipers and the larger 1994-1997 calipers. “They” are wrong. The “fingers” on the front and the position of the piston in relation to the bracket are different on the later calipers to better grip the larger 1994-97 pads. Using the original calipers with the larger pads will cause the pads to wear unevenly and not grip as they should causing overheating and uneven rotor wear. Trust us, we’ve tried to stop 2700 lb, 300 hp Miatas from 140mph. We know what we’re talking about.

Thank god they have a high resolution picture which easily shows the difference in caliper fingers between the 90-93 and 94-97 calipers. Otherwise I'd have doubts that it's a worthy enough upgrade to justify the time and money required to buy and swap out calipers.

That's my picture of the 3 rotors side by side.
__________________
Best Car Insurance | Auto Protection Today | FREE Trade-In Quote

GODDAMMIT. Now I'm all confused :/ I'll take better pictures when I get home to do the job next week and end this fuss.

:giggle:

Just out of curiosity, what did you guys do with the backing plates that don't fit any more? Bend them outta shape or just remove them?

Have never used the backing plates. Spray on shit works fine.

Stuff like this:http://www.allbatterysalesandservice...cfm/4,402.html

Put the bigger 1.8L rotors on the hub (without installing the caliper) and then just bend the offending edges out the way. Takes no time at all with a small vice grips. I think the backing plates also help with cooling; to properly remove them you would have to remove the wheel hubs too.

I'm not convinced of this claim either. I do know that I had to use the left 94+ caliper bracket on my right front 90 caliper and the right front caliper bracket on my left front 90 caliper.....wonder if the piston location differences McCully is referring to are due to the caliper bracket mounting differences. At the end of the day, the single piston design of both 90 and 94+ stock calipers is going to cause uneven brake pad wear issues if you track the car hard and use the larger Corrado rotors. I think Savington's big brake kit was developed to solve this specific issue.

Not the Trackspeed engineering kit specifically, I believe all BBK's engineer out pad taper. Switching left for right and right for left has always been part of the 1.6-1.8 brake upgrade.

As I sarcastically said, I don't think buying, possibly rebuilding and painting, uninstalling 1.6 units, installing 1.8 units, bleeding, etc... is worth the 1/4" of casting difference between the two fingers. If it's even that.

Oh, you meant the shields:hustler: I took all of mine off completely when I put on the sport brakes:2cents:

You can split the thin area at the hub with a cold chisel and twist them off.

True dat; I'm deluding myself into believing I'm getting better cooling by leaving them on! :laugh:

link to 2700lb miata?

McCully Racing Motors- Our Builds...we're doing our part to help empowering Miatas one car at a time...

Pretty tame builds as far as V8 Miatas go. Looks like they use the Monster Miata kit (hacked-up stock K member) vs. the better V8 Roadsters tubular K member setup which provides more engine setback. McCully also doesn't do any tuning of the Ford EEC IV computer which seems strange to me; why spend time and $$$$$ swapping a V8 into a Miata and then slap on bandaids (adjustable fuel pressure regulator, bumping initial advance) vs. getting a professional SCT tune or buying an EEC tuner, TweecerRT or Moates Quarterhorse and tuning it yourself???? :vash: