11" Brake Rotor

[DPDISXR4Ti]

I'm all for cheap and plentiful alternatives. I understand the rotor re-drill part, but what does it take to mount the Focus calipers?
Do the mounting holes line up?

See this thread... http://forum.merkurclub.com/forum/viewt ... 30&t=18648

[timxr8]

I'm all for cheap and plentiful alternatives. I understand the rotor re-drill part, but what does it take to mount the Focus calipers?
Do the mounting holes line up?

Short answer: Yes, everything works. The nice things is, the 2012+ Focus has essentially an identical brake mounting and offset as the Scorpio. It's pretty fantastic and serendipitous. The other side is I don't know how the brake feel will be with the Scorpio ABS. I know people running the Scorpio ABS master and Wilwoods with similar sized piston areas and they love. Another thing to consider is the Bias, but with a larger front rotor, it should help even it back out. Plus, the pads are much larger on the Focus.

*EDIT* Forgot to add that there is not as much "meat" on the mounting ears of the Scorpio vs the XR. What this means is I'm not sure of the viability of drilling the mounting holes to 14mm. The other option is looking at the 2005-2007 Caliper brackets. The calipers and pads are the same as the 2012+, just the mounting brackets are different and use an M12 bolt. I have shortened a set of the thread adapters I include with the XR kit, so that's an option as well and makes it purely bolt-on.

[brokencase]

The piston area is 10% less. Not sure Scorpio ABS will like that, even with the larger rotor. But it might be OK.

If Scorpio brake stuff was unobtainium then I might consider this.

But it is all still readily available. I bought a couple sets of Brembos from RockAuto a while back for $8 each.
So it is likely my spares will outlast the car.

Yes, the availability will decrease over time.
But then there are not too many Scorpio owners either... and they ain't increasing!

[DPDISXR4Ti]

Went junkyarding today and came across a 2016 Focus with minimal miles - there was no lip on the rotor at all. So I came home with a pair of front calipers and rotors which I'll be mocking up on the PartScorp this Spring. I had forgotten about Tim's suggestion of grabbing the brackets from the 2005-07 Focus since they use a 12mm bolt rather than a 14. I'll have to decide what I want to do there.

[timxr8]

Went junkyarding today and came across a 2016 Focus with minimal miles - there was no lip on the rotor at all. So I came home with a pair of front calipers and rotors which I'll be mocking up on the PartScorp this Spring. I had forgotten about Tim's suggestion of grabbing the brackets from the 2005-07 Focus since they use a 12mm bolt rather than a 14. I'll have to decide what I want to do there.

Nice find. I'm not sure of the offset for the 05-07 Brackets, so you're in uncharted territory. I would hope it's the same, but I've never had a pair.

[DPDISXR4Ti]

Nice find. I'm not sure of the offset for the 05-07 Brackets, so you're in uncharted territory. I would hope it's the same, but I've never had a pair.

The easy thing to do would be to just bore the holes out on the knuckle for the 14mm bolts and then it's a simple thing to spec complete 2016 Focus calipers (w/ brackets) as replacements, should the need ever arise. But I have the same concern about taking away too much metal from the mounting ears. I'll take a look at it all and make some decisions.

[DPDISXR4Ti]

Just to keep this thread alive (I'll get to it some day), while junkyarding a few weeks back I came across a 2014 Focus that had the front wheel ripped off. I peered in and started thinking it would be nice to be able to use the factory brake lines, not just the flex line but also a portion of the hard line. The factory Merkur hard-line could be cut and a union used with a clip of hard line off the donor Focus. Also supplied by the Focus could be the little "L" bracket which can be readily removed from the Focus with a grinder. I managed to bend one off the car, if only to remind me to add to this thread. Here's a pic...

P3306622.JPG (977.5 KiB) Viewed 5809 times

[DPDISXR4Ti]

Mocked up...

Scorpio spindle assembly with caliper mounting holes bored out to 14mm (35/64" drill)
2012+ Focus Calipers
2012+ Focus Rotors (Will need to be re-drilled)
Qty 2 .065" thick spacers (AKA washers)
It just missed working without the spacers, but no big deal there at all just to get the rotor dead-centered under the caliper bracket.

FocusBrakes-8.JPG (1.03 MiB) Viewed 5135 times

FocusBrakes-9.JPG (1016.19 KiB) Viewed 5135 times

FocusBrakes-10.JPG (1.05 MiB) Viewed 5135 times

FocusBrakes-11.JPG (995.26 KiB) Viewed 5135 times

[brokencase]

Now I'm interested.

[DPDISXR4Ti]

I forgot to mention it in this thread, but I tried the 2005-2007 Focus caliper bracket with the 2012+ Focus caliper. It would work, but the offset is different and would require more spacer (I didn't measure it exactly). I decided to keep it simple, bore the mounting holes out to 14mm, and just use everything from the 2012+ Focus.

One minor thing I'll add... The 14mm caliper mounting bolts from the donor Focus are okay length - maybe even a bit too long - but the flanged bolt head is just a tiny bit too large on the upper hole and contacts the un-surfaced area surrounding the (now 14mm) hole on the spindle. With how little material is taken away by the surfacing it's probably not a real issue, but if you like to do things right you'll want to use a bolt with s slightly smaller bolt-head surface.

[john keefe]

Nice work, Brad. So, after drilling to 14mm, did you see/feel there was enough material left around the bosses for "heavy duty," or are you crossing your fingers?

[DPDISXR4Ti]

Nice work, Brad. So, after drilling to 14mm, did you see/feel there was enough material left around the bosses for "heavy duty," or are you crossing your fingers?

I don't have any concerns. When I looked at how little was coming off the bit as I drilled, it really wasn't that much material. Admittedly it's a SWAG on my part, but I try to be rather conservative in my decisions when it comes to brakes.

[john keefe]

I can't picture you compromising on any build you're undertaking. Just that I don't have a bare spindle to examine, and others brought up the issue, so was just wondering how you viewed it. Evidently there's enough meat on the tabs that you're not concerned, so I'll go with that.

[brokencase]

Lost interest again..

I'm back to the question of "Is the stock Scorpio braking really so bad?"

Re-drilling rotors? It's just not worth the trouble...effort better spent elsewhere.. Your talking about a rotor size change 9.95 to 10.7?
How much does that get you? An extra 3/8" around the perimeter?

It's not a question of availability...plenty of stock rotor choices up on rockauto..

[john keefe]

I would think its a matter of whether the centerline of the pad(s) and caliper piston(s) is at a larger radius than the centerline of the stock pad, and how large the replacement piston(s) are (i.e., better or worse pad force/sq.in.). Sorry if I might be stating the obvious, but if after doing the calcs, the pad force and radius math out to only a close improvement, or a wash, then you'd have to ask if its worth the trouble. On the other hand, if stock parts are no longer readily available, then even a slight downgrade in performance would seem a better, practical, economic solution worth the effort.