Stoptech washer issue

[michaelmosty]

Marshall, I'd be curious to see how your rings are holding up with wallering out. Didn't you change a ring out a year or two ago that had cracked?
I still have my first set that I ran for 2 1/2 years as my spare set now, and you can definitely see the holes are worn funny.

I wonder if the CMC "plain faced" rings are made of the same material as StopTechs standard slotted ones.

[marshall_mosty]

I did have a ring crack at NOLA back in 2013 (6 seasons on the rings, probably 20 weekends).
I didn't pay attention to the attachment slots.

When the car comes off the trailer, I will definitely pull that apart to see how they are wearing.

Just from a design/production aspect, I don't see StopTech specifying a different base material of iron casting for the ring. The slots are just part of the "post-op machining" step before they are considered finished units.

[RichardP]

Dan had a failure on one of his Stoptech rings. I don't have any solid facts, but it looks to me like the fabrication of the rings has been changed relatively recently. So many people have reported many years of usage without problems. Yet, all of the failures I have seen have been on rings that were purchased not that long ago. The first set of rings we had on Orange looked great until we killed one with a failed hub flange. The replacement rings showed signs of small radial heat cracks after their first event. These cracks aren't a big deal and can be found on most rotors that have seen hard use. We didn't see the cracks on the old rotor rings until we accidentally ran out of pad material at NOLA and overheated the rotors by running on the backing plates.

Hopefully the new washer setup will help out with the issue. Seems to me it could just be trying to mask the real problem.


Richard P.

[BryanL]

So whats the skinny on Stoptech helping out any? I took my brakes apart over the brake and had our CMC director come over to take a look. The holes/slots on the rings are pretty wallered? out so they have a lot of movement on the hat. The washers were definitely not flat and at some point the washers and bolt would have pulled through like has happened to Jerry. So I definitely need to get some new rings. Where do you guys get new rings? It doesn't look like Stoptech sells direct?
Was the VP of sales any help?

[marshall_mosty]

I bought my rings thru John George (Chicane23.com).
Michael checked his this past weekend and had the same issue, but is going to run at least another few weekends with what he has before putting on a spare set.

[mach1]

I have not received any PM's on this, he offered to replace the hardware but not the ring, we can try to build a case on the rings and see what they have to say, perhaps the faulty hardware caused issues with the rings?

[ShadowBolt]

They gave me a deal on the one ring that I had this happen on. They would not admit anything was wrong with the ring was Stoptech fault but wanted to help me. I assumed they were helping because they knew this should not have happened. My other ring (last I looked at Hallett) was still perfect. The old ring I think is three years old this May. I think I got the replacement for about half price. Everyone that saw the pics at Stoptech said they had never seen this problem. If these rings did not elongate the pin holes I think they would last three or four seasons on a CMC car.

I was going to laser cut some new thicker Inconel washers but I was worried about the elongated holes so I did not even try it.

John George can get us the new rings but the question is do we have to expect this in the future? If so this does not make the Stoptech brakes near as good a deal as I felt they were in the beginning. I think Michael is on his second set of rings. How long did it take for this to happen on the new set of rings and do the old ones that were kept for spares show this issue at all?


JJ