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Depends on how you make the bracket, and out of what Eric.  I've got a  
couple dozen of the Big Red kits running around right now, that uses a huge  block 
of tempered Al billet, and none of them are showing any signs of fatigue  (as 
far as I know) or stress cracking.  I don't agree that steel is hard to  
fabricate, you get good tempered aluminum, it eats up cutting bits really fast  
(our machinist was swearing).  We didn't use Aluminum for economy (it  was way 
more than the steel in price for the billet), Carl and I used that for a  weight 
target.  IOW, the total weight of the G60 anchors was ~33lbs IIRC,  the 
weight of our big red kit was 32 and change, including 345rotors.
 
I just don't see all the fancy cuts in the aluminum on the ECS bracket not  
one of the causes of the problem.  I also wonder if some of this is due to  the 
lower deck height of the S caliper vs the Turbo Caliper.  If the design  of 
the bracket was to use a fastener for the turbo caliper, and someone used an  S 
caliper, the bolt could bottom out.  IIRCII, even if you 'hole  tap it' the 
standard metric 12mm Allen isn't threaded far enough up on  the shank to not 
cause some problems.
 
It's been a while since I looked at all this, Carl and I stopped producing  
the kit ~2000.  That said, I just serviced a set of rotors last fall on a  10 
yo kit, and the brackets are still crack free.  The rotor hats tend to  be a 
problem, but IME, all AL rotor hats with recessed mounting bolts are a  problem. 
 BTST on a lot of different kits.
 
My .02
 
Scott J
 
 
In a message dated 7/19/2007 10:54:50 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
gcmschemist at gmail.com writes:

Ah, but  then there's "fatigue limit"

Aluminum doesn't have one.  Steel  does.  IOW, at a certain level of
bending (stress), you can bend a  steel part forever without fatigue.
Not so with aluminum.

Steel is  hard to fabricate, while aluminum is frightfully easy.
Aluminum is often a  very economical choice for parts-making.

Eric


 



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