Gen 3 subframe ball joint boots melted

[TimboSHO]

Hey all. On my 89 I have the gen 3 subframe with cobra brakes and noticed my ball joint t boots are melted. I don't run backing plates because they wouldn't fit with the 13" rotors. I must have melted the boots at Gingerman a couple of years ago when I discovered running with the fog lights in doubled my brake temps (taking them out allows enough air through there to cool them significantly).

So I was just wondering if anyone else has had this problem? I was thinking of making a shield that would attach to the stud on the bottom to shield it. I might also wait until I get back to the track again to do anything(I've just been autocrossing the last couple of years).

Oh, and just to add, they were moog ball joints, not some cheap junk!

 

[rubydist]

I found some replacement boots somewhere once, when I needed some. I think it was at rockauto.

 

[zak]

I would rivet new 11.6 heat shields on, better than nothing and you would be blocking roughly half the radiation heat load, would could also see if the Cobra heat shields would fit as the 96+ Taurus, Mustang, Lincoln etc. all had common caliper bracket points.. Peak rotor temps might just be a little higher with that Cobra setup compared to 11.6, search on my screen name with the words "swept area" to see Ford engineering comments.
Several years back I was able to buy NOS 11.6 shields, even came with the right rivets IIRC.

 

[AREA 91]

I'm glad you're running the SHO that hard! Makes me proud! I salute you sir!

 

[TimboSHO]

Since I've been doing mainly autocross, I've been running 11.6 rotors with my cobra calipers (less rotational mass). I'm just putting new ball joints in and seeing what happens. Not really a big deal to swap them out with the right tools. If I do some hot laps on track again, I'll figure something out (I've been thinking about brake cooling ducts too, which should help keep those boots from melting as well).

 

[94shodriver]

No problems with my set up (12" Cadillac) on the gen 3 subframe. Though my axles have gotten hot enough to back off two nuts- they were double nutted!

 

[pjtoledo]

No problems with my set up (12" Cadillac) on the gen 3 subframe. Though my axles have gotten hot enough to back off two nuts- they were double nutted!

can you tell us more about your brakes? any adapters or knuckle modifications?

 

[94shodriver]

I did a write up on them a couple of years ago, I have sense replaced the calipers with C6 version. Best mod I've done to the car.

https://shoforum.com/index.php?threads/c5-corvette-calipers-under-slicers.126616/