1970 - 4O series Front Disc Brake Upgrade kit recommendations needed (1 Viewer)

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for 10 years, I ran a Man-a-Fre disk conversion in the front and rear on my '72 - best brakes I ever had on the 40 - Man-a-Fre was bought by BTB; not sure what they are selling these days

by now, I am running a rear 60 axle and front fine spline outers, with 60 backing plates, and Tundra calipers - dual diaphragm booster from City Racer and 40 master cylinder (residual valve removed from the front circuit)

after some other brake configurations in-between that were satisfactory but not great - pending some more driving experience on asphalt, this latest set-up appears to approach the brake force of the aftermarket conversions
 
I recently did one on my '73 before selling it. I used 60 series knuckles, axles/birfs, and calipers. I got the knuckles and hubs in the classifieds section here on Mud, then Cruiser outfitters for the rebuild kits, and Marlin for their axle seals. If I had to do it again, I would find a complete mini-truck or 60 series axle and start there.
 
When looking for toyota front disk brake parts, the 79 and older style rotors are more expensive and difficult to find. The later style rotors I think can be made to work on the 79 and older axles but it take some extra work. There are threads about that on here.
 
I have a late year 70 fj40 with the dual circuit MC. I ran drums for years. Tried the JT kit on the front, MEH..... FWIW I currently have 4 wheel disc on the OEM MC , never been messed with, works well with GM 3/4 ton calipers up front and the metric(monte carlo) gm ones out back.

Honest opinion, if you are mechanically inclined then the drums should be fine if adjusted correctly and functioning properly. I would offer that a proper drum set up has plenty of stop in it but if you feel the need for better/faster more positive brake feel then I would say get all toyota outer stuff, knuckles and all and swap, that can be pricey tho but you get a better birf, better steering stud size and a few other minor improvements. The JT, TSM, BTB whatever kit you find leaves you with small birf's, small steering studs and you may have a brake line size difference as well. And even tho I had the dual MC my 70 fj40 had 6 spline birf's which don't play with the disc stuff, another reason to get all toyota outers from a mini or 60.
 
'bout ready to finally start wrenching and brakes are an early item on my 4/76. I currently have almost no stopping power, at all. I think I'll just fix/adjust everything back to factory and go from there.
 
If you want all new OEM parts, you can go with early 1990’s 70 series parts. All of it is still available from Toyota. But the price point is generally not acceptable by most LC owners.

Doing one now. So good to just plug and play everything.
This is in reference to adding rear discs and keeping it all Toyota, or just an option for all new front disc conversion parts onto a factory 40 housing?
 
Oops. My bad. Not for rear. For front.
All good, just wanted to clarify that because every time there is a front disc brake thread (which this is) someone brings up the rears (which they did) and complains there are no good Toyota options (which they did).
 
POSER here keeps this info top notch. Been done hundreds of times by members here using this TIMELESS info.
These methods take some time and thought, ... we did our 1972 using Mini Truck front axle parts with Four Runner calipers and rotors. Flawless!

My 1975 came with a kit installed by the P.O. that has worked well for my 40K miles in 10 years of ownership. (Original front axle parts, I believe.) Don't know how hard it will be to find parts when the time comes, but they are Wilwood (sp?) and quality stuff.
I have found that the info regarding front axles and some others are no longer working. It links to a thread that says nothing but it links to another thread that is missing. Some of it goes no where so I will be asking on the forums too. Looking forward to getting my head bit off when I do...
 
I plan to do a front disk brake kit on my 1970 FJ40. I saw the kit at JT outfitters. Has anyone used that kit? Is there a better setup or less expensive option? Has anyone done the whole 4 wheel option? is it worth the extra money to convert all 4?

Thanks for any direction you can give a newbie.
I am using FJ40 wheel hubs, rotors and caliper for my rear brakes and converted an FJ60 rear axle to a full floater.
 

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