There's been a lot of discussion about this swap recently so i thought id throw together some pics and stuff i ran into during my install. Pretty much, if you can turn a wrench and use a cutoff wheel, you can do this swap.
Heres what i was working with:
'93 4runner calipers- remanufactured from NAPA- 90.00 dollars per
1 1/16 inch T-100 Master cylinder- ebay (sellers name was auctionfrontier)- 35.00 dollars with shipping
SS brake lines from Man-a-fre (not necessary, but my stockers were too short)- 70.00 bucks for the frame to axle lines
I got '93 calipers for my rig, from what i can tell, 90-91 calipers are slightly smaller than the 92-96 calipers, but either will work for the swap. Like most people know, the calipers are a direct bolt in as far as the mounting goes, the only thing that needs attention before they bolt up is the dust shield. It contacts the calipers at the top and bottom edges of the dust shield. Just slide the caliper onto the mounts, and see where its hitting and trim accordingly. Heres a couple pics of how mine turned out.
The master cylinder is a completely direct bolt in. It is my understanding that any master cylinder from a toyota light truck (4runner, LC, T-100) will bolt right up (correct me if im wrong). I found mine real cheap on ebay, look for one on there if you need one, really great pricing and it was shipped to me in a matter of days. Anyways, i only needed to bend one of the brakelines (the one more towards the front) in order for it to connect to the MC. I just bent it outwards a little bit at the bottom where it bends up towards the MC (pic of the bend along with some MC pics below). **NOTE** If you run the T-100 mc on a 62 (not sure how the brakes differ on a 60) youre gonna need to budget for an inline residual valve to keep pressure on the rear brakes to counteract the return springs. Without a residual valve, itll take a couple pumps to get the drums working. I got a 10 lb wilwood valve from summit for 20 bucks. Youll need a pair of 1/8 inch NPT male to 3/16 compression/flare fittings to mate the valve up to the brake lines on the truck. People will flame me for saying you can use a compression fitting as double flaring the line is definitely the safer way to go. I couldnt find the a flare fitting in the size i needed in the short time frame i was working in to get the valve installed and so far the compression fittings i used are tight and leak free. If my brakes give out and i crash ill be sure to tell you guys so you wont do what i did (and you probably shouldnt anyways).
You can see where i bent the brakeline in this one. I just had to draw it towards the firewall about half an inch to bolt up.
I had to do some grinding on my calipers to get my wheels to fit, even with the 1/4 inch spacers i have on the truck. I think this is more a wheel issue than a caliper thing, i had to do a little grinding on the stockers too. My rockcrawler wheels have those damn punched holes that have a nice fat lip on the back that hits the caliper. I used a grinder and worked the inside edge of the caliper until it cleared. I put a peice of sandpaper folded over behind the highest spot on the wheel and turned the wheel across the caliper, so that anywhere that needed more clearance the paper would bind. Heres a pic of how it turned out (its a little hard to see, i painted it up before i took these pics). Oh, and i read on someone elses post that you have to grind the wear bar on the caliper for it to work, but i didnt trim anything but what i needed to clear the wheel and ive put about 500 miles on it without issue. It brakes just fine, i dont really know what the deal is about that, maybe someone can fill me in.
Overall, this whole thing went together really well. I didnt run into any problems other than the fact that one of the first set of calipers i got from napa poured fluid out of the parting line of the caliper when i bled it. One little tip i have for bleeding the rear brakes, have someone hold their finger over the tip of the bleeder while you pump it, it acts like on of those one man bleeding things and makes it a lot quicker to get the air out. My impressions of the braking performance after the upgrade have been great. The truck stops way better than before, i mean its not night and day but it definitly stops a lot harder, hard enough that i have to hold onto the wheel when i brake hard as it wants to pull the truck to one side or another. I still would like to upgrade the back to discs, but i feel a lot more safe driving around now. I bet most of the performance gain is from the larger pads, but the larger pistons have to help too. Hope someone appreciates this, its so easy i think the swap might take less time than it took me to write this. Heres a pic of the finished product (much more sexy now).
Ok this is kinda gratuitous, but i had to include a pic of the shop i was working in. It belongs to my ex's dad and is full of more mopar stuff than you can believe (think 2 440s, a 400, and 360 in various states of repair in the shop). Heres a little pic with my rig, the '67 GTX, and the '98 harley springer softail.
Heres what i was working with:
'93 4runner calipers- remanufactured from NAPA- 90.00 dollars per
1 1/16 inch T-100 Master cylinder- ebay (sellers name was auctionfrontier)- 35.00 dollars with shipping
SS brake lines from Man-a-fre (not necessary, but my stockers were too short)- 70.00 bucks for the frame to axle lines
I got '93 calipers for my rig, from what i can tell, 90-91 calipers are slightly smaller than the 92-96 calipers, but either will work for the swap. Like most people know, the calipers are a direct bolt in as far as the mounting goes, the only thing that needs attention before they bolt up is the dust shield. It contacts the calipers at the top and bottom edges of the dust shield. Just slide the caliper onto the mounts, and see where its hitting and trim accordingly. Heres a couple pics of how mine turned out.
The master cylinder is a completely direct bolt in. It is my understanding that any master cylinder from a toyota light truck (4runner, LC, T-100) will bolt right up (correct me if im wrong). I found mine real cheap on ebay, look for one on there if you need one, really great pricing and it was shipped to me in a matter of days. Anyways, i only needed to bend one of the brakelines (the one more towards the front) in order for it to connect to the MC. I just bent it outwards a little bit at the bottom where it bends up towards the MC (pic of the bend along with some MC pics below). **NOTE** If you run the T-100 mc on a 62 (not sure how the brakes differ on a 60) youre gonna need to budget for an inline residual valve to keep pressure on the rear brakes to counteract the return springs. Without a residual valve, itll take a couple pumps to get the drums working. I got a 10 lb wilwood valve from summit for 20 bucks. Youll need a pair of 1/8 inch NPT male to 3/16 compression/flare fittings to mate the valve up to the brake lines on the truck. People will flame me for saying you can use a compression fitting as double flaring the line is definitely the safer way to go. I couldnt find the a flare fitting in the size i needed in the short time frame i was working in to get the valve installed and so far the compression fittings i used are tight and leak free. If my brakes give out and i crash ill be sure to tell you guys so you wont do what i did (and you probably shouldnt anyways).
You can see where i bent the brakeline in this one. I just had to draw it towards the firewall about half an inch to bolt up.
I had to do some grinding on my calipers to get my wheels to fit, even with the 1/4 inch spacers i have on the truck. I think this is more a wheel issue than a caliper thing, i had to do a little grinding on the stockers too. My rockcrawler wheels have those damn punched holes that have a nice fat lip on the back that hits the caliper. I used a grinder and worked the inside edge of the caliper until it cleared. I put a peice of sandpaper folded over behind the highest spot on the wheel and turned the wheel across the caliper, so that anywhere that needed more clearance the paper would bind. Heres a pic of how it turned out (its a little hard to see, i painted it up before i took these pics). Oh, and i read on someone elses post that you have to grind the wear bar on the caliper for it to work, but i didnt trim anything but what i needed to clear the wheel and ive put about 500 miles on it without issue. It brakes just fine, i dont really know what the deal is about that, maybe someone can fill me in.
Overall, this whole thing went together really well. I didnt run into any problems other than the fact that one of the first set of calipers i got from napa poured fluid out of the parting line of the caliper when i bled it
. One little tip i have for bleeding the rear brakes, have someone hold their finger over the tip of the bleeder while you pump it, it acts like on of those one man bleeding things and makes it a lot quicker to get the air out. My impressions of the braking performance after the upgrade have been great. The truck stops way better than before, i mean its not night and day but it definitly stops a lot harder, hard enough that i have to hold onto the wheel when i brake hard as it wants to pull the truck to one side or another. I still would like to upgrade the back to discs, but i feel a lot more safe driving around now. I bet most of the performance gain is from the larger pads, but the larger pistons have to help too. Hope someone appreciates this, its so easy i think the swap might take less time than it took me to write this. Heres a pic of the finished product (much more sexy now).
Ok this is kinda gratuitous, but i had to include a pic of the shop i was working in. It belongs to my ex's dad and is full of more mopar stuff than you can believe (think 2 440s, a 400, and 360 in various states of repair in the shop). Heres a little pic with my rig, the '67 GTX, and the '98 harley springer softail.
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