70 Series front drum brake info/advice needed (1 Viewer)

[dcruiser666]

My 70 has drums all around, seems to be a pretty rare configuration and the original replacement parts are unavailable as far as I know. One of the cylinders in the front left is starting to leak fluid, and although it hasn't caused any noticeable issues with braking performance or the fluid level, I obviously need to address this. Ideally I will change all the replaceable parts, not just the cylinders. Curious if any of the parts gurus on here know of an adequate replacement kit or where to source the parts individually? I know this configuration is somewhat common on the 40s and 60s, but will those fit and provide equivalent or greater stopping power? I'd also like to know what anyone else would do in this situation - I honestly don't mind the performance of drums all around, there just doesn't seem to be any maintenance support out there. I guess it would also be good to know what doing a front disc conversion would cost and entail. Couldn't find anything specific online re. 70 series, would a 60 be pretty much the same?

These are the original cylinder part numbers I found for my 70

4752060030

CYLINDER ASSY, FRONT WHEEL BRAKE, RH(FOR FRONT OR UPPER)

4751060100

CYLINDER ASSY, FRONT WHEEL BRAKE, RH(FOR REAR OR LOWER)

4754060030

CYLINDER ASSY, FRONT WHEEL BRAKE, LH(FOR FRONT OR UPPER)

4753060090

CYLINDER ASSY, FRONT WHEEL BRAKE, LH(FOR REAR OR LOWER)

 

[jblueridge]

See screen shot snip below

 

[dcruiser666]

Thanks for that and the website. Good to know these match the 60 series, should make the search easier.

 

[roscoFJ73]

there just doesn't seem to be any maintenance support out there.

Most of them went to the African continent , the Middle East or the mines, so you wont get much online. Truth is, they probably made quite a few. I think a lot would have been for military use in North African countries as well.

I had drums on the rear of my 73 series, they worked as well as discs, but they just needed a bit more maintenance.

 

[dcruiser666]

Thanks Rosco. More good information. I am happy with the drums too, even in front. When buying the truck I was loosely planning to convert the front to disc, but a couple of more experienced land cruiser owners talked me out of it - just clean them a lot and you'll be happy - and I have been. Switching to disc would only be because I can't replace failing parts. Seems like it might be possible though, I have a couple of feelers out now knowing that there is 60 series interchangeability.

 

[roscoFJ73]

When I see owners wanting to do drum to disc conversions, I always think there must be something wrong with the drum adjustment or assembly.

 

[jblueridge]

Partsouq is in the Middle East.
Euro4x4 is somewhere in Europe (obviously).
Amayama has them it looks like. Shipping time is very long.

 

[hotgemini]

I'm a big fan of drums on the rear so that you get a full size handbrake, but if it were my truck with front drums, I'd be doing the conversion, should be pretty easy to find the required parts off a 60 series.

 

[dcruiser666]

I'm a big fan of drums on the rear so that you get a full size handbrake, but if it were my truck with front drums, I'd be doing the conversion, should be pretty easy to find the required parts off a 60 series.

Out of curiosity, what would your reasons be for converting the front?

 

[hotgemini]

Heat rejection, pedal feel, low maintenance. The reality of drums is that for good brake feel (a nice high, firm pedal) you're going to be doing pretty regular maintenance. Self-adjusters, even working at their best mean you'll end up with a more variable pedal and if you spend much time in mud you should be pulling the drums off to give everything a clean after every trip. If you were having to custom fabricate parts to do the swap, I'd be more ambivalent, but given the availability of a bolt on swap, personally, I'd do it. And as I say, I'm not a discs for discs sake person, I'm working towards an 80 series rear axle swap into my BJ74 and actually went out of my way to find a drum brake 80 series rear axle, so that I could keep the full size park brake.

 

[dcruiser666]

I see, good notes. I guess it's actually pointless for me to judge the performance of my drums vs disc since I've only driven 70 series with discs a handful of times and don't really know what it feels like. I'm just not particularly unhappy with the drums. I inspect/clean all 4 probably 3 times a year or always after a dirty trip, which is one type of car work I really hate. The main reasons that were given to me before about why to not switch, drums have better stopping power and if maintained will last a lot longer than discs. I guess I'll finally look into sourcing the disc components to price it out. I'm also waiting to hear back if the parts for a full front drum replacement kit from Toyota is available and for how much. We'll see.. when I did the rears a few months ago I remember it was not that cheap for the parts. I was surprised

 

[hotgemini]

Be careful on the definition of stopping power... Drums are 'self-energising' due to their geometry, so you get a good output torque for relatively little input pressure, you'll often particularly notice this on the very first application of the day because the light surface corrosion that forms on the drum tends to be a bit grabby.

Discs have vastly superior heat rejection capacity, so their ability to continue to slow the vehicle for multiple stops or on a long descent (noting of course that you should be doing most of that via engine braking) is much much much better than drums. Plus discs will be more reliable when wet/muddy.

As for lasting longer. I'd have 25 times more maintenance effort going into the drums on the rear of my 70 than the discs on the front and given you probably get three sets of pads to a set of rotors and the pads are under ten minutes per side to change, I think by any reasonable accounting, discs are the winner there.

 

[RJ70nomad]

Jumping on this thread in hopes of finding 4 replacement drums for my 89 RJ70. I'm in costa Rica with a panama version, coil spring, 22r, oddball. My mechanic here has spent over a week looking and wants to give up. Options: see if I can get straight from Toyota, north american source, drive to panama and hope for the best. Mech has tried 3 different drums and no luck. I guess another option is a disc swap. It's my only rig here and I'm losing work, a bit desperate...thanks

 

[OGBeno]

Front drum part number: 43512-60110

Rear drum part number: 42431-60040

Neither of these are available through US Toyota procurement. Best to source directly from TMC in Japan or any online place that will ship to you.

 

[RJ70nomad]

Front drum part number: 43512-60110

Rear drum part number: 42431-60040

Neither of these are available through US Toyota procurement. Best to source directly from TMC in Japan or any online place that will ship to you.

Thanks for the part numbers. The problem is this is the Panama or Brasil version use different specs than their Japanese cousins. Have tried 3 types and nothing quite matches. Planning to go to Panama I guess.

 

[roscoFJ73]

Whats the model designation on the aluminium plate. It would be RJ70LV-KR or something similar
Have you tried this part number for the front drum ?
It also fits YN62/67 and LN65 Hilux

43512-35051

And I can only find this rear brake part number, same as Onur's
42431-60040

 

[OGBeno]

Whats the model designation on the aluminium plate. It would be RJ70LV-KR or something similar
Have you tried this part number for the front drum ?
It also fits YN62/67 and LN65 Hilux

43512-35051

And I can only find this rear brake part number, same as Onur's
42431-60040

-35051 supersedes to the -60110.

 

[dcruiser666]

if this RJ70 has dana axles would all/some of the brake parts be non-toyota? I thought a lot of central and south american trucks had those, not sure if it would make a difference here though.

 

[OGBeno]

if this RJ70 has dana axles would all/some of the brake parts be non-toyota? I thought a lot of central and south american trucks had those, not sure if it would make a difference here though.

The Dana axles were used on CKD trucks.

I know of no RJ70’s that were CKD.

 

[AirheadNut]

I suppose it is possible that it has been modified somehow, maybe with an axle swap?