ideas on best front/rear disc brake conversion kits.

[bigwillie]

I am looking at upgrading from drum brakes to disc brakes on my 1974 fj40. I am currently leaning toward the tsm rear brake kit and the jto front disc brake kit. I am not really wanting to do the mini-truck swap and like the idea of the gm calipers, etc due to the ease/cost of replacement parts. any opinions, tips? thanks.
will

 

[Mark W]

With a little searching on the net (here?) you can find the part numbers for everything you need except the brackets. Buy all this from your local parts store. Then buy the brackets from Joe. Lots cheaper than anyone's "kit". (This is for the rear)


For the front, Joe won't sell the brackets separately so you'll have to buy the entire kit from him if you go this route.

Unlike some on this board I have never had any problems with JT outfitters and I recommend them to all of the locals here.

That said, I have one of his front kits here to install for a customer. I see no shortcomings to it (it's just sitting here, I haven't started installing it yet). But I don't know that I like the basic approach anyway (using the GM calipers on the front end).

The fixed, four piston Toyota calipers are a better system than the floating, single piston GM calipers. The only reason that the GMs are used on the rear is that they lend themselves to a simple and inexpensive setup.

I don't know about costs and availability in your area, but around here you can get a complete ready to roll disc brake front axle for less than the cost of the front axle convertsion kit.


Mark...

 

[Josie'sLandCruiser]

Hi All:

Not that I'm in the same league as Mark Whatley (I'm at best a piss-poor third act to him!) but here is my $00.02 on the issue.

You have three choices for the front drum brake swap to discs:

1) buy an entire 40/45/55 Series disc brake frontend and swap it in;

2) buy a 60/62 frontend and swap the "outers" (knuckles on out) onto the drum brake frontend tube;

3) buy a 1979-85 Toyota mini-truck frontend and swap the "outers" onto the drum brake frontend tube.

I choose option #1 when I did the swap several years ago; I think option #3 is less expensive.

Regarding the rear brakes, I'm about to perform the typical GM Monte Carlo rear disc swap on my FJ40 next week; the parts are easy to find - "Poseur" sells the brackets and you can find all the other part numbers listed here on MUD. Although not perfect it works and is relatively easy and inexpensive to do.

Regards,

Alan
Seattle

 

[Fman]

I would not recommend JT outfitters rear brake brackets, I ordered TWO different sets from them and BOTH were defective. The pin holes were off... maybe they made a bad batch, but I lost my faith in them. I ordered TSM brackets and they were a perfect fit.

 

[Mark W]

I've used about 10 pair IIRC and they've all been perfect. Just luck maybe.


Mark...

 

[dustin]

Theres a Cruiser shop out in Gillroy, CA that I cant remember the name of that has a kit for the rear using minitruck disks. I have always thought it would be cool to use this because I am already running mintruck stuff upfront. Not a cheap kit though. But its another option for the rear.

-Dustin

 

[rsrai]

the shop in gilroy is custom cruisers and when i talked to them they stopped making that kit. customers were installing them incorrectly with the shimming required.

 

[dustin]

I spoke to them about a year or two ago (time flys...) thought they were coming out with a kit since that one, "improved". They advertise them on their site. Guy was saying they work awesome in all the rigs the shop had installed them on. Just needed to fool proof the design. http://www.customcruisersfj40.com/discbrakes.htm

-Dustin

 

[Rick '79 FJ40]

I spoke to them about a year or two ago (time flys...) thought they were coming out with a kit since that one, "improved". They advertise them on their site. Guy was saying they work awesome in all the rigs the shop had installed them on. Just needed to fool proof the design. http://www.customcruisersfj40.com/discbrakes.htm

-Dustin

Dustin,

I looked at the website, but the picture they show doesn't show calipers or rotors. Do you know if they are included for the $250 price? That sounds too cheap for them to be included, but I could be wrong...

Thanks!

 

[dustin]

pretty sure you need to supply that stuff. Or atleast its extra. Not as cheap conversion as monte carlo stuff. But you can also think of it this way:
- you dont have to get rotors machined so you save some coin
- new rotors will always bolt on
- not really a big deal, but youre not mixing metric and standard lines.
- seemingly stronger calipers

I have no affiliation with these guys. just think its a cool idea, though wish it was cheaper

-Dustin

 

[Doug_S]

Check with Poser. He sells the rear brackets and check the FAQ section. You'll find all the common part numbers that you'll need to do a rear disk conversion including prices.

 

[Rick '79 FJ40]

pretty sure you need to supply that stuff. Or atleast its extra. Not as cheap conversion as monte carlo stuff. But you can also think of it this way:
- you dont have to get rotors machined so you save some coin
- new rotors will always bolt on
- not really a big deal, but youre not mixing metric and standard lines.
- seemingly stronger calipers

I have no affiliation with these guys. just think its a cool idea, though wish it was cheaper

-Dustin

I figured this was too cheap to include those parts...

Do you have any idea of what the calipers and rotors would cost?

I, too, like the idea of using real Toyota parts. My '79 already has discs in the front. The next good thing would be if the front and rear pads were the same part number, but I imagine that's way too much to ask.

Thanks for the info!

 

[dustin]

pretty sure all your pads, rotors, calipers will be the same front and rear. Thats part of the point of this kit. You'll still need to run a proportioning valve.

I dont have a clue about how much new disks and calipers would cost. Rotors are 40 each from Marlin, and calipers are about 100 each. But you can find different cheaper ones I am sure.

-Dustin

 

[Rocky_LC]

I did the mini-truck front axle part swap, but used '81 Landcruiser (vented) rotors, with '90 Toyots IFS Truck Calipers and Master Cylinder.

This gives me (what appear to be) heavier-duty rotors, and it all just bolted up (IIRC) - it was a couple years ago.

Rocky

 

[DSRTRDR]

I went the "high $$$ - no sweat - high bling" option, bought front and rear conversion kits from Man-A-Fre, including proportioning valve and stainless steel lines. Bolt on, bleed, done.

 

[fng55]

i used the standard mini-truck knuckles/ fj60 rotors/ ifs-truck calipers for the front of my 55.
in the rear i used the leftover mini-truck calipers and rotors from my donor axle, custum made brackets from 5/16 steel plate, and 1 inch wheel spacers. i had to grind ~1/16 inch from the outside edge of the axle flange to fit the rotors and the spacer sandwiches them in.
same pads on all 4 corners, vented rotors in front, solid in back. stops great with the drum master, no proportioning valve.
HTH, carl
ps sorry i have no camera to post pics