my 1978 is my daily driver so i did the rear disc. it stops on a dime now... every time. safety 1st. if your rig is a garage princes that only goes out on sundays to starbucks and back then leave it stock. other wise the rear disc is no brainer.
Rear Disc Brake Conversion, pros/cons
- Thread starter Btchnfj
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GM single piston disc conversion is not the only option out there. I got tired of rebuilding wheel cylinders over the years and converted to 4 wheel disc brakes. When I did mine I decided to go with 4 piston Wilwood's on all corners. To assist with brake bias I also choose calipers for the rear with different size pistons to minimize any in-balance. With a master from a 4 wheel disc T-100 I didn't even bother plumbing in the proportioning valve I bought.
Sounds like you're tired of doing the extra work to keep the brakes at optimum which is why you are considering doing the conversion. Now you just need to decide how much work you want to be doing in the years to come.
Sounds like you're tired of doing the extra work to keep the brakes at optimum which is why you are considering doing the conversion. Now you just need to decide how much work you want to be doing in the years to come.
Byron,
What did you use to mount Wilwood calipers onto Toyota axle flanges at the rear and did you also use Wilwood rotors?
I've used Wiwood brakes on two cars and am a pretty big fan of their kits. When I went looking to see what they do for land cruisers there wasn't much. I knew I could make a bracket but didn't see ways to use other than Wilwood rotors and be sure ahead of time that their calipers would fit and work well since disc brakes are pretty much all about the thickness of rotors. So, with the most expensive loaded Monte Carlo calipers in RockAuto running less than $38. per it seemed like too many questions remained before putting down the approx $250. for Wilwoods.
I've got to also admit that the prospect of lightly built Wilwood aluminum calipers on my truck didn't fit well with my idea of what the FJ40 is. I mean Wilwoods are great for a restored car or a sports car, even one that's taken out for track time but having them on the rear of my cruiser seemed like it could end up being a too rough and tumble environment for them to withstand for very long.
TSM is the company I bought mine from. The kit included the bracket, caliper, SS lines and rotors, I went with upgraded rotors.
Disc's are modified Chevy truck, thicker mounting surface than drums. That with aftermarket wheels required longer studs too.
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OK - that's good info for someone. TSM must be the only place to that offers setups for land cruisers.
The pieces for my conversion are either here or on the way and I'm comfortable with using the GM jobs now after reading how people do it and how it works for them, but when I first got into doing the swap the idea of rear brakes more than twice as much force as the OEM fronts seemed like craziness.
The pieces for my conversion are either here or on the way and I'm comfortable with using the GM jobs now after reading how people do it and how it works for them, but when I first got into doing the swap the idea of rear brakes more than twice as much force as the OEM fronts seemed like craziness.
Check out Sky Manufacturing also for RDB conversions. That who I used...
HTH
Will
HTH
Will
Poser brackets work well.
I'm running Chevy full sized truck rotors & callipers on the rear. They will stop a 4500 lb trailer with ease. I'd highly recommend 4 wheel disc brakes for decades of reliable, trouble free, low maintenance service.
I'm running Chevy full sized truck rotors & callipers on the rear. They will stop a 4500 lb trailer with ease. I'd highly recommend 4 wheel disc brakes for decades of reliable, trouble free, low maintenance service.
Hi
I have an aussie 3/80 BJ40, which when i bought it had drums on 4 corners. The maintenance of the drums had been neglected by the previous owner(s) for years, so it would have cost a small fortune to rebuild. The brakes barely worked and when they did grabbed and sent me into on coming traffic half the time and the other half into the bush.
I retained the stock booster/master cylinder and changed the front to 60 series knuckles, rotors and calipers. On the rear i used 70 series discs, subaru brumby front calipers and custom brackets. I took out the factory residual valves and installed universal 2psi residual valves.
I am extremely happy with this set-up - it stops much better and has virtually no maintenance...
I do agree that if you have an "original cruiser", it would be sacriligious to bastardise it, as they are getting rarer and should be preserved.
I have an aussie 3/80 BJ40, which when i bought it had drums on 4 corners. The maintenance of the drums had been neglected by the previous owner(s) for years, so it would have cost a small fortune to rebuild. The brakes barely worked and when they did grabbed and sent me into on coming traffic half the time and the other half into the bush.
I retained the stock booster/master cylinder and changed the front to 60 series knuckles, rotors and calipers. On the rear i used 70 series discs, subaru brumby front calipers and custom brackets. I took out the factory residual valves and installed universal 2psi residual valves.
I am extremely happy with this set-up - it stops much better and has virtually no maintenance...
I do agree that if you have an "original cruiser", it would be sacriligious to bastardise it, as they are getting rarer and should be preserved.
I thought the S10 rotors were 5 lug. Maybe S10 calipers?
Rotors usually come from mid 90's GM full-size 4x4 truck for this conversion.
Or C10 rotors; full sized 1/2T GM.
A typo, but it's a good one to catch so that nobody goes and orders S10 rotors on my say-so. Thanks.
If you do go with the GM Metric Calipers be aware of the balance issues. If you read the conversion posts I believe the majority of conversions state a difficulty or inability to get proper brake bias regardless of using a proportioning valve. One option is Wilwood 2" calipers. They are not small enough, but better than the stock GM 2.5" ones. The downside is cost at about $80 each without pads or parts.
Yeah, that's the bugaboo, and it doesn't help to see several people describing that they've got their adjustable proportioning valve set to its max limitation in order to get what they feel is an adequately safe and balanced system.
I've got the GM calipers and am waiting on racer65's proportioning valve. All new clutch and brake hydraulics gives me time to keep mulling this balance issue over. I'm now starting to wonder about a Toyota caliper for the front brakes (the truck is a '77 and has stock front discs) that's larger as another way to make a front/rear balanced system.
The largest you can bolt on is the 4 Runner calipers. It's a tab bit larger and certainly wouldn't hurt the bias or overall braking situation. I don't personally know if the extra cost is worth it if you already have good working discs in front. Mine were drums and never seemed to be adjusted well, were constantly freezing up or leaking. Now's the time to look for smaller rear caliper options if you want to go that route.
