Brake upgrade for your Aussie val or late A body with disks

[Dave999]

I can't take any credit for this its just something that i found on Mopar Market written by a guy calling himself Dartman

Your Aussie valiant has reasonably good disk brakes

starting with the VF in 69 solid disks
VG '70 1 year only vented disks
vh vj vk vented disks that are bigger
CL CM sorry can't help different offset and track due to different hub

they had decent disks but suffered due to a lack of any biasing
the rears worked too well and the front didn't which in the wet prompts the odd "facing the on coming traffic incident"
a brake bias unit works wonders but if you really want to detach a retiner (or so i'm told) a more modern front caliper should work wonders.

and you can leave the $900 disk upgrades to the US Mopar owners this should cost

80 max for clipers
££ for brake lines
££ for disk skim
about 4 hours of your time

you have a caliper that is refered to as a "slider" or "Kelsey Hayes" style or "Girlock" style brake

its a 1 pot caliper with 2 pads
the caliper slides on a bracket that bolts to the stub axle
aussie brackets Have GIRLOCK stamped into them

the stub axle mount has the same centre to centre distance as a landcruiser hilux surf or 4Runner (from Toyota) caliper up to about '96
and the caliper to disk offset is spot on.

these cars/trucks are known as a 65 series or 75 series HJ or FJ

These calipers have indentations in the outer side to aid colling that look like 4 finger dents the 65seriess has a big n little 4 pot arrangement and the 75 series has a 4 big pot arrangement.

i picked up some 75 series calipers for 40 quid.

Toyota are metric mopar is not (mounting and flexi line)
toyota disks are smaller and narrower
and your mounting bolts are imperial
but none of this is too much of a hurdle
a fully loaded landcruiser weighs more than your a body
and a hilux has to have brakes to stop it and up to 1/2 a tonne of load.

think we are onto a good thing here if we have a grinder some pipe and access to speedflow or someonee who can make up custom brake pipes.



_______________________________________________________

A) To start with the calipers found on the FJ/HJ or 60 series Landcruisers are suitable. Also used on some model Hiluxs. This is a 4 spot caliper that has two different sized pistons and some cooling fins. The leading piston is smaller than the trailing one i.e. two small opposing and two big opposing pistons.
B) The second suitable style are the ones used on the Toyota HZJ75 series prior to about 95 I think. This is about 20% bigger than the ones above. The difference is that it has 4 pistons of the same size, which makes it longer and hence a bigger pad.

Note: Both of these are available new from Veales for a reasonable price. Second hand they can be bought very cheap. Overhaul kits are also available for both also very cheap. The smaller caliper is the better for straight replacement. The larger one really needs some brake proportioning work depending on what sort of booster your Chrysler is running standard. Dont get me wrong it will work brilliantly but rear drum brakes may lock in emergency stops (pretty par for course actually). My booster is quite weak due to M1 single plan manifold, so the old right boot does the work and the bigger brakes work well. There is a large range of pads so experiment here too. The big plus is that you have a platform to improve the whole braking system from here on. The most noticeable change is the brakes wont pull on either side first, it is very even and you are not fighting to keep the car in a straight line. You have a lot more feel and can therefore go harder on the pedal.

Here is what you need to do. It may sound fiddly but it is all a piece of cake.

1) Find a pair of Toyota 4 spot calipers. Remove your old Chrysler calipers and do a quick mount up to see what your up against. They bloody well almost bolt straight on but you will need to do a couple little things so they look and work like factory ones.
2) Send your disks (the vented style) off to the brake shop and have them skimmed around 3 mm off the outer radius. NOT thickness, the outer diameter of the disk needs to be reduced so it doesnt touch the caliper. Some vals are different which is where the quick fit check prior to skimming pays off. Do some quick eye-balling of your own. Mine was a small bolt pattern vented disk set-up ala Dart/VG.
3) Whilst thas being done. New or old you will need to split the calipers apart. Simply four bolts. Whilst they are separated you need to open up the central rotor slot by about 2-3 mm on each side. Probably dont need too if using a solid rotor, but go the vented ones whilst your upgrading. I used a smaller angle grinder with a thicker cutting disk rather than a grinder disk. Cutter disks dont like sideways force so dont Bananarama!, take your time and use safety goggles. The Chrysler vented (or brand new DBA slotted disk if you choose) disk will now happily fit in them.
4) Okay. The Toyota stuff is metric so a couple little mods must be done here. The caliper bolt holes are a little bigger than the Chrysler caliper bolt holes. The simplest thing to do here is fit a sleeve between the standard imperial bolts from you old brakes and the new caliper. Thus retaining mounts and retaining bolts. I used some copper pipe pressed with my vice into the caliper holes and then filed out for a neat fit. Then I notice that Suzuki Sierra locating dowels, between the engine and gearbox, are a perfect fit. This is what I used on my second conversion. Clean up either side with the grinder so its flush.
5) Thoroughly clean the calipers and join back together. No sealant is required. Just REMEMBER the O ring seals. Paint them what ever colour you want. I recommend VHT caliper paint here.
6) Homeward bound now. One more critical thing to do, but also very easy. Take your flexible brake line, the one that goes from the chassis to the caliper, to a hose specialist (Perth Brake Supplies, Welshpool) and get two new braided steel lines made. The chassis end needs to retain the 3/8? NPT thread BUT the other end needs to be a 10 mm i.e. the same as the Toyota metric thread. It will be a banjo style with bolt through centre so you can tighten without twisting the hose. Just tell 'em to copy your old one bar the metric end. Ensure they give you the right bolt for the right Banjo. Some are grooved bolt and some are grooved Banjo for hydraulic fluid flow. You MUST put in the two new copper washers to seal the bolt.
7) Putting everything back together! IMPORTANT. Depending on the pads you use, you will need to take a bit off the internal radius on the central hub side of the pad. A bench grinder will do this nicely. You need only do the outer pad, but make sure you put it on the outside of the caliper! As they wear in they may begin to touch on the hub of the disk causing a squeak or uneven pad wear.
The most critical stage. Once you have re-assembled everything and bled the brakes, turn the wheel by hand check your work. Then TEST, TEST, TEST, before you even go onto the road. Then when you âre on the road, TEST again in a safe spot. Not whilst you coming down a steep hill or driveway. Then check your handy work again back home.

If all this is too much for you go and see AB Performance or Midland Wreckers in Perth. AB has gone the next step by modifying the whole booster and master cylinder set-up which just works a treat on a 408 stroker.

Your brakes should be your number one priority, followed by tyres, then motor.

to add to this, I beleive that the calipers will only bolt onto the VH-early CL spindles, not the late CL-CM...

Todd Teasdale Perth WA
AKA Dartman

Todd has a 68 dart and can be found via the Charger club of WA website

here is a link to the trials and tribulations of thenumerouse people who have done it

http://www.moparmarketforum.com/forum/v ... =63&t=4504

attached is a picture of the calipers you need should you take on this mission


Dave

[TrevD]

that lookjs like it might be an easy conversion for anyone running 11" disks. i might even look to see if they will fir on my camper top info dave, cheers.

[Dave999]

check ebay for landcruiser calipers

search

(hilux, 4 runner,surf, landcruiser) toyota calipers


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/toyota-hilux-surf ... 240%3A1318

these are new hence quite expensive

couple of 4x4 dismantlers sell second hand quite regularly £30-40

there are a set there currently at £3 but the pics don't let you see if they are the right ones

i have it on reasonable authoritry that later ones fit if your wheels are big enough i.e its a clearance issue that discounts use on cars with 14 or 15 inch wheels

Dave