[v.w.dave]

I am thinking about doing a rear disc set up in the next few months what has been done what is best? Is it worth the time and money?
On the same subject what are people doing to the front brakes? Is there anything out there that bolts on to upgrade to better brakes in the front end?
Last week I exteded all my brake lines and replaced them with steel braided lines now its time for the upgrades.
With going bigger brakes are you having to change your master cylinder?
Any pics would be good thanks.
I am just putting thoughts into question...

[steak_knife]

http://www.auszookers.com/index.php?nam ... pic&t=2789
Joeblow make good stuff.

Damo has a vit master & booster & a lot of others use vit wagon front rotor's & caliper's on the front to.

[zooker]

1.6 Vitara Estate Wagon front discs and calipers bolt straight on. They are bigger and rotors are vented. Stops awesome

I wouldnt bother with rear discs. My std rear drums lock up the rear wheels easy, cant brake much better than that Only advantage I can see is discs arent affect by mud as bad a drums which fill up and wear away the pads.

[Gwagensteve]

Mud reliability is a huge win for discs.

Also, you can't loose a wheel if a bearing collapses - the caliper holds it on.

Steve.

[PJ.zook]

Does the Vit boosters bolt up to Sierras, and if so are they more powerful? Ive fitted suby master cylinder, LWB vit calipers on front, and 323 calipers on rear. It stops great, but only if you put a lot of welly on the brake pedal. I want em to feel a lot better than that, and i suspect its because there isnt enough vac assist.

[Damo]

PJ.zook wrote:

Does the Vit boosters bolt up to Sierras, and if so are they more powerful? Ive fitted suby master cylinder, LWB vit calipers on front, and 323 calipers on rear. It stops great, but only if you put a lot of welly on the brake pedal. I want em to feel a lot better than that, and i suspect its because there isnt enough vac assist.

Yes the Vit master cylinder AND the booster are both bigger.

What bore size is your Suby MC? The Vit one I have just fitted is 15/16" and it gets a much better pedal. I have LWB Vit calipers on the front and R31 Skyline rears.

Some more info in this thread.

[Damo]

Oh, and the MC/booster I used came from a 96 SWB Vitara with 16 valve 1.6.

[2stroker]

Sierra's are light vehicles and their brakes are pretty good in standard form, for the recreational 4x4ing that most of us do you are not going to get a lot of benifit from brake upgrades, brake fade and overheating are usually not an issue when crawling around the scub. It is just not as simple as bolting on different parts from different cars, unless you have the technical knowhow to do it properly forget it. My sons workshop has an electronic decelerometer that does a printout of the a vehicles braking efficiency, some cars that feel like they pull up great are actually less efficient than other that don't feel as good. For example to me some of the ABS cars I drive do not feel like they are as efficient as some non ABS cars but the efficiency reading is different to the drivers seat feel. Because some cars grab well the brakes feel really good but under testing they may actually lock up way too early before they can knock off enough road speed and therefore they loose traction and loose efficiency. My advice is ask yourself why you need better brakes, it may be that your standard braking system is just buggered and needs to be overhauled. I would be carefull that your search for better brakes doesn't brings you unstuck as it has with many people in the past.

[Fatzook]

Hey 2Stroker..

I've got 4 piston billet willwood calipers on the front of Cammo and 2 piston dynalite willwoods on the rear..... Too much?

Ofcoarse it has not been driven with this setup yet, but with correct proportioning valves I reckon it should pull up nicely

[Highway-Star]

2stroker wrote:

Sierra's are light vehicles and their brakes are pretty good in standard form, for the recreational 4x4ing that most of us do you are not going to get a lot of benifit from brake upgrades, brake fade and overheating are usually not an issue when crawling around the scub. It is just not as simple as bolting on different parts from different cars, unless you have the technical knowhow to do it properly forget it. My sons workshop has an electronic decelerometer that does a printout of the a vehicles braking efficiency, some cars that feel like they pull up great are actually less efficient than other that don't feel as good. For example to me some of the ABS cars I drive do not feel like they are as efficient as some non ABS cars but the efficiency reading is different to the drivers seat feel. Because some cars grab well the brakes feel really good but under testing they may actually lock up way too early before they can knock off enough road speed and therefore they loose traction and loose efficiency. My advice is ask yourself why you need better brakes, it may be that your standard braking system is just buggered and needs to be overhauled. I would be carefull that your search for better brakes doesn't brings you unstuck as it has with many people in the past.

I agree, Sierra brakes are awesome in standard form, however I think a few things should be considered. first off is the short life of drums if you are constantly getting muck in them, this is a good reason to go disks. Second off is people who are running rather large wheels, your braking should be upgraded to suit, so you are back to having standard braking ability.

[v.w.dave]

2stroker wrote:

Sierra's are light vehicles and their brakes are pretty good in standard form, for the recreational 4x4ing that most of us do you are not going to get a lot of benifit from brake upgrades, brake fade and overheating are usually not an issue when crawling around the scub. It is just not as simple as bolting on different parts from different cars, unless you have the technical knowhow to do it properly forget it. My sons workshop has an electronic decelerometer that does a printout of the a vehicles braking efficiency, some cars that feel like they pull up great are actually less efficient than other that don't feel as good. For example to me some of the ABS cars I drive do not feel like they are as efficient as some non ABS cars but the efficiency reading is different to the drivers seat feel. Because some cars grab well the brakes feel really good but under testing they may actually lock up way too early before they can knock off enough road speed and therefore they loose traction and loose efficiency. My advice is ask yourself why you need better brakes, it may be that your standard braking system is just buggered and needs to be overhauled. I would be carefull that your search for better brakes doesn't brings you unstuck as it has with many people in the past.

I am going to upgrade due to the intire systme needs to be overhauled anyway. When slamming on the brakes it pull to the right. My front pads are very uneven. both my rear cylinders are leaking so instead of spending the money to rebuild I am going to upgrade. I do a lot of mud and water wheeling that is my reason for wanting disc's in the rear. With disc's in the rear to keep it in good front to rear perportion I am going to upgrade to a bigger set up in the front. I knew there was a bolt on upgrade I just didnt know what it was and by asking this I know know it is the Vitara wagon....

[v.w.dave]

Thank you everyone for your input.

[Nik]

The subie m/c is 1 1/16" bore.
Ive got mine fitted up to my stock booster running standard hilux brakes stopping 35s.
The pedal has great feel but I had to fit a prop valve as it kept locking up the rears 1st.
Im going for my brake test tommorow so I,ll let you know.
Nik

[Reubs]

v.w.dave wrote:

I am going to upgrade due to the intire systme needs to be overhauled anyway. When slamming on the brakes it pull to the right. My front pads are very uneven. both my rear cylinders are leaking so instead of spending the money to rebuild I am going to upgrade. I do a lot of mud and water wheeling that is my reason for wanting disc's in the rear. With disc's in the rear to keep it in good front to rear perportion I am going to upgrade to a bigger set up in the front.

IMO, you might just have a problem with 'frozen' calipers at the moment and 'clogged' drums. Upgrade, but mightn't you end up with the same problems later on if you plan to do a lot of mud driving with no maintenance?

How uneven are your pads, and how well adjusted is your handbrake? It's lots of fun when your frozen caliper throws a pad out - your pedal goes straight to the floor and all you have is gears and handbrake to stop!

[2stroker]

Yeah Ruebs, mate that is right, I have had so many people talk to me about brake upgrades because they think the standard brakes are crap when in reality it is just that their braking system is working to about 50% of what it could be if it was working properly, so in fact they don't need an upgrade they need an overhaul. If you are driving around in water and mud you go home and hose the mud off the car so how hard is it to jack up the back take the wheels off with drums attached and hose the mud out of the brakes.

Fatzook that combination should do the trick I would think, however you have the ability to get it working properly, many don't.

In the end there are very few cars with so called "brake upgrades" that then have a proper measureable brake test done to gauge the new found efficiency. Everyone says you just throw a proportioning valve in, yeah right, what valve? what proportioning? how much bias front to rear is correct? where is the valve fitted? how much volume per stroke does the wheel cyl have? how does this compare to the volume of the caliper you use? what bore master cyl is needed for the calipers you use? etc etc etc..

[jdk81]

If mud is an issue

I am contemplating drilling a few holes in the drum brake backing plates, and installing fittings for the garden hose at the top, and drainage holes at the bottom.

When I get home, just plug the hose in and turn it on for a couple of mins.

[zooker]

Gwagensteve wrote:

Mud reliability is a huge win for discs.

Also, you can't loose a wheel if a bearing collapses - the caliper holds it on.

Steve.

Steer clear of mud that shit sux

[Munster]

Does anyone have a cad diagram for the pintara/skyline disc brake adapter plates for the Sierra?

[Nik]

Just an update on the subie m/c.
Ive done my brake test where they check the braking force on each wheel.
Now keep in mind this zook has easily passed the pink slip brake test on 35s withthe stock m/c and pulls up even better with the subie one.
I failed the test because my passenger rear was doing nothing!! I even jacked the zook up and got somone to stand on the brakes and I could easily turn the wheel by hand.
Ended up being a seized brake cylinder so it should stop great with 4 wheels braking instead of 3.
Nik

[eldo]

im chasing some info on rotor and caliper upgrades for the front of a WT.
i know the vitara wagon discs and calipers are a good option, but is there any other options?
before you all tell me to just get the standard sytem working correctly, its been requested by an engineer to get the zook legal.

[eldo]

do the v6 discs fit?

[steak_knife]

eldo wrote:

do the v6 discs fit?

Could be made to fit, do you mean vit w/t v6?
A guy at work has 15's on one but had to grind the hell out of his calipers & get big off set rim's, ask atari bout how he did his.

[royce]

eldo wrote:

do the v6 discs fit?

No, the rotor offset is different

[eldo]

ok so i have been doing some homework and it seems that the 2.0l V6 front discs are a bolt on item, they seem to have the same specs as the stock sierra except they are thicker, vented and are larger. im guessing these wont go on with a 15 inch rim.

[Brett]

has any one ever had a look at a f100 brakes?

[Damo]

Brett wrote:

has any one ever had a look at a f100 brakes?

Nope coz anything F100 is a squillion dollars.