Rear Disc Brakes

[jmh]

Hi all,

I have done several searches on the forum for exactly what needs to be done to use rear disc brakes, and I think I am perhaps being a little thick, as I don't get all of the options.

Firstly, whilst I am aware that there is not a great deal of performance gain in using discs, I would prefer to use discs simply because I prefer maintaining and servicing discs as opposed to drums. As I am not too far into the build I thought I would evaluate what I would need to use rear disc brakes.

I have the rear up rights in component form, so I can choose to weld this up for either configuration.

I have all of the running gear for rear drum brakes

I have the rear brake calipers for disc brakes too.

So my questions are

Do I need to change the rear drive shafts if I go with the disc brake option, or can I modify the drum drive shafts I have at the moment?

Does the adapter plate sold by 3ge simply provide the correct mount for the caliper and I would still need to change the drive shafts?

Cheers for your help and sorry if this is a rather silly question

Jonathan

[twinturbo]

Personaly I am using 10" drums for 3 Reasons.

1) Got em free.
B) The rear is less likly to lock up and getting a balance front to rear is probably going to be easier for the IVA.
3) Having owned many sierras, I can assure you that the handbrake mechanism on the disk brakes is prone to siezing even on cars with fairly regular use, on a lightly used kit the may be useless.
IV) The disk setup on sierras without ABS uses a larger rare master cylinder that provides more fluid movement than the drum brake one.

TT

[MikeB]

I was looking at going drum, then hoped the 3GE adapters would allow me swap over later, as far as I know you won't need to change drive shafts but I haven't done it....
Be interesting to know if anyone has fitted them.

Mike

[3GE Components]

Hi Jonothan,

You don't need to change the drive shafts, the plates bolt on to the existing bearing carrier. You just need to source Sierra 2wd std 2.0 or Sierra 4x4 2.0, 2.8 or 2.9 rear calipers (all the same) and std Sierra solid 253mm rear discs.

Hope that helps.

Kind regards

John

[mikemph]

Can you either type of driveshaft and diff setup ie either bolted driveshafts or push in type?

Is there any pro or cons to each setup?

[flyerncle]

I have the adapters and they fit well and you can fit the disc's straight over the drive flange.

You may find that the calipers hit the uprights and the center plate may need to be turned to accomadate the caliper.

A look at Spikhaus's blog may help.

Or try this..... My set up.



.http://www.flickr.com/photos/30468413@N03/3599185040/

[jmh]

They always say that a picture is worth a thousand words .....

Everything is much clearer now.

Basically, I recently bought an unfinished project and it came with calipers. I need to ask which model of car they came from.

I also bought a stripped down sierra a year or so ago which came with the drum brakes.

So I pretty much have everything for the drum setup and a set of rear calipers, so I was just trying to figure out if I could easily move directly to the rear discs.

I guess all I really need to do is order the adapter plates and some new discs and hopefully everything should be fine

Not too sure exactly what you mean about hitting the uprights though .... in the picture the calipers seem to be well clear. I guess with the disc uprights the caliper is much closer to the upright ..... is that what you mean?

I figure the easiest and most flexible option is to make the drum uprights and use the adapter.

Thanks for all your help

[twinturbo]

the book design for the calliper upright makes the calliper foul unless the caliper is swapped from left to right. 3GE can do a revised upright with the plate set 45deg off vertical.

TT

[3GE Components]

We also supply the adaptors offset to the same roation, to give better clearence.

Kind regards

John

[flyerncle]

The calipers are not Ford,they are from an Audi TT and I had them lying around in the garage. I intend to replace them with Ford items but not at this time and they are only £40 so fairly cheap but I want to concentrate on getting it sorted cheaply and and in the near future !!!!