Mr.G
Club Member
I've been reading articles on how the breaks can be a little spongy on our early Z cars. Anyone else experience this??
One article that was quite interesting was by R Sime from Planet Z, I'll reproduce bits of it so I can share some of the points made with you. (I printed the article some time ago and now cannot get the link to work or I would have linked to it.)
There are a couple of routes to go down the brake improvement path.
1) Go for the Toyota 4 x 4 calipers.
2) Put race car pads on.
3) Race car calipers
4) Service exisiting system (original) ie, Bleed system, change pipes, replace master cylinder.
Toyota 4 x 4 Calipers
Pretty much a bolt on piece of kit and yes they will make your Z car stop on a dime. The disadvantage is the extra weight of the calipers. They need to be to stop a 4000 pound vehicle. Since Unsprung weight is the most important to eliminate the author is not in favour of the extra weight as he also states that the brake bias that the Datsun engineers set up is also upset.
Race car pads
When these are fitted on street driven cars they will not only reduce the braking performance but will wear the rotors very quicly and while the pads are cold will perform very poorly.
Race car calipers
The author agreed that he cannot arguw about weight in this instance but on a street driven car they will cause more problems. They are not sealed against most of the everyday things street cars drive through. How often do you check your brake caliper bores for rust and how often do you bleed the brakes?? This set up needs frequent bleeding.
Service Existing System
In the authors opinion stock brakes, reconditioned and in good operating order are more then adequate. For an uprade it is adeqaute to use modern pad material such as semi-metallic or carbon metallic intended for street use.
What he says makes good sense to me what does everyone else think??
One article that was quite interesting was by R Sime from Planet Z, I'll reproduce bits of it so I can share some of the points made with you. (I printed the article some time ago and now cannot get the link to work or I would have linked to it.)
There are a couple of routes to go down the brake improvement path.
1) Go for the Toyota 4 x 4 calipers.
2) Put race car pads on.
3) Race car calipers
4) Service exisiting system (original) ie, Bleed system, change pipes, replace master cylinder.
Toyota 4 x 4 Calipers
Pretty much a bolt on piece of kit and yes they will make your Z car stop on a dime. The disadvantage is the extra weight of the calipers. They need to be to stop a 4000 pound vehicle. Since Unsprung weight is the most important to eliminate the author is not in favour of the extra weight as he also states that the brake bias that the Datsun engineers set up is also upset.
Race car pads
When these are fitted on street driven cars they will not only reduce the braking performance but will wear the rotors very quicly and while the pads are cold will perform very poorly.
Race car calipers
The author agreed that he cannot arguw about weight in this instance but on a street driven car they will cause more problems. They are not sealed against most of the everyday things street cars drive through. How often do you check your brake caliper bores for rust and how often do you bleed the brakes?? This set up needs frequent bleeding.
Service Existing System
In the authors opinion stock brakes, reconditioned and in good operating order are more then adequate. For an uprade it is adeqaute to use modern pad material such as semi-metallic or carbon metallic intended for street use.
What he says makes good sense to me what does everyone else think??