Toyota S12W caliper with Z31 vented disc, Brake conversion

toopy

Club Member
So having recently done this myself i thought i would write it up, as the other well known brake thread only covers the Peugeot 505 GTI disc scenario.

https://zclub.net/community/index.php?threads/toyota-hilux-peugeot-505-brake-upgrade.17515/

For this conversion you will need,


Z31 Vented brake disc's, 4 lug, NA or in other words non turbo version, very very hard if not impossible to get now in the UK, but plentiful in the states, and available at reasonable cost from some where like Rockauto, which is where i brought mine.

Z31 brake disc.JPG

Toyota S12W calipers, available used off ebay or i got remanufactured ones from Brakeparts.co.uk
For the cost involved its really not worth the hassle buying used parts of questionable condition, i did at first, and they turned out to be dogs, one or two pistons in each caliper refused to budge!
By the time you have brought a seal kit, and possibly a new piston or two, you might as well of bought recon ones and
saved yourself all the grief and swearing shenanigans! :banghead:
Note the considerable difference in size compared to the original 2 pot caliper, hence the need for 15" wheels at a push minimum, they may still foul though, depends on your wheel design.

calipers painted.JPG

Brake pads of your choice, but i used EBC Ultimax 2 pads, DP807.
The pad with the metal wear indicator in the middle goes on the inner side of the caliper.

EBC pad2.jpg

There is another pad that is almost identical in size, but slightly deeper and has different metal wear tags,
and these will foul on the strut mounting ears for the caliper! code for them for reference is DP992.
Ask me how i know that will happen!!!


Brake pad fitting kit, new calipers wont necessarily be supplied with this as standard.

fitting kit.jpg

9mm spacer to fit between the hub and brake disc, to centralise the disc to the caliper.

Thanks to Gary (Atomman on the forum) for supplying my spacers, and for doing some extra machining after it became apparent that the 81mm centre bore wasn't big enough for my 260z 2+2 hubs, i posted them back and Gary kindly machined them out to 84mm at my request. 83mm would likely be fine as 84 was a bit loose, but i didn't want to risk them still being tight!
Neither of us had any idea the hubs were different! the innards are exactly the same according to MrF but plainly mine have slightly more girth than Gary's! ;)

HubSpacer2.JPG
HubSpacer1.JPG

Longer brake disc to hub bolts to account for the 9mm spacer, M10 x 1.25mm x 40mm long will do it just fine, it goes without saying they should be high tensile.
The originals were something like 28mm long, i also used allen head bolts, as replacement hex head's can be a bit tight, with regards the head size being bigger than the OEM JIS bolts, and there isn't a lot of room inside the disc mounting area if you have thick walled sockets!
Don't forget some nice shiny new spring washer's as well.
35lbft/48Nm Torque setting.

HubSpacer5.JPG

Brake backing plate/shield will need to be trimmed a little top and bottom or the caliper will foul on the edges. See red line on pic for approximate position of cut.
Around 10mm would probably be enough, I estimated 20mm and that left plenty of space.
You may find that a part of the disc rubs on the backing plate as it now sits pretty darn close, one of mine did a bit at the bottom, so i just bent it out a little.... carefully!
Go easy with the screws/bolts holding the backing plate, I managed to shear one of mine because I was too eager to remove it, and tried to wind it straight out, even though it was binding badly, instead of winding it back and forth to ease it out slowly!
I also replaced mine with stainless steel hex bolts, I definitely wasn't going to try putting the cross head screws back in!

Backing plate3cut.jpg

M12 x 1.25mm caliper to strut bolts, the originals can be reused, as the mounting ears on the Toyota calipers
are the same thickness as OEM, mine were serviceable but rusty, so i again used some nice new allen head jobbies.
70lbft/95Nm Torque setting.

You can of course buy all this as a complete kit or part kit from several places in the states, namely zcardepot or silvermine motors

http://www.silverminemotors.com/datsun/datsun-260z/brake-upgrades

mjp auto, courtesy of Mike Feeney, MrF on the forum, also supply kits here in the UK.

http://www.mjpshop.co.uk/index.php?route=product/category&path=155_109

but as with everything pre-packaged, plus the shipping if buying abroad, it'll cost ya!


And finally the finished article

HiluxCaliperZ31disc1.JPG
HiluxCaliperZ31disc3.JPG

Hope that's of use, if your considering doing the conversion,

Cheers,

Anthony
 
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Nice write up.

What did it cost all in, £230ish?

Maybe as a club we could put a list of things together, mods/parts along with cost prices so we don’t have to use MSA or similar for parts?
 

toopy

Club Member
Nice write up.

What did it cost all in, £230ish?

Maybe as a club we could put a list of things together, mods/parts along with cost prices so we don’t have to use MSA or similar for parts?

EBC Pads £30
Calipers (remanufactured) £70 each
Pad fitting kit £12
Disc's (Rotors) Approx 15$ each, plus shipping, i brought them over a year ago so not entirely sure on price, by the way Rockauto also do slotted and/or drilled versions
Spacer's £60 Pair
 
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SacCyclone

Club Member
Thanks for the write up Anthony.

I have some of these calipers already and had been waiting for the right time to start the conversion. As I drove around the neighborhood today my left stock caliper started dragging so I will be doing my conversation sooner rather than later. Good timing with this write up.

Cheers, Mike
 

johnymd

Club Member
I really like this setup on my 280z. It even survived a track day at Brands Hatch last Tuesday. They did get extremely hot and very blue. I pretty much lost 80% of the brakes after the second lap but it did mean I carried a lot more speed through the corners. This was probably down to wrong fluid type rather than the brakes themselves. Managed to lap in a minute dead in a heavy car with pretty standard suspension (just Tokico springs).

I'd certainly recommend this setup for a fast road/occasional track car.
 

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
I have these callipers with Peugeot 505 vented discs on my 260 (no spacer required) and they really are the dogs dangly bits on the road. They really improve your confidence in stretching the car's legs more.

Toops - great write up buddy!!! You spent a lot less than I did on mine, so you did very well indeed!!! [emoji106]

Hope the master cyl thing gets sorted out.
 

Breakzero

Active Forum User
Does anyone know anywhere in the UK to get the Z31 4x114 discs from? I have pieced together all the parts I need in the UK. Monies the spacers which come from silvermine. I also found a stoptech pad from stock at work that fit the S12W calipers. It seems some sellers on eBay still offer ebc discs for the 300zx '84. But they seem to think they are 4x100 after speaking to them. However they don't actually have stock to measure in up in person
 

toopy

Club Member
Does anyone know anywhere in the UK to get the Z31 4x114 discs from? I have pieced together all the parts I need in the UK. Monies the spacers which come from silvermine. I also found a stoptech pad from stock at work that fit the S12W calipers. It seems some sellers on eBay still offer ebc discs for the 300zx '84. But they seem to think they are 4x100 after speaking to them. However they don't actually have stock to measure in up in person

I searched extensively in the UK for the the Z31 disc's at the time and the few places that had them listed, didn't actually have them in stock and didn't know when they would be!
It seems to be a US only thing now unfortunately, but they aren't expensive, and a couple of weeks wait is no biggy
 

Breakzero

Active Forum User
Does anyone have a part number for the discs from rockauto. Mine came today but they are only 250mm diameter! They should be 270mm right?
 

Peato40

Well-Known Forum User
Hello Breakzero, I have just been taking a look myself as I already have the calipers and now need the discs. It looks like Raybestos 9842R are the ones to get as they are having an outer diameter of 10.875" which is 276mm.
The discs from Roockauto are very reasonably priced at $21.79 each but the shipping begins to bring the price back to some reality at $65, although if they aren't available in the UK, I guess with import duty they will still be less than £100, so too bad.
 

Breakzero

Active Forum User
Great. Thanks for the fast replies guys. I will have to order the correct ones now! God knows what the discs they have sent me are. They were listed for the 300zx. But are a 250mm with 103mm holes. God damn it.
 

Breakzero

Active Forum User
Ray
Hello Breakzero, I have just been taking a look myself as I already have the calipers and now need the discs. It looks like Raybestos 9842R are the ones to get as they are having an outer diameter of 10.875" which is 276mm.
The discs from Roockauto are very reasonably priced at $21.79 each but the shipping begins to bring the price back to some reality at $65, although if they aren't available in the UK, I guess with import duty they will still be less than £100, so too bad.
Raybestos 9842R are also listed as a 103mm hole distance....
 
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