Brake

From AE86 Driving Club FAQ

There are multiple options when it comes to upgrading brakes on a sprinter.

By far one of the best options is to upgrade to FC3S RX7 Front brakes and RT142 Corona rear brakes, however with the corona rear brake upgrade you will need to use a TE72 T-Series diff rather than the standard s-series...

FRONT

Contents 1 JDM Sprinter 1.1 Items Required 1.2 Step 1 1.3 Step 2 2 RX7 FC3S Calipers and Mini Cooper S Rotors 2.1 Items required: 2.2 First Step 2.3 Second Step 2.4 Third Step 3 Corona/Pug/Hilux 3.1 Parts List 3.2 What to do, and how to do it 4 Corona/MX62/RA60 4.1 Parts required 4.2 And the work required 4.3 The result 5 JDM AE86 Disc Brake Diff 5.1 Parts Required 5.2 Step 1 5.3 Step 2 6 RT142 Corona Rear Disc Upgrade 6.1 items required 6.2 Step 1 6.3 Step 2 6.4 Step 3 6.5 Step 4 6.6 Step 5 6.7 Step 6 6.8 Step 7 7 Brake Master Cylinder Upgrade

JDM Sprinter

Items Required

• JDM AE86 Calipers
• JDM AE86 Rotors
• 2xMedium Sized Split Pins
• High Temp Bearing Grease

Step 1

Remove Standard AE86 calipers and rotors

Step 2

Bolt the JDM AE86 calipers and rotors on

Easy huh....

RX7 FC3S Calipers and Mini Cooper S Rotors

Items required:

• Brake Calipers, 1990 Approx RX7 Series 4/5 Turbo $135 Calipers, $160 to rebuild
• Brake Pads, Brakes Plus Premium Plus $75 Trade
• 2001 Mini Cooper S Rotors, 276mm dia, 22mm thick, 64mm centre hole (same as AE86) DBA P.N. 542 RDA P.N. 7352S (slotted) $285 Pair
• Custom made bracket to fit Calipers to AE86 Hubs
• 4x M12 x 30mm Cap Head Bolts
• 8x M12 x 35mm Cap Head Bolts

First Step

Brake Adapter Bracket

Using CAD drawings from Twinky on Toymods, brackets are milled from solid steel on CNC. These were made cheaply by some guys at work, but with the drawings I think any fabrication shop could do it. Bracket 1 Bracket 2 I have dimensioned CAD drawings if anyone is interested. Link to CAD Drawings

Second Step

Modify Mini Rotors

The rotors have a chamfer on the inside where they locate on the hub, a new chamfer needs to be made on the opposite side to fit over the AE86 hub, this can be done on a lathe in a few minutes.

Third Step

Modify Sprinter Hub

Because the disk is so much larger, I replaced the standard M10 bolts that mount the disc on the hub with new High Tensile M12 items, so the holes on the hub were drilled out to 10.2mm, and re-tapped at M12.

Then, using the AE86 hub, re-drill holes in rotors to mount onto reverse of hub, PCD is about 87mm but having the old rotors and hubs you have a template.

Then, assemble the whole setup. Original AE86 brake lines can be used, or replacement braided units (ex. From AJPS $180) would sweeten up the system. Original master cylinder can also be used, with a T-18 rear end my pedal feels squishy at first, then firms up. Nissan R32 non-ABS units apparently bolt straight on, with 15/16 bore create better pedal feel, will try that next.

Clearance is good with 15’’ SSR wheels, about 1cm to the outside of the rim. There is a clearance issue with the spokes so I am currently running a 7mm spacer, and looking into either different offset 15’’ or another SSR wheel. To reduce the likelihood of your caliper hitting your wheel spokes, the bump on the caliper above the "MAZDA" can be filed down. BUT LEAVE AT LEAST 2mm, otherwise you open a brake fluid passage and ruin your caliper.

There is no problem with clearing the LCA, other setups use a rotor with high offset that requires NCRCA’s, I do have these fitted but are not necessary.

This article written by OLY AE86

transfer by --Just Half Steppin 23:14, 20 November 2007 (EST)

Corona/Pug/Hilux

Parts List

Basics

• XT130 Struts and Hubs
• Peugot 604 Discs (DBA272 or equiv.)
• Hilux 4-spot Calipers (LN106)
• Coilovers
• Top Hats/Cambertops
• Upper Hats
• Adjustable Collar/Perches
• Coilover Spring

What to do, and how to do it

The Basics Ok, lets get stuck into the basics of what you need and how to do it. Firstly you need to start with the XT130 struts. I usually source mine from a wrecker, and since im lazy i normally get them pulled out for me... Basically they look like this:

Apparently RT132 struts are the same as XT130 ones. According to this page too: [1] Confirmed A lot of the wreckers i have been to have told me that all *T13* struts are the same. This is completely untrue. The only possible exception to this is the RT132 struts above. Dont get caught out here You will then want to strip everything off them until you get bare struts like this:

In addition to this you need to keep the hub unit:

Apparently RT132 hubs provide a few mm extra offset and solve the fouling problem as seen later Confirmed

Now that you have some bare struts you will want to get your discs and send them off for machining. Many people have been reporting problems sourcing the RDA and DBA items (as of Oct 06) and i have experienced these problems in the past. Each time i have done this i have sourced the "OEM" items which seem to be made or at least branded by Brembo anyway. They come and look like this

You need to get these machined down to 266mm in diameter so that they dont foul. I take mine to a machinist to do this. Apparently you can also file material out of the caliper so they clear. However by my calculations you would need to take (273-266)/2=3.5mm out of the caliper, which im extremely dubious about.File calipers at your own risk You also need to gain clearance for the mounting holes. They are out by about 1.2mm. Methods of doing this vary, you can either drill out your holes by 1mm OD and then file slightly, or you can simply file only. The arguement about slotting vs enlarging continues on and probably wont stop for a while. FWIW the discs on the IP car are enlarged, and i have made a couple of sets up slotted. No difference in them in my humble opinion.

Now, onto the calipers. You want to source Hilux or Landcruiser 4spot calipers. These come from an LN106. However, as i have found out the hard way there are two different calipers which came out on the Hilux. As pictured here:

They are reasonably different in size, and use different pads and have different piston sizes

However, the LN106 only came out with the one caliper, wheras the Hilux of the same era came out with both. Some wreckers will try and sell you the Hilux caliper as the Landcruiser It is not a particularly big showstopper, as both will work fine. The Landcruiser caliper takes the 200SX/R33/R32 pad, wheras the Hilux caliper will take an RX7 Series4 pad.

The Hilux caliper also has a slightly better clearance profile as we will see later.

Assembly

Ok, at this point you have to make some decisions regarding assembly. I have only ever made these up as height adjustable coilovers, but you can do them as a standard spring. You would need to get custom springs made up with the lower part wound for the Corona perch, and the upper part wound for whatever you are going to put them into. If others have pictures of that setup then I can update this post with them later

• images of custom springs on standard perches go here*

As for the coilovers this is what you do. Firstly you will need to grind off the current spring perch. This is best done with an angle grinder as so:

At this point you dont want to cut into the strut, so try and refrain from that for now. If you are intending to shorten the strut you dont need to smooth off the rest of the perch as i have done there. From memory those were for another car which was going to run standard height struts.

Next you need to get some coilover perches or collars. These come in two different types, the alloy sleeved type, and the steel sleeved type. Of course they have their intrinsic advantages and disadvantages. Personally i use the Alloy type and dont have any issues with them. For the hard of visualisation here are the type i use:

They are pictured there with the T3 needle roller bearing upper hats and some Eibach springs. The size you need is 2" or if they want metric its 51mm. Any smaller/larger and it wont fit (properly at least).

And here comes the big decision you need to make. What inserts to use. Which ones you go with will determine whether you want to cut down your struts or leave them at standard height. Also calculating your spring rates and adjustment will determine whether you want to use shorter stroke shocks and simply space them up in the strut or shorten the strut. That discussion is best left for another time (possibly a post later in this thread)

Needless to say i was using the Tokico HTS102s and so i shortened my strut by 50mm and then added a 20mm spacer at the bottom of the tube. At the same time i had a steel collar welded on the strut to locate the bottom of the alloy sleeves since they cannot be welded directly to the steel strut

In order to fit those i heated them in a water bath in my oven and simultaneously had the struts in our chest freezer. Then when they had both been in there for an hour or so i quickly assembled them with a rubber mallet, and when they have returned to room temperature they are a wonderful interference fit. Just make sure you dont get them around the wrong way as i know some people have

The rest of the suspension assembly is fairly self explanatory, put inserts in struts

springs on collars, upper hats on springs, top hats ontop and bolt together. Insert in car.

A word of warning, some top hats will foul on the upper hats as seen here:

you may need something like this

Always dry fit things before putting them together for real

Brake Assembly

Brake assembly is really easy. From here you need to just bolt the disc onto the back of the hub.

• need image*

For this it is highly reccomended to use Loctite to assemble this, to ensure that nothing comes apart at speed. Then bolt the hub to the strut via the stub axle, and then the caliper over the disc. Make sure you use Loctite again on the caliper to strut mount, as if this comes off at speed its extremely not pretty. Then insert more grease into the bearing and into the bearing cap, and pop it on. Put the pads into the discs and connect the brake lines. Bleed your brakes and stand back and admire. It should look something like this:

or

--Just Half Steppin 17:49, 30 March 2008 (EST)

Corona/MX62/RA60

This conversion uses a mixture of Toyota parts which are pretty easy to find at a wreckers.

Parts required

• XT130 strut legs (apparently RT132 work too)
• RA60 hubs (though apparently again XT130 hubs work too)
• RA60 disc
• MX62 calipers
• AE86 top spring perch
• AE86 strut top (or KE70 for added caster)
• AE86 shock (or whatever you want that fits)
• Custom springs to match XT130 lower perch and AE86 upper perch (though you could even use an AE86 spring at a pinch)
• Reuse your current AE86 steering arms.

And the work required

Bolt all of the above together.

The only really tricky point is mounting the calipers. They need to mount to the outboard side of the caliper mounts on the strut legs. This is the opposite side from factory for the XT130 struts. So a flat surface needs to me machined on this side. And then the threaded holes in the leg must be drilled out. Finally to centre the calipers over the disc a spacer must be made (~6mm, but it depends how much is machined off) to fit between the calipers and the strut.

A good guide to this conversion can be found here.

The result

Big ventilated brakes, big stub axles, unaffected geometry and hopefully a very cheap upgrade in the end.

REAR

JDM AE86 Disc Brake Diff

Parts Required

• JDM AE86 Diff Housing COMPLETE
• JDM AE86 Tailshaft OR T18 Rear half tailshaft
• JDM Brake Bias Distribution Block

Step 1

Remove standard diff housing Remove standard Rear half of tailshaft

Step 2

Bolt in the new diff housing Bolt the T18/JDM rear half tailshaft to the STD AE86 front half tailshaft, then proceed to bolt this to the diff housing

RT142 Corona Rear Disc Upgrade

PLEASE NOTE: Part Number for Rotors is RDA706

items required

• RT142 Corona Complete Rear Disc Brake setup, including backing plates

• RT142 Axles ( PAIR )

• 1x RT142 Right Hand Handbrake Cable

• 1x RT142 Left Hand Handbrake Cable

• RT142 Solid to Flexi Brake line Brackets

• Adjustable Brake Bias Kit

• Socket set

• 17mm Combo Spanner

• 12mm Combo Spanner x2

• 10mm Pipe Spanner

• Breaker Bar

• Angle Grinder

• Mig Welder

• OXY Torch ( NOT NECESSARY BUT MAKES IT ALOT EASIER LATER ON )

• Tape Measure

• Fabrication Skills

• T18 T-Series Rear End

• T18 T-Series Rear Half Tailshaft

• AE86 Front Half Tailshaft ( ONLY NEEDED FOR AE71 Conversion )

• SV11 Camry Front Section Handbrake Cable

There is another walkthrough here. Which is very detailed, and probably goes to a few unneccesary lengths, but has plenty of photos.

Step 1

The first thing you need to do is track down a T18 T-Series diff, preferably from a Series 2 T18 so it has swaybar mounts standard, if you can only find Series one diffs without swaybar mounts you can source new swaybar mounts from AJPS.

Step 2

When you get the diff home you will need to strip the diff down to a bare housing, this is easy enough to do. Firstly you will need a 21mm? socket ot undo the drain plug, drain out all the oil, then take the drum covers off, undo the four bolts behind the stud plate on the axle, remove the axles and drum brake setup, then undo the dif 10 nuts around the diff center, these nuts are 12mm, once you have undone all 10 nuts simply just pull the center out.

Step 3

Now that the housing is bare give it a good clean with degreaser, just so you have a nice clean area to work with. Now you need to measure in 20mm from the shock mounts on the diff, you will need to also take note of the angle the shock mounts sit on, mark this clearly in what ever way you chose, Now grab your angle grinder out and CAREFULLY remove the shock mounts. Now clean up the shock mounts you just removed so they are ready to be welded back on to the housing. Line up the shock mounts in the marks you measured out and made earlier, remembering to make sure you take into account the angle it was on originally, now weld tack into place the shock mounts in the new point, check the angles, then weld them on.

While the freshly relocated shock mounts are cooling off you can get to the next step, which may be one of the more annoying ones.

Step 4

Now you need to get the RT142 Corona axles and the T18 axles. What you need to do here is remove the axle brackets from the RT142 axles and put them onto the T18 axles.

To do this you will need an OXY torch.

Heat up the wheel bearings on the RT142 axles and hammer them off, Do the same with the T18 axles, then change the axle brackets over, I would suggest replacing the wheel bearings on the T18 axles, put the wheel bearings back onto the T18 axles, they are now ready to go back in.

Or else you can get creative with an angle grinder and carefully remove the retainer ring and bearing from the *T14* axle allowing the retainer plate to fall off.

Instead of changing the bearing retainer plates over from *T14* axles to your T18 axles you can use a 5mm slice of pipe and insert this between the bearing retainer plate and the bearing. Make sure the pipe OD is bloody close to the OD of the bearing. They can be welded in place very carefully, or have a slot cut in them (to make a C shape) and then slipped over the axle when being fitted.

Step 5

Getting close to the end now.

With the freshly relocated shock mounts, and freshly swapped axle brackets its time to start putting the diff back together.

Put the diff center of your choice back into the housing, run some blue silastic around the dif housing face and diff center where the two points meet, slide the center the whole way in, do the 10 nuts back up nice and tight. Now slide the T18 axles through the RT142 brake setup and into the housing, put the bolts back into the axle brackets and tighten them up nice and tight, slide the disc brake/drum cover back over the axle.

Step 6

Jack up your AE86/AE71, remembering to place chocks in the front wheels and use jackstands for your safety.

Tail Shaft

This procedure differs for AE71 compared with AE86.

AE86

Undo the tail shaft from the half way point just before the centre-bearing hoop and from the diff centre, now bolt the T18 rear half of the tailshaft to the AE86 front half.

AE71

Remove the complete tailshaft from the gearbox back, now grab the AE86 front half and T18 rear half of the tail shaft and bolt them together, put the freshly made tail shaft into the car.

Now get started on removing the old diff from your ae86.

Undo the brake line where the steel line meets the rubber line, pull the clip out of from the bracket around the brake line connection.

Now remove the handbrake cables, to do this you will need to follow the handbrake cabels from the drum brake setup towards the front of the car, along the lines you will find a bracket holding the handbrake cable to the chasis rail, this is a 10mm bolt that needs to be removed, keep following the cables along and you will come to a bracket where the plastic coating around the cables stopps and is clipped into, this can be fun to remove but basically just pop them out of the bracket, the next section of the handbrake line to be removed is in the cabin, remove the centre console from over the handbrake, there is 4 screws holding it in, this will uncover the raw handbrake setup, undo the plastic locking nut from the end of the handbrake cable then remove the steel locking nut that is just below the plastic one and then get back under the car and pull the cable through and out the car.

Undo the trailing arms from the diff end, this involves a 17mm socket and 17mm ring spanner, you may need a breaker bar to undo the bolts as they will be "tight", now put your jack uder the diff housing and pull out the trailing arm bolts, now undo the two lower shock retaining bolts and pry the shock off the lower shock mount, then slowly lower the jack and the diff should be out.

Step 7

Now that the old junker diff is out you can start putting your new hotness diff setup in.

To put your new diff in is just the reverse of the procedure to take your old diff out, with one exception, the handbrake cables.

With the new handbrake cable setup you need to use the SV11 front half handbrake cable and join it to the RT142 rear hlaf handbrake cables, then just put them back in, reversing what you did when you took out the old handbrake cables.

Once the new diff is in, take off the fill plug on the back of the diff housing and fill it up with oil until it starts to trickle back out of the fill plug hole, put the plug back in.

Refill your brake master which will no doubt be empty and bleed up your brakes, starting from rear left, then moving to rear right, front left then front right. Continue until your brakes feel good.

Now put your car back on the ground and take it for a drive around the block to see how it feels, IF SOMETHING DOESNT FEEL RIGHT CHECK EVERYTHING YOU HAVE DONE, If you cant find the problem take it to a mechanic.

You will have noticed when you took your car around the block that your rear brakes will feel stronger than your front brakes, this is due to the standard bias block in the brake lines in your engine bay. You will need to replace this with either a hollowed out standard item, a JDM Brake proportioning block, or the better option which is replacing the standard item with an adjustable type such as "willwood", these can be picked up from good autoparts stores for around the $150 mark.

This Article Written Solely By Just Half Steppin....

--Just Half Steppin 23:14, 20 November 2007 (EST)

Brake Master Cylinder Upgrade

When you upgrade your brakes from a single piston setup to a 4 piston setup like above, then you will also need to upgrade you brake master cylinder so that it can cope with the larger amount of fluid that needs to be moved to provide the "proper" pedal feel.

The following brake master cylinder can be used in direct conjunction with your standard AE86 brake booster and standard brake lines without any modification.

Master Cylinder Part No. JB1712 RRP. $175

You will also need to pick up a Single exit banjo fitting to suit the master cylinder, these can be picked up from anywhere between $5-$20.

--Just Half Steppin 20:47, 16 March 2008 (EST)

Other brake master cylinder options include (Ones I have personally done and seen work):

• R32 - 3port. Piss off factory splitter block and run front brake lines straight to the master cylinder (drivers side JUST reaches)
• Corona - Afraid I don't know which model. It needs the booster mount holes redrilled, but otherwise works perfectly.
• Starion - This upgrade requires you to modify your original brake lines to suit

...DO NOT MAKE CHANGES TO THIS WITHOUT FIRST GIVING NOTIFICATION... and dont add things that are RUMOURED to be useable...correct info ONLY...