Fitting disc brakes to my Brumby

Post by **TOONGA** » Fri Aug 07, 2009 8:53 pm

This is how the arms looked when I picked them up

One of the callipers removed and the pads (metal composite and new)

The disc and hub both look near new (apparently the discs are 1000km old)

more to come

Post by **TOONGA** » Fri Aug 07, 2009 8:54 pm

The backing plate and mounting assembly

Cleaned and painted black

Everything marked and ready to go (and my toes)

Good tools make the job so much easier

And tomorrow it all goes on the brumby weather permitting

AlpineRaven · Post by **AlpineRaven** » Fri Aug 07, 2009 11:06 pm

famous battery powered rattle gun! Worth having eh..
Cheers
AP

Post by **TOONGA** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 8:21 am

AlpineRaven wrote:famous battery powered rattle gun! Worth having eh..
Cheers
AP

If I had one of these 15 years ago I would still be working on other peoples cars today

and it looks like it may be raining this morning

TOONGA

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 12:13 pm

If you can wait long enough replacing the caliper piston seals isn't a bad idea . You get to see if the pistons are rusty as well .

A .

Post by **TOONGA** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 5:53 pm

Well the rain slowed down so I started the change over I got this far and now I know why I hate drums so much anyone for a brakefluid and brake dust cocktail both slave cylinders were like this and both drums are stuffed

The rain didn’t hold off for long so I improvised a flat pallet and a ladder hold up my golf umbrella

Why won’t the hub come off? Oh brakemud mmmmmmm.
An FRBH took care of that problem and cleaned all of the caked on rubbish off the control arm and coated me in nasty dust

Ok so I got the backing plate on anyone spot the problem

Why won’t the disc go on?

Once I removed the other half of the calliper the disc went on fine

AlpineRaven · Post by **AlpineRaven** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 5:54 pm

Weather doesnt look good for you to work on, don't you have undercover? Looking good there!!!
Cheers
AP

Post by **TOONGA** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 5:59 pm

Nah for now there is a brumby shell in the garage once I get the gearbox out, the last of the bits I want and Jack gets what he wants then it will be a sorry shell on the ground

I slipped a 10mm ring spanner over the old brake line and removed it, its way easier than rounding the nut using an open ended spanner

New line installed it looks like it belongs there

Check the safety everything was held up by my el-cheapo jack and my super spacer

Yep that’s the right hub on the left side I didn’t notice until it was all together

All bolted up and ready for bleeding

once my wife helped me bleed the brakes (she was curious until she had to pump the pedal repeatedly)

I took the brumby for a test drive and the difference is amazing I can feel the brakes working all round and I actually locked the front brakes at one stage and the right rear locks up under extreme braking as for stopping distance it is nearly halved

whooo hooooo

TOONGA

AlpineRaven · Post by **AlpineRaven** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 6:02 pm

Looks at the jack.. covers my eyes...............
Cheers
AP

wrxer · Post by **wrxer** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 12:03 am

toongs, whats the difference between the brumby arms and the lseries ones. will arms bolt into brumby, are they longer, or make track wider or do they bolt onto at different spots.
can i use similar arms in my brumby and get the lseries track width?

wrxer · Post by **wrxer** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 12:07 am

and where is the residual line pressure valve (rpl). normally in the rear output port of master cylinder. did you remove this, or if you didnt, was it a 4 wheel disc master cylinder, if so no wonder it had bad brakes before.

Post by **TOONGA** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 9:57 am

wrxer wrote:toongs, whats the difference between the brumby arms and the lseries ones. will arms bolt into brumby, are they longer, or make track wider or do they bolt onto at different spots.
can i use similar arms in my brumby and get the lseries track width?

wrxer they are waiting for you, its funny I was looking at them this morning thinking ah more metal to make wifey angry I then remembered your tracking problem, there are small cosmetic differences and Im not sure about the length but they look the same as the MY arms

wrxer wrote: and where is the residual line pressure valve (rpl). normally in the rear output port of master cylinder. did you remove this, or if you didnt, was it a 4 wheel disc master cylinder, if so no wonder it had bad brakes before.

apparently there is a residual line pressure valve somewhere at the back, (there is a picture in the gregorys book, it is near the rear exaust?) the old adage "if it aint broken...." the master is the model with one main reservoir and 2 pistons?(standard brumby issue) anyway it works and works well so Im happy, on the highway yesterday I stopped to pick up a traveller and I braked like I normally did the brumby stopped so well I had to coast to him, before I would have gone past him.

Im finding excuses to drive my car now as it no longer is dragging around its rear end and stopping way better

wrxer I just checked and the arms are longer and fit the same way "do the happy dance in Telfer"

TOONGA

subybrumby · Post by **subybrumby** » Sun Aug 09, 2009 10:58 pm

Somebody a few posts back mentioned putting a new kit through the calipers. I know its a pain in the a*** when you just want to get back on the road, but I just put a kit through both front disc callipers on my brumby. Its easier than you think. Brumbies have a little bit more mucking about because of the handbrake adjuster but I did both at home without too much fuss. The kits cost me about $14 each and consist of the boot that covers the piston, the inner "square" profiled "O" ring and the "O" ring that seals the hand brake adjuster rod that comes out of the back of the piston. My brakes have come off a wrecking yard carcass and had been sitting for a while. One was a bit weepy so for piece of mind its worth doing. There is little chance of rust as the piston runs on the "O" ring rather than as drum brakes that have rubber cups running inside a shiny cylinder. I was really happy with the result and it is fairly well described in the gregorys manual. Worth doing for the little cost of the kit. Most tedious part was compressing the handbrake adjuster whilst you reasemble that component. The manual says you need a spring compressor but there is a way around it if you persevere.

wrxer · Post by **wrxer** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 1:12 am

onya toongs, got your pm too. will call you later in week.
its the macarena im doin!

Post by **TOONGA** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 10:58 pm

Jack If the kids a school don't kill me with stress I will still be here this weekend

it has been a bad day for mr teacher but on the up side the brumby is driving way better

Just need to save up for a right rear wheel bearing kit

TOONGA

scoobymine · Post by **scoobymine** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 8:23 pm

They look great, what are they off? How much did u pay. know what u mean about drums, having problems getting seal kits and cylinders for mine. Swapping to disc looks a great idea

Post by **TOONGA** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 7:18 pm

they are off a 89 l series touring wagon and cost $400 Im really lucky as the rotors and disc pads are near new, (and are in reality as rare as hens teeth well the hubs are) you might want to talk to andrewT as he has a set but Im not sure what price he wants

TOONGA

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Sat Jun 26, 2010 4:22 pm

Just familiarising myself with this post, and drag it up again to the top.

Need to find myself a 10mm pipe spanner and the bleed sequence for Brumby, (where's my bloody manual?!) before I start my Pick-n-Pull Portland North, Oregon 97203 conversion.

Julian, an estimate of the time it took you including the dramas per side ? may also be helpful

I also notice that there is still what looks like another backing plate behind the caliper mounting plate. Is that normal to 1. even be there 2. to stay there (asks he too lazy or in a hurry to look at his own Brumby

)

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sun Jun 27, 2010 4:31 pm

TOONGA wrote:they are off a 89 l series touring wagon and cost $400 Im really lucky as the rotors and disc pads are near new, (and are in reality as rare as hens teeth well the hubs are)

Toonga - they're originally from an RX turbo L series. The only touring wagon they would've come from factory was the GT2 like what Chris Rogers started out with for this twin turbo psycho Touring wagon conversion...

I've got the same on Ruby Scoo - I'm glad I do as the braking system with the disc/drum combination with the EJ would be outright dangerous! The discs all round, while still L series spec are much better suited to the EJ conversion application, I'd recommend anyone doing an EJ conversion to upgrade the brakes to either L discs all-round or Crossbred conversion which would be the ultimate way to go. I might end up with something like this some day...

Cheers

Bennie

Post by **TOONGA** » Sun Jun 27, 2010 4:59 pm

Bennie yes they are probably off a sedan but the guy had them on an L series wagon

Steptoe no second backing plate there Ive even looked at the pictures I didn't post to see what you mean .

it took about an hour a side with electric tools, the biggest problem I had was getting the brake drum mounting plates off but a big hammer took care of that.

and not having a proper set of jack stands definitely made working on the car very un-safe

TOONGA