Rear Disc Brake Conversion

Nobody:
Shitty 3rd gen rear drums:

Just a couple screenshots from the last couple days lol

 

Interesting, I guess I'll see how I feel if I ever have that issue. $1400 is still a grip.

Seeing parking brake mentioned made me realize, the only time I've used my parking brake is when I'm jacking the truck up. I am thankful to still have a mechanical handle and not an e-brake button.

 

Blew both drum brakes in the rubicon. Deciding on what disc brake kit to get. Obviously this is a huge problem for 3rd gens. Come to think of it, I think I messed it up when I did that water crossing.

 

I have 3 buddies that have blown up wheel cylinders just on the Rubicon itself Always carry a spare for whoever blows one, even though I rock disks haha.

 

Just got a good look today and blew out my damn bearings too lol

 

just get a 4th gen

 

I know it's an old thread. But does anyone know if a bit of unsprung weight is lost by going from drums to discs?

 

Its barely anything if there is. Maybe 2-3lb's, only difference would be weight of drum vs disc. It wont change or affect anything performance wise if thats where your going.

 

I don't know, 2-3 lbs per side is not insignificant. I just spoke to Wilwood, and their superlite front kit is 54lbs shipped with a 14" rotor, and 49lbs with a 13" rotor. According to Subrat(probably spelled it wrong) he saved 17lbs per corner going with the 13" rotor kit.

It's just I got the Extra Spicy OTT tune a couple of days ago, filled up with 94(US) and barely feeling it in my 6MT.

 

That weight savings is all in the aluminum calipers, stock calipers are steel or iron so they weigh a fuck ton. You'll get a bit more weight savings if you spend extra for the 2 piece rotors with aluminum hubs.

The rear will be negligible, the drum probably weighs the same as the disc and steel caliper, disc brakes also have a smaller drum brake for the parking brake so it's not like you're completely getting rid of the drums. Again, if you spend extra for an aluminum caliper instead of the 4runner caliper, you'll shave a good bit off.

I see that you're MT as well, do you do any off-roading? If so, I prefer the drums for it's holding power for when you stop halfway up an obstacle or climb. I use the parking brake with my thumb held over the button to hold me and prevent rolling back which then allows me to use the clutch and throttle. I can start halfway up a 30 degree climb without rolling back at all. The smaller drums in the disc setup aren't anywhere near as strong as the drums due to the diameter and amount of friction material.

 

Rear finally matches the front.

 

Man, you are ultra concerned about an area of the vehicle that for the most part, is pretty unproblematic. You’re also generalizing, just because all the other vehicles with drums sucked, doesn’t mean this one does. The Tacoma design seems to keep itself in adjustment quite well and they just work in my experience. I was skeptical but it’s all been great.

As for the wobble you are experiencing, you might need to do some ruling out before just assuming it’s the drums because you don’t like drums. It could be them, some have warped or been defective, but for the most part they are pretty low maintenance and very few people here end up touching them at all for very long amounts of time.

I’m all for a swap to disc, but all the kits are very expensive and I haven’t found a single kit that I truly trust maintains the proper sizing for the hydraulics and truck braking capacity. To some extent it doesn’t matter because ABS should keep things in check, however I’d prefer to keep things sized appropriately, and I don’t really trust the aftermarket kits to maintain that.

If you don’t want the wheel cylinder to explode, then bleed the brakes once every year or two. Not that big a deal. Old fluid and crud in the fluid moving back and forth in the cylinder is what kills them.

The worst problem I’ve seen happen semi regularly is them locking up on some people in the cold when using the parking brake. Hasn’t happened to me, but I am in Texas. I have seen some 0°F days though which is cold for here, and I always use the brake with no issues.

 

Long term review on the SOS performance rear disc swap kit.

You wont feel a "performance" difference swapping to the rear disc kit. Its mainly for maintenance

After 3 years with the kit I still have nothing but issues with the rear braking. I go through pads about every 8 months. The pads are not aligning with the rotors properly, there is about 1-2mm of brake pad that sits above the rotor. This is most likely in the design of the caliper mount which I'm in contact with SOS right now to figure out if there is any adjustment that's missing, or if it simply is bad hole placement for mounting the calipers.

Calipers are toast, the boots for the sliding pins are worn out and the caliper doesn't glide smoothly anymore (Never really did from the start). New calipers are $120 so not a huge deal to replace.

Parking brake - the OEM parking brake cable is prone to seizing if not used often (This is the same for OEM drum brakes too). I've had mine seize, then exploded the parking brake inside the rotor which damaged that whole corner of the truck. New parking brake cables are around $140 per cable just for everyone's reference.

Overall consensus: in my own opinion, its worth just sticking with the stupid drums until someone makes a better disc swap kit. I feel like a lot of the alignment in the SOS kit is incorrect.

 

Go disc then, you can mess with them yearly instead of every 150,000 miles...

 

If you live in the great white north, rust/salt/antiskid area, ask any mechanic which has more issues.

 

As in mainly for increased maintenance?

 

Holy... leaf springs ! !!

 

Yeah... she hauls around a good amount of weight in the rear