Rear disc-brake conversion

I'm on my 2nd Taco, and neither one has had good brakes. My 99 4x4 had diff oil leaking into the drums, but even after fixing it and replacing many things the brakes weren't so great. I guess that's just the way it is.

Rear disc probably wouldn't be worth swapping to because you lose the antilock feature. It would have prevented the whole diff oil in the brakes problem.

The discs make it easy to check the pads without taking the wheels off which is great.

 

Discs shouldn't take away your ABS feature. ABS runs off of your wheel speed sensors in accordance to the speed of each wheel. And the tone wheel is in your axle housing, not on your drum.

I did my rear brakes today, and yes, drums are a major pain. I thought about disc just for the ease as well. But the truck was engineered that way for a reason. Yotas don't haul 20,000lbs, the ass end is super light and discs would not be fully utilized, therefor pointless.

I have 140k on the original shoes and they were a little more than half gone.

(I know, I bumped this from the dead, so what)

 

They might take ABS away if there is no way to hook up the sensor.
You could also install a smaller disk in order for it to be used more (thus preventing the rust problem that is common on rear disk brakes).
Your point about not pulling 20,000 pounds is a bit off though, take a look at the rear brakes on dump trucks -- you'll find DRUM brakes.

From a manufacturing point of view, drum brakes are actually a lot more expensive than disk brakes. They have more parts, and a lot more material.

 

this

if you do your research you find drums have far more braking power per unit line pressure, but have one big flaw,
which is extended use overheating and fade. when not overheated, drums blow away disc performance.

discs are overall superior because they don't retain nearly as much heat, so remain
more effective for long periods of braking

the fact drums are in tacos is not the reason for any lack of braking performance

 

These last 2 replies saved me a couple dollas

 

The ABS sensors would still be present, but what is the assurance that the rest of the ABS system would be compatible with disc brakes? I guess there is a chance that it might still work but the disc brake calipers might require a different kind of pump etc. I would rather remove the rear ABS than experiment with something that might cause a crash like that.

 

I could see if off-roading a lot and mud might clog up a drum brake, otherwise it’s really a useless mod. I like disks, it’s been said before that most of your braking comes from the front. If drums were better why aren’t they used up front too?

 

discs if you really plan on heating them up a lot running truck hard. if you are just driving your truck and carrying loads in traffic like what it is generally meant to do, the brakes are pretty damn awesome*.

*The anti-lock system and logic is another story, i don't like some of how it acts on ice.
my 99 4runner abs is better programmed than 2013 trucky abs fwiw

 

The best bang for the buck is upgrading the front disks/calipers to Tundra disks/calipers .
Lots of guys on this Forum have successfully done it, including me.

Just noticed that you are 2nd gen, so I'm not sure if it is feasible for you.

 

Hi Man

Did anyone install the item for real disc Brake Conversion Kit ?
Looks like this conversion kit did not keep the handbrake , right ?

https://trail-gear.com/brakes/2005-current-tacoma-rear-disc-brake-conversion-kit.html

 

Kit says upgrade master cylinder and looks like no parking brake.
Has anyone done the kit