Rear Brake Conversion

I order direct from SOS performance, just to be safe I ended up emailing them and talking to the guy on the phone, he gave me tips on what they need to make sure they send you the right parts, i would go with that route to play it safe... even if it costs you a extra few dollars to make a US phone call.

The shipping cost to Canada was 10% of the bill, so $138 US (2 heavy boxes ) because my truck is my daily I paid a extra $100 Canadian to have the shipped asap. SOS was great to deal with, i called the guy 30 min before their end of day and he has everything taken care of and shipped immediately.

 

Last night i loosened the console nut all the way off and then I threaded the the driver side drum adjustment behind the disc. I did this cause it was a little bit tighter. You can tell by looking at the console adjustments (the bracket pulled more one way), After that I adjusted the passenger side star nut behind the disc brake until the wheel was snug to turn by hand. Got in the truck and re-tightening the console adjustment, Did a test run last night for drag and i'm sitting at 11L/100km so everything is good there, and in "N" i can hold on a 25 degree incline,

I'm going leave the console open another couple days just to be safe but I think i've got this thing dialed in to where I need it to be.

Biggest tip I can share is:
1. loosen the console all the way off ( leave the nut on the threads),
2. remove both back wheels (keep in mind which tire came from where so you can put them back in the same orientation, some tires are directional so this matters more)
3. turn disc wheel until you can see the star adjustment wheel through the hole on the drum/disc (my setup is the bottom & only 1 hole lets you see the adjustment wheel)
4. Using a flat screw driver adjust the star wheel up and back to tighten, Try to do it equal on both sides,
5. once the wheel feels some tension ... sort of hard to turn (this will take practice to get the feel right), put the wheels back on torque 83 ft lbs
6. having the truck on a level ground (i used my back alley) put the truck in drive and work the foot brake, pull the handbrake 5-7 clicks and see if the truck holds position. If it doesn't then tighten the nut a couple turns and try again. For my truck i got 6 clicks to hold the truck,
7. go for a test drive and watch your mileage, if it really sucks then you need to loosen the nut inside the cab.
8. Play with it till it feels good,
9. IF this is the first time, then you will need to bed the brakes, drive 30 miles an hr or 50 km/hr and pull the ebrake handle up slightly until you feel tension and hold for 5 seconds and release, then wait 1 min and do it again. On my truck i probably did this 4 times. After the brakes have been broken in you will need to do steps 1 through 8 again.

It seems like a lot but it really isn't and it is much better than Toyota telling you that it is what it is and you will need to learn to deal with it, that's bullshit, this is a good product. And don't let their lack of knowledge on how to properly adjust the ebrake wreck your experience. Last time I parked on a incline 25 degrees, pulled the hand brake up and put the truck in "N" and it held... to be street legal it only has to hold against the vehicle in "D" so i'd say its doing its job really nice at a 25 degree incline.

Note never blindly trust the ebrake, always put it in gear to be safe.

 

Is yours an AC, DCSB or DCLB?

Jeff

 

2018 Tacoma TRD off road AC LB

 

46420-04131 - Cable, Parking Brake RH
46430-04101 - Cable, Parking Brake LH

Jeff

 

you are the man

 

Great news !

I went wheeling this weekend and .....
Everything works !
crawl control works - got into a spot where i would have been stuck without it, so it was a true test,
MTS terrain settings work, even got the E brake working just gotta pull it harder up but it holds when i need it to so good enough for me.... I will still replace the cable when I have more funds just to play it safe but for the first time in a long time i'm loving all my trucks features again.

Happy ending

 

I wanted to give a over all update to this thread. It has been 18 months with the rear disc brake conversation kit. As of yesterday I ordered the stock OEM parts to put my truck back to stock.

For me lets start with a hard lesson learned. The slotted rotors that i had filled with leafs/dirt and ate the pads and rotors down in 25k km, That would be 15,500 miles for you guys in the states. So that sucked...

Next the parking brake is advertised as being way less stopping power as the stock due to the 50% friction loss among other reasons that they post on their page so I can't really complain at that but here is the strength I have after 18 months, If i pull the parking brake 100% it can hold the truck from rolling forward in "D", if I have any incline at all it rolls with or without the parking brake. Just in case you feel like i need to make adjustments, I do not, I have paid for it to be adjusted multiple times, so if you pay the extra $550 for the parking brake upgrade know this, its stopping with fairy dust.

The supplied brake lines were rubber OEM lines that bubbled and broke down forcing me to replace them. When i reached out to SOS for replacement ones they hooked me up with a set of stainless steel for a discount, it helped and I appreciated it. I paid the $100 for them and when they arrive i paid a shop to install them (mostly cause i was busy and didn't want to mess with my brakes) .... less than a week later and they stainless lines are leaking all over the place, so now i'm getting new brake lines again?

Great idea for sure but for me, I have had enough. I have a friend that has shown interest in these and he can buy them off me for a discount otherwise i'll be selling them online to the highest bidder.

My overall feelings toward these things are not great. I wish i knew it would be the head ach it has been cause I would have never purchased in the first place.

Best of luck wheeling out there,

 

Did you ever have issues with the brake pads sitting high up on the rotors with your SOS kit? I have the SOS kit as well and there's about 1-2mm of pad that sits above the rotor... SOS is supposedly making me new caliper brackets but not sure how long that will take for them to make them.

 

FYI- OP hasn’t logged on here in a year and a half.

 

Did you do the install yourself? Also sorry if you’ve already answered but was cost like to do the conversion? Was thinking of switching to discs when my drum brakes need replacement

 

I have a 2003 Tacoma with the SOS ebrake option and for me is by far the best investment I ever made on my truck, there is some adjustments and tweaking to do the ebrake adjustments, but well worth it in my opinion. I only purchased the kit without the pads, or rotors or calipers, I wanted my own OEM parts from Toyota. The parts in the pictures are actually from rockauto or ebay, I then replaced them with OEM TOYOTA FJ Cruiser Calipers, Pads, and also the ebrake OEM shoes inside of the rotors, in my opinion the aftermarket CANADIAN Crossed Drilled Rotors stopped better than stock OEM TOYOTA FJ Cruiser rotors. If you need anymore infor on my conversion just let me know.