Rear drum brake conversion to disc brake

We have come to the conclusion a few post back.

 

Imagine the welding involved in this.

 

There is none apparently

 

Well I'll be dipped.

 

I was surprised also.

 

The FJ has rear discs and the same axle architecture, all you need is a new backing plate. You could have used the FJ backing plate but Toyota slightly change the bolt holes so they don't fit damn them. So all these conversion kits really had to do was fab up a backing plate, based on the FJ, with the right bolt holes.

 

Why would you write a comment stating lots of welding required, when you had no idea what was required???

 

I know on other vehicles to add a caliper you need to weld on a bracket to the axel. Been there done that. Assumed tacoma was the same. My bad. No harm, no foul

 

So just say shit you know nothing about, so today's bullshit.

 

Someone's having a bad day huh? Relax homie.

 

That is a nice set-up...from watching the video.

Maintaining the drum parking brake and overlaying with disc cap...that's super cool!

I am not considering this mod at all...but amazed at why owners would want to do this...for whatever reason.

I bought the Tekonsha Brake Controller and don't plan on towing a camper more than 3500-4000K lbs.

No reason to disturb the drum system already setup for my TRD Sport with tow package.

 

There is merit to drum breaks. They are what's known as self energizing. In other words the mass of the vehicle helps apply the breaks. Side effect basically applies to front brakes they do have a tendency to pull under certain conditions however that is not an issue on the rear. The extra weight of a trailer actually helps apply breaking rear breaking. Bottom line Toyota knows what they are doing they sure as hell could afford rear disks but liked the ideal of better trailer breaking.

 

Good Lord. Thats spendy.
I did a full manual drum to power disk conversion all the way around on my 69 Dodge Dart for around 800. Now that made a difference, and was well worth it.
I realize that these are totally different vehicles, but how much different could it be? Its just rotors, backing plates, spindles, disks, calipers, and hoses. Already have the master.
Just seems like a whole lot of money for not much performance gain.

Edit...my bad, spindles are for the front. I meant caliper mounting plates. Doesnt look too bad at all from the vid.

 

Welcome to the forum

I would need a very clear cut reason to replace the drum system with a disk conversion kit.

First, the drums work reliably and are easy to repair should something go wrong.

Second, if something does go wrong parts are readily available at dealerships and also thousands of parts houses nationwide in whatever back water you may be in at the time.

 

Most of the parts are fj cruiser(toyota parts) the only none oem part is the backing plate.

 

Juice still isn't worth the squeeze to me.

 

ya way to pricy, if you know someone who can fab up a backing plate on the DL, and source you own parts might be alot cheaper. I would prefer discs for the ease of maintenance. Working on drums always seems to eat up more of my Saturday then I would like.

 

But what about the welding guys

 

Really interested in how much difference it actually makes. Rear brakes don’t seem to contribute nearly as much as front

 

So all the parts on the axle are from a 4runner. The kit retains the stock parking brake cable and uses an adapter. I sourced any OEM parts from Rock Auto and just bought the backing plate. All in it was approximately $800. When I did the master cylinder I went the same route.

In hindsight I probably would've gotten a Sequoia brake booster to go with the master cylinder. Mostly because using the adjustable actuator rod was not fun. I ended up getting custom braided lines made so I didn't have to bleed the brakes every time I adjusted the rod. It took a few times to get it right. And if it's wrong it can be a not fun day.

Then down the road there was some trail damage where I had to get a new backing plate and a few smaller items. I got them quick, but the cost was nuts. I started getting parts to convert it back soon after. Never finished because the truck was totaled.

I can't really quantify the improvements. I can say that performance was much improved. Pedal feel was solid and they just felt more confident. Tacoma friends drove it from time to time and always commented on it.

I never could get the emergency brake right. I adjusted like crazy and it didn't hold as hard as it should have.

We would wheel on some nasty days and there were a few who got drums full of crap. I never did.

I did it for fun and because I hate drum brakes. I hate replacing them and I hate dealing with them.

Would I do it again? Not like this. With a better thought out kit? Maybe.

I love how some folks are like, "Toyota engineers knew what they were doing." You're not wrong. I'm sure they do. And I'm sure they specified rear disc brakes. Bean counters get a hold of stuff and things change. This is how car companies work. It's about the bottom line, not necessarily what the engineers want.