If it weren't for bad luck I'd have none at all!

[bloxman]

So I purchased a pair of toyota 4 x 4 front brake calipers a few months ago from a auto wrecker here in Grenada and spent a lot of time cleaning wire brushing prep for high temp paint , getting brake pads and ordering a beck arnley hardware (springs) kit from Amazon. (one of the calipers was missingthe springs and pins)

Upgraded the rubber flex lines with Stainless braided Russel ones removed the old calipers Got the old calipers off, removed the dust shields , cut out an appropriate amount to accomodate the new larger calipers ,painted the dust shields. installed the dust shields and new used calipers rehooked the lines and then had a look.

Crap! There is a big space between the inner brake pad and the rotor!

Apparently I inadvertantly got the Finned brake caliper from vented disc toyota pick up.

It would appear I goofed again, so I went back to the Wreckers today , who smiled and said he would be glad to exchange a pair of dirty S12.8 calipers if I can find them for my virtually new looking S13W Calipers.

The catch is that I can't have them til tommorrow , thats when I will find the time on the way home from work to see if I can loosen the wheels from the front axle and remnents of the chasis to determine if they are indeed S12.8 calipers.

Geeesh!

Just a nother day in paradise.

I may keep the W 's though a few links suggest it would be an even better upgrade to go with the S12.W Calipers buy a spacer for the hub and get the vented rotors..HMMh maybe later .

I 'm not getting very far , but I sure try hard!

Everybody have a good evening

Blox

[240ZMan]

Blox, sorry to hear your difficulties. As someone who initially did the non-vented swap, and later upgraded to the vented, I'll suggest the following:

If you only drive on the street, then you'll be fine with the solid disc.

If you intend to drive on the track, then you'll want the vented disc.

The limiting factor on the track is the heat capacity / heat dissapation of the stock solid caliper. It's not the ability of the caliper to generate clamping force.

Best of luck to you.

[=Enigma=]

By the time started gathering parts for the brake upgrade, I was so tired of cleaning parts that I just went and bought set of S12Ws for the front and a set of S13 calipers for the rear from the junkyard and used them as cores for freshly rebuilt ones. It cost me a bit more this way but time is money and I don't have a lot of free time, so it was worth it in the end.

[bloxman]

240zman, Enigma

Thank you for your inputs

O.K. so I spent a hour and a half at the wreckers this morning.

Success!!!

I'll have my work cut out for me this weekend !

Good news is the fluid looked cleanand an ample amount when we broke the lines.

The calipers looked dry on the outside so perhaps I can use them without rebuilding them!

Photos if I progress tonight

Gotta head back to work

Blox out

[bloxman]

Well they are not looking to bad after a first pass of the wire brush , a good degreasing (can you get purple blaster degreaser in America?) , and a pass with the garden hose. (see pic #149).

As you can see, we are quite innovative in D islands .

If we lose any brake hardware we can usually fabricate something up from scraps found around any construction site!!

Check brake pad pin replaced with nail in (pic# 150) & (pic # 151)

I can't leave out the ample use of tie wire to replace the original wire clips

(pic # 152).

Oh well, I'm way better off than I was last weekend.

I'll keep ya posted.

Blox out

[bloxman]

Simply amazing what a little hard work and a new can of paint can do.

Wow , I am actually looking forward to a saturday trek to the Auto Parts Store, for a new set of brake pads.

The S12-W pads are far to large to fit the S12.8 Rotors. Hardware seems to swap no problem though.

Check it out .

[=Enigma=]

I noted that you have two brake pad clips on one caliper. Based on recent research, it appears that only one is actually needed but two certainly can't hurt. At least I wouldn't think so. When I bought my S12W calipers, one case with two clips, and the other with only one. I went back to the store and had a look at the catalog and it only showed one mounted on each caliper. A second check online at a few sites confirmed this for me. In looking at the pics

.

.

.

[bloxman]

Thanks Enigma for your reply,

Sorry for the delay in my responce.

That old work thing has been getting between me and my Z!

The two clip thing wasn't really part of a grand plan or anything, just sorta worked out that way.

The Cardone hardware kit came with 2 pad clips and 2 pin clips , thought I'd use the one extra clip I had from a pair of S12W calipers I have lying around.

Therefore if I have one caliper with two and one caliper with one.

I am garanteed in this snstance to be at least 100% correct 50% of the time.

Thanks for the Input

Blox

[bloxman]

Lucky is not even the right word.

Got the last S12.8 Caliper rebuild kit by a total fluke.

The parts guy actually brought me a S12.8 kit in a S12-W box, I was so impressed with the kit (inner seals/wipers, outer seals, split clips, bleeder cover, and grease that I asked for another to keep as a spare.

When he brought the next one the seals were huge,and no clips probably the S12W kit or maybe even something else .

The Fella spent like a half hour trying to figure what box my kit came from and eventually found it somewhere, lot more bread than the wrong kit of course!!

I had decided I'd better do a rebuild on these old calipers, based on their condition and my heightened sense of beforehand hindsite.

Translation :

I can picture myself driving the eleven miles down hill through challenging corners to work in the morning while trailing a dwindling supply of brake fluid in the system.

[bloxman]

Well it appears I am pretty lucky afterall

So all tolled It was

$200.00 for the wrong Calipers(S12-W) the first time at the wreckers.

$200.00 for the wright Calipers(S12.8) the second time at the wreckers.

I could have pressed for an exchange , but ..it was a couple months before I realized I had the wrong calipers. Maybe I might want to do the S12-W upgrade with vented discs later but I doubt it.

Pads $108.00

Caliper rebuild Kit $94.00

So that's $602.00, sounds hot right?

Well When I convert to U.S. (cause that was Eastern Caribbean Dollars I was quoting)

it comes to U.S. $225.47

oh ya and $15.00 for some high heat red paint, though it looks kinda Orange to me!

[Fun_in_my_z]

ME TOO!!! But damn it looks good. Great job. What year Yota caliper do you need for this upgrade?