Full Suspension and Brake Rebuild & Upgrade - Am I Missing Anything?

[Hardway]

After successfully doing a full fuel system rehab, carb and ignition tune up, oil pan gasket replacement, driver seat recover, and a host of other misc. tasks I am now diving in to the suspension system and brakes on my ’72 240z. I pulled the wheels off to inspect the brakes and found not only old cracking brake hoses but also bushings that were shot and ball joints that had lost their dust covers and exposed to the elements for a long time. Seeing that this not only significantly degrades performance but also poses a large safety concern I have decided to invest in the car and pretty much reach the point of no return with a full on suspension and brake rebuild & upgrade. My 240z will be a fun cruiser only with no track time in its future. I am currently running a set of 14x6 Appliance mag wheels but plan on upgrading to some 15x7 Rota wheels in the future. After countless hours of reading threads on here and other Z sites I determined what I should go with and warmed up the Visa card accordingly. Below is a list of what I have gathered and would appreciate any thoughts or input if I am missing anything.

Front Brakes

New Toyota 4x4 S12 calipers from Rock Auto for solid rotors

Semi-Metallic brake pads

Turned my stock rotors since they were still good

SS braided hoses from Orion Motorsports

New wheel bearings

New Raybestos 280zx 15/16 brake MC (hopefully it arrives and I am not told its really sold out)

Bending new brakes lines as needed since a previous owner ruined some of the line connections.

Front Suspension

Energy Susp. Black Poly Master Kit (it does include the bump stops for the struts at all 4 corners)

New TC rod hardware from AC Delco, poly bushing on front from ES kit, rubber on rear from AC Delco kit.

New Moog ball joints

New Moog outer tie rods

Disassemble, inspect, and rebuild steering rack. Will replace the inner tie rod if needed.

The car currently has what looks to be King yellow lowering springs, strut maker is unknown. I only drove the car 1 mile after I bought it so I will inspect the strut cartridges and mounts and make a decision on where to go at that point.

I plan to either wire wheel or sand blast everything and coat it in Por-15.

Rear Brakes

Turned the stock aluminum drums

New shoes

New springs & hardware

New wheel cylinders since the adjusters were ruined

SS braided hoses from Orion

Rear Suspension

Install the components from the ES kit

Take the diff down, replace the leaking rear gasket, clean, and paint

Inspect half shafts and U joints

Possibly install RT diff mount

Inspect rear struts and replace is needed

Clutch System

New clutch slave with adj. rod since mine has a slight leak

New clutch master

SS braided clutch hose from Orion

[John Coffey]

There's no benefit by going to the non-vented S12 calipers. Keep the stock front brake calipers if you're going to run a solid front rotors.

[Hardway]

I went and back and forth on going vented vs. keeping the non-vented setup. There are several write ups out there regarding just the strict caliper swap and the results along with an upgraded MC seem to give a lot of bang for the buck. The vented setup is easily 2x more than non-vented when you factor in the higher cost of the calipers, buying new rotors, and purchasing the spacer. For now I will see how my non-vented setup goes and if I am unhappy I can always move to the vented setup at a later date.

As far as the rest of the setup goes am I missing anything else?

[John Coffey]

Based on a testing with the vintage racers, there is zero improvement in braking distance with the 4x4 caliper and a solid rotor. In fact, it generally makes braking distances worse because it makes the whole brake balance more front biased. It may feel better form the driver's seat but in objective comparisons with a well setup stock system it is a lower performance setup.

[Hardway]

I hear where you are coming from John. So should I try to track down some S12+8 calipers with the wider slot for vented rotors or just pony up and get a set of S12W calipers and vented rotors?

[John Coffey]

IMHO, for a street driven S30, the stock brakes are fine. Even for track use the stock brakes are good enough for use for decades in SCCA ITS competition. I would focus first on your suspension and drive-line upgrades. Later you can revisit the S12W caliper and vented rotor upgrade. You will still increase front bias but the added heat capacity somewhat offsets that.

[Hardway]

Interesting. I already have the S12 calipers for the stock rotors that I ordered from Rock Auto. My stock calipers were in sad shape and one of them is sticking bad. Since I will have everything a part I wanted to do the brake upgrade while I was at it. I am kind of at a loss at the moment. If I need to send the calipers back and either order some S12+8's for vented rotors or order some S12W's along with the appropriate pads I want to do it sooner than later. Can anyone else chime in on this or should I repost it in the brakes section?

[jonathanrussell]

I would listen to John and stick with perfectly functioning stock S30 brake components (except for modern pads and shoes of course). Either rebuild your S30 calipers or buy a re-manufactured set. It is possible that your calipers can be rebuilt with new seals. If the pistons are pitted though, it may make more sense to buy rebuilt calipers.....though there is some debate on this. I am rebuilding a set of calipers and have been able to find Nissan seal kits and aftermarket pistons. My cylinder walls are in great shape so they should rebuild fine. No you don't save any money by rebuilding. The reason I am rebuilding is so I can simultaneously apply a rust prevention coating to the caliper halves- I am zinc / yellow cromate coating mine, fyi. Unfortunately, all re-manufactured S30 calipers that I know about are blasted and left uncoated to progressively rust.

I have personally found that freshly rebuilt / maintained stock S30 brakes are great for spirited driving in a street car. This means everything is in spec and working properly- booster, master cyl, calipers, true rotors, good pads, and properly functioning drum brake system in the rear- wheel cylinders, drums, and shoes (all in adjustment). Once everything is in perfect shape, change the fluid often to keep the hydraulic components in good condition. It all works very well and all of the parts are readily available (except aluminum drums....though you can find those also with some searching).

To me, the rest of your list looks similar to what I am doing with my refresh project....with some brand differences here and there. I am probably using a bit more stock bushings where you are using poly, though I am using poly at coupler, rack mount, RT mount, transmission mount, and potentially mustache bar (but still debating....concerned about getting the stock bushing machined in). I want this car to have a very stock feel, but with improved steering response (less play).