HOWTO: Easy wilwood conversion for the rear on 79-81

[turbogrill]

Hi,

 

The 280ZX 79-81 brakes are not great, they might stop OK but I have had some quality issues on my race car. It's also a pain to replace pads. Oddly the high quality wilwood pads are also cheaper than aftermarket race pads, so in the long run this will save you money

 

 

A word of warning:

- I believe this only works on 79-81

- This will remove your handbrake

- Piston area is about the same but this might change brake bias, not sure how it affects your car

- The pad will overhang the end of the rotor by ~1.5mm. This might cause noise.

- The caliper will not be centered over the rotor. This means that piston might extend more than designed for when pads are completely worn (Rotors are 0.36-0.37" thick.  Caliper rotor max is 0.38" min rotor is 0.25". So from the pistons perspective it's the same as I running with a rotor being 0.015" below minimum disc diameter when the pad is completely worn out.). Don't run your pads until they are completely gone. 

- Make sure you get the correct adapter. A M10x1 non-Metric inverted flare is not the same thing as Metric inverted flare. They have different angles on the flare. Also make sure no to get bubble flare.

 

This is what's needed:

- 2x Wilwood Billet DynaPro Calipers 120-9689 (https://www.summitracing.com/parts/WIL-120-9689)

- 2x M10x1 Metric Inverted flare to NPT adapter ( https://www.flyinmiata.com/npt-to-metric-flare-adapter.html)

 

1. Remove the old caliper.Fit the new caliper and you will now see 2 things that needs to be fixed.

  a, There is a tiny ridge on the strut that needs be removed (dremel works well)

  b. The caliper mounting holes are off a tiny bit. Grind away some material in either top or bottom mounting hole on the caliper.

 

2. (Optional) To solve the issue with caliper not being center you can either make the caliper mounting area thinner or reduce the thickness of the hub mounting holes. I didn't do this step.

  

3. Screw in the adapter into the caliper and then screw in your brake line into the adapter. You might want to add a brake hose or pull the hard line.

 

For the front I would recommend Silverminemotors 300zx brake swap, affordable and easy. I bought the proportion valve from Flyin Miata and replaced the stock with that.