moving front disc brakes to rear

[dladow]

This question may reflect on my total ignorance of how these things function, but I did a search and could not find an answer.

 

On my 1973 240Z, if I replace my stock front rotors, calipers and mounting brackets with upgraded parts, can (and should) I replace my rear drums with the old front calipers, bracket and rotors?

 

Dave

[JMortensen]

No. The front stuff doesn't even come close to bolting on in the rear.

 

Look at http://http:www.modern-motorsports.com or http://www.arizonazcar.com for some ideas for rear disc.

 

Jon

[zguy95135]

modern motorsports kit is good because you can buy everything you need in one kit, or you can get only what you want. i got a link for you.

http://www.modern-motorsports.com/catalog/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=&products_id=2&PHPSESSID=2099d5ea2876cd3603681c0f3814a39f

[fl327]

That would be a nice kit I think, to use the front brakes in the rear

you could use the toyota 4 piston on solid rear rotors and the vented in the front, man talk about binders.

[Synlubes]

Yes nice bolt on kits are avalible, but. . .

With a little knowleagde and some creativity you could come up with a nice brake system.

Just food for thought

[vashonz]

I read somewhere that it was possible to bolt the 280zx front brakes onto the S30 hubs. According to the website (dont remember where it was) it resulted in the brakes being biased too far towards the rear. I'm not sure if he had upgraded the front tho.

 

Might check out the most recent GRM for an article on brake biasing, and an earlier one on calculating the effects of changing brakes (hydraulic pressures and the variations in force caused by changing the various sizes of the pistons)

[JMortensen]

The problem with using the front rotor in the rear is that it is meant to bolt to the back of the hub, so the center hole would need to be opened up and the lug holes drilled. Before going to all that trouble, you could just get a rotor that fits the lug pattern and the pilot on the rear hub, that way when you swap a rotor you don't have such a big job to do. I don't know about you guys, but I like to be able to buy the parts that have to be replaced regularly off the shelf.

 

Vashon--that's Terry's car (BlueOvalZ). He found that the 280ZX front caliper bolted to the Maxima rear caliper bracket with a later Maxima front (vented) disc. Too much bias, so I think he switched to Cressida calipers which I think are the same as Supra calipers.

 

Jon

[blueovalz]

Thanks Jon,

When I was able to use the 280ZX calipers front and rear with the same size rotors on both front and rear (300zx front on front and '87 Maxima fron on the rear), it was on my race set-up which had a different weight distribution and tire combination than is the current street set-up. Back then the proportioning valve just barely allow the correct bias adjustment. Now that I've gone to a street set-up, I've installed the Cressida calipers (which use a slightly smaller piston) on the rears, and an '86 Supra set-up on the front (larger rotor) so that the proportioning valve is once again affective in biasing the brakes.