MM rear brake kit arrived!

[ZR8ED]

Ok I'm going to make a few posts to this thread to wrap up this thread for future readers.

 

1 The 240sx rear disk brake kit arrived from Modern Motorsports. It came as described, and was very complete (no calipers)

 

2 The 20" hardline required should really be about 24", but I bought a pre assembled 30" piece and made a loop to get it to the proper spot, and make it look nice and neat under the car. I got the longer part instead because I was not able to make my own custom length hard line.

 

3 sourcing the 240sx calipers here in the Toronto GTA was not as easy, but I eventually got a rebuilt set. Took a few days to source them, so order them ahead of time to save some trouble.

 

4 make sure when you get your calipers you check to see if you have the e brake cable bracket. I'm not sure that it is supposed to be included, but mine did not come with the bracket. This slowed my swap considerably, and at this point I am still looking for just the brackets. I went ahead and left the e brake cables tied out of the way. Anyone have some? I may fab my own if i have to.

 

5 I found my MC to be bad, so I got the "while I'm at it" bug and did the upgrade to the 280zx MC. It went in with no trouble. Just don't touch the rod that comes out of the booster. The stock 280 fluid resivoirs fit the zx MC just fine. Don't forget to measure the depth of the MC where the rod fits in to make sure that it is the same distance as the old one. This makes it way easier to troubleshoot problems ( the rod coming out of the booster is adjustable.) If it is not the same length, you can run into peddle travel problems.

 

6 The swap was very straight forward except for two little items. It was easily solved by looking at some completed pics of other swaps.

6A the caliper bracket faces the front of the car (in front of the strut)

6B the caliper bleeder nipple faces up. (there is a left and right caliper, and mine did not appear to be clearly marked)

 

7 The caliper piston has a little pin sticking out of it, and it needs to be turned and aligned with a slot on the back of the brake pad. I made a simple tool to turn the piston to align the pin. (a tool is avail)

 

I cleaned up all of my parts "while I was at it" and painted what I could to make the swap a bit cleaner.

 

Bleeding was not as easy as I thought when doing it by yourself. I got a helper, and it made it much quicker. There are bleeder kits avail, though I started by using a hose on the nipple and placing it in can of brake fluid (to stop air getting back into the system) and opening the nipple and pumping until the fluid has no air in it. It makes for a slow process by yourself. Also don't forget to start at the drivers side rear wheel first. It is the furthest away from the MC.

 

I have the swap completed (minus the e brake) I have checked for leaks, taken it for a quick drive to bead in the rear rotors/pads, and then checked again for leaks. So far so good.

 

Last night I went out for a seat of the pants test spin and laid the throttle down to see how the brakes would feel under harder braking. The peddle travel is shorter than before, and it is a bit harder to press, and feels hard as it is being pressed. No more increasing hardness as the pedal travels further. (if that makes sense) they used to feel soft for the first bit of movement, then would firm up. Now it feels firm even with a slight touch. I'll have to get used to it. I have my brake bias set to 50/50, and I was able to make the fronts lock first, so I will have to make some adjustments, but I will need some help with that to help me spot which wheels lock first.

[=Enigma=]

make sure when you get your calipers you check to see if you have the e brake cable bracket. I'm not sure that it is supposed to be included, but mine did not come with the bracket. This slowed my swap considerably, and at this point I am still looking for just the brackets.

 

I may have a set of e-brake brackets I can send you if I didn't toss them out already. I'll search for them after I complete the move to the new house. Let me know if you still need them by reminding me in a couple weeks.

 

The one question I still need an answer to is how to attach the e-brake cable to the 240SX caliper e-brake bracket. The 240SX e-brake bracket is too thick to use the original lock plate and groove on the e-brake cable. In looking at a few pictures, it looks like ppl are using one of the lock plates from the hardline mount points on the body instead of the original lock plate, however the opening on these are too wide and the second groove (not intended for this purpose) on the e-brake cable is not deep enough to act as a solid leverage/holding point. Any suggestions on what others have done here would be helpful.

 

Adam

[ZR8ED]

I am still running with no E brake hooked up, and I appreciate the offer!

 

The kit came with adapters to attach the stock e brake cable to the 240sx calipers, so I'm not too sure how it will work out. I will be at a Z meet this weekend. (ZFEST. Ontario Z car car show with 100+ Z's) and I will investigate this much closer and take some pics.

 

For anyone that wants to come to ZFEST, check out Ontariozcar.com for Details.

 

Thanks!

Scott

[heavy85]

The one question I still need an answer to is how to attach the e-brake cable to the 240SX caliper e-brake bracket. The 240SX e-brake bracket is too thick to use the original lock plate and groove on the e-brake cable. In looking at a few pictures, it looks like ppl are using one of the lock plates from the hardline mount points on the body instead of the original lock plate, however the opening on these are too wide and the second groove (not intended for this purpose) on the e-brake cable is not deep enough to act as a solid leverage/holding point. Any suggestions on what others have done here would be helpful.

 

Adam

 

Old thread but I am trying to install mine and have the same issue. What's the norm to fix this?

 

Thanks

Cameron

[=Enigma=]

Yeah, as you can see I never got and answer to this. Hopefully the revival of this thread will get us some answers.

[ZR8ED]

Sorry but I do not have any updates. I still do not have brackets for the calipers, so I still do not have the ebrake setup. I will be bringing the car out of hibernation soon, and will restart this project.

 

Scott

[1 tuff z]

The one question I still need an answer to is how to attach the e-brake cable to the 240SX caliper e-brake bracket. The 240SX e-brake bracket is too thick to use the original lock plate and groove on the e-brake cable. In looking at a few pictures, it looks like ppl are using one of the lock plates from the hardline mount points on the body instead of the original lock plate, however the opening on these are too wide and the second groove (not intended for this purpose) on the e-brake cable is not deep enough to act as a solid leverage/holding point. Any suggestions on what others have done here would be helpful.

 

Adam

 

adam, i found that by gently squeezing the bracket together in a vice and bring it to a better fit for the smaller diameter 240z ebrake cable sheath end. i did not use the clips and have had no issues with them coming out of place in 4+ years of use-both street & track.

[=Enigma=]

adam, i found that by gently squeezing the bracket together in a vice and bring it to a better fit for the smaller diameter 240z ebrake cable sheath end. i did not use the clips and have had no issues with them coming out of place in 4+ years of use-both street & track.

 

Thanks for the info David. That's pretty much where I'm at too. I'm just hoping to avoid finding out that the one time it doesn't work is when I'm parked on a steep San Francisco hill like the one below. Sometime you have to take when you can get. Fortunately, on the steepest hills, it's usually not parallel parking.

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