Drum to disc brakes on County

[malibu9]

Is it possible to convert drum to disc brake on a salisbury diff on a 85 County?
If so will the brake line on the vehicle screw straight in to the caliperon the disc?
What parts will I need apart from the obvious eg. different stub axle, wheel bearings ect?

Any advice will be appreciated.

[THE 109]

you can keep your stub axles on and slip rangy hubs straight on,caliper brackets can be easily fabricated from 10mm steel mounted to the inside of the stub axle mounting flange(on diff side where your nuts were to support the backing plate).the caliper brackets use 4 of the 6 original bolts although now longer by 20mm,the caliper bracket needs to be spaced inwards by 10mm and the holes threaded(you could get longer bolts and use nyloc nuts if you wanted).for the drive flange you can buy some nice ones from mal at maxidrive or redrill yours to 5 holes and make an 8mm spacer,due to the rangy hub being shallower.i think the brakelines should be the same as rangy up to 85.you may need to make new brakelines from the t-piece to the calipers.

[modman]

i have been told by fred smith you can use-
defender bolt on caliper mounts (some 300tdi models had these)
county front hubs (machine 250 thou of face)
county rear spindles
defender rear calipers

this should be a complete bolt on job so you can save $$
you also end up with the wide spaced bearings and disc brakes.
something the rover morons couldn't do
david

(ps you can buy defender disc rear ends in vic around 7-8 hunge)

sorry, just read about the brake lines
convert your solid lines CAREFULLY or
vise grip the flex line and drive to a brake place and get them to make new solid or flex lines.

[Mark2]

Does anyone have any ideas regarding the breaking capacity of rangie rear calipers versus county drums? - If I make up a bracket to allow me to bolt on rangie calipers/rotors/hubs, is the rear going to be underbraked? - Rangies had a smaller tyre diameter and I think a lower GVM.

Defender calipers are supposed to be larger but are harder to find and more $$$$$$.

[KiwiBacon]

Paddock spares is a great source for brake parts at quite good prices.
I went through their online catalogue and worked out which front calipers have rangie size pistons (41.3mm) and which have defender size (46mm).

Front Caliper Piston
606683 (Fits All RRC, 90 to HA701009) 41.3mm
STC201 (Fits all 110/130 and 90 from HA701010) 46mm

Feel free to do the same for rear calipers.

[Mark2]

Am pretty sure Defender rear calipers are larger than RRC rears as per the fronts. Trying to work out if I gain much by using RRC calipers which are cheap and plentiful here or if I should go straight to Defender calipers using the bolt on bracket. I have to make a caliper bracket if I use RRC calipers.
However, I dont want to over brake the rear as its fairly light on the rear now after the converting the wagon to a styleside ute.

[the_grubb]

Just done a drum to disc conv on my county as one of the cylinders on the drum brakes started leaking and I had a set of rangy axles lying about.

Used;

1. 16mm laser cut brackets for caliper mounts
2. Washers to space out the above bracket with longer bolts
3. Rangy rear end hub and disc.
4. Rangy rear caliper

Had to drill out the mounting holes of the original county drive flanges by 1mm dia.

It all went together very easily. The original brake lines fitted the calipers.

Brakes have such a better feel to them.

[Mark2]

Apart from the better pedal feel, would you say it stops better (than when the drums were in good condition)?

Did you do the brackets yourself?

[the_grubb]

Apart from the better pedal feel, would you say it stops better (than when the drums were in good condition)?

Stops better? In terms of daily driving - well not really, if that was the only reason to change from drum to disc I wouldn't bother.

Drums would lock my back end up no problem on tarmac, but then that doesn't necessarily mean they are better at stopping.....

The feel makes it more controllable which would be good if you were racing....

Did you do the brackets yourself?

Drawed them up yes. Laser cut them no. Had a company do that. Had to drill and tap the caliper mounting holes myself.

[Mark2]

The reason I asked about your impressions of the stopping ability is I'd been talking to Mal Storey of Maxi-Drive recently. He thought that with Rangie rear caliipers it would be under-braked on the rear compared with the drums.
He actually recommended making up a bracket to suit Rangie front calipers converted to single pipe and thought that with these it would be about 60/40 front/rear which is about the target. However my 110 is pretty light on the rear end being a styleside ute and I'd prefer to be slightly underbraked on the rear rather than overbraked on the rear.

[ISUZUROVER]

He actually recommended making up a bracket to suit Rangie front calipers converted to single pipe and thought that with these it would be about 60/40 front/rear which is about the target. However my 110 is pretty light on the rear end being a styleside ute and I'd prefer to be slightly underbraked on the rear rather than overbraked on the rear.

I know someone with this setup in a 110 and it stops very well. Pedal is a bit lower than in a defender though, due to the extra fluid volume.

Another very good option is ford cortina (fairly early) twin piston fronts. Pads are $20 an axle set and a complete caliper rebuild not much more.

[KiwiBacon]

What is the mounting difference between rangie front and rear calipers?
Is it simply horizontal offset?

[andrew e]

dont bother. Or if you do, before you do the swap, install a defender brake mastercylinder. it will make heaps more difference.

Andy