Outer Limits 4x4 Board

gday,this question has probably been asked a thousand times but i havnt been able to find any simples answers,so ill ask anyway,its an 88 gq lwb,with the factory 4 wheel disc setup, i need to upgrade the brakes to hopfully increase my legal towing capacity from 2500kg up to over 3000kgs,so my question is this,is there any easy way to do this or am i better off selling the gq and buying a gu? thanks in advance.

I'm no expert, and I may be wrong but.......you can go to an twin piston caliper on the front and change to discs on the rear. While you're at it change to slotted discs too. After you've done this you should look at your trailer and sort out a good braking set up for it. This will get the trailer doing most of the braking for you.

I have a '93 Ti, EFI and the calipers come standard on them. I have done the slotted dics and use Ferrodo Titanium pads and I pulls up quicker than most standard family cars.

You have a couple of choices. You can get the twin piston caliper off the later model GQ's. That will increase it a little. You can change the front axle for a GU and have the larger brakes and you can further upgrade this with the 4.8 brakes. To do this though you will have to change the drag link and panhard to suit. This will also give you a stronger front axle that pretty much just bolts in with only changes to a couple of links.

Or you can check out the brake upgrade from brake fab W.A. that uses a 330mm disc and a caliper off a nissan GTR skyline. Its not listed on their web site but send contact them and they can give you the details. It will cost the about the same as a GU diff conversion with the 4.8 brakes and is engineered. Very good set up. Chat to MikeH on here about it.
http://www.brakefabricatorswa.com.au/home

cliff wrote:I'm no expert, and I may be wrong but.......you can go to an twin piston caliper on the front and change to discs on the rear. While you're at it change to slotted discs too. After you've done this you should look at your trailer and sort out a good braking set up for it. This will get the trailer doing most of the braking for you.

I have a '93 Ti, EFI and the calipers come standard on them. I have done the slotted dics and use Ferrodo Titanium pads and I pulls up quicker than most standard family cars.

i have no doubt that the twin spot fronts of an efi gq would be better but after talking to the local transport officer with these off a gq it would still only legaly tow 2500kg's where i think the gu's will tow between 3200/3500kg's

toughnut wrote:You have a couple of choices. You can get the twin piston caliper off the later model GQ's. That will increase it a little. You can change the front axle for a GU and have the larger brakes and you can further upgrade this with the 4.8 brakes. To do this though you will have to change the drag link and panhard to suit. This will also give you a stronger front axle that pretty much just bolts in with only changes to a couple of links.

Or you can check out the brake upgrade from brake fab W.A. that uses a 330mm disc and a caliper off a nissan GTR skyline. Its not listed on their web site but send contact them and they can give you the details. It will cost the about the same as a GU diff conversion with the 4.8 brakes and is engineered. Very good set up. Chat to MikeH on here about it.
http://www.brakefabricatorswa.com.au/home

had thoughts about changing to gu diffs,but arent they 40mm wider track? it needs to be engineered and with that extra width i dont think they would approve it.any idea what the brake upgrade kit would cost? and can i still run 15" rims or do i need 16"+

Skyline brakes FTW. Bigger than TB48 GU. You need 16 inch rims though. Kit starts at $1900 but this is optioned up a bit with slots, paint and pads.

So does this kit only change the front,or is it rear as well?and will this be a road legal modification(would it need to be inspected by an engineer?) Thanks

use your standard disc master cyl, the rear remains untouched apart from adjusting the bias bracket a bit. Not sure on engineering in Tassie, You'd need to give them a call and ask.
production versions use a very slightly different caliper than this which is more readily available. Same size and everything. It's positioned in tighter to prevent the slight pad overhang you can see here.

The GU diff is the same width and is a very easy upgrade and is very easily engineered. If you didn't physically tell anyone that you had swapped it then they wouldn't even know without measuring the diameter of the CV knuckles and a few other slight differences. There is absolutely no problems with engineering. But if you just want the brake upgrade and not the stronger diff then the Brake Fab WA setup will cost you around the same and is a much better brake setup than any factory patrol brake.

You are going to need an engineer anyway so chat to him about this brake package and find out what questions you need to ask and then just simply contact Brake Fab WA on the link that I gave you above and they will be able to answer your questions directly and give you a firm cost on what you need.

Steve