Possible brake upgrade.

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SirDan

SirDan

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I was at the shop the other day and saw a 94 4runner. To my amazement it had a 4 piston caliper! My first reaction was, those would rock on the dart. Anyway i did a bit of research and it looks possible.

The 4 runner rotor diameter is 11.75 If I'm not mistaken you can swap bigger rotors from a later model mopar onto the dart that are 11.75. So that makes the rotors easy to get. The MC bore size on this toyota is listed as 1" or 1 1/16". Power disc dart mcs are listed as 1 1/32" sounds like a win there as well. I was thinking also you could probably make a real short piece of brake line off the mc to go from the toyota threads to the mopar threads and use your stock rubber lines. Then the hardest part would be making a bracket but, that is certainly not out of the realm of possibility.

Approximated cost breakdown:
2 calipers: $150
2 rotors $100
brake line adapter things: $15
Brake pads: $30
total: $295 (not counting costs for fabricating a bracket)

Any thoughts?

I know they have some brackets to use willwood calipers or viper calipers but those are both pretty pricey and not something the parts store will have in stock. heck if you could grab the calipers and rotors from a junkyard you might be able to do this pretty cheap!
 
I see no advantage to 4 piston calipers. Why did you pick them, or are you just saying they look easily adaptable?
 
How are you planning on bolting the Toyota calipers to the mopar spindles?

You'll have to fabricate your own caliper brackets to make it work. I mean, if you've got the time, skill and equipment to fab a one off set of brackets that's great, but if not I don't see how paying someone to do it will be cheaper than just buying a set of 11.75" mopar brackets, or a set of the AR brackets for wilwoods.

Rotor diameter isn't the only thing that has to be the same, thickness has to be the same as well.

And believe it or not, 1/32" on the bore of a master cylinder makes a BIG difference.

There's definitely some obstacles to overcome.
 
So, there will be no befits to going with a 4 piston setup for a street car?:-k


The calipers just looked like nice pieces and they are off of something that isn't anything exotic.

I wasn't all that worried about making a bracket.

I guess the consensus here is don't bother?
 
There are benefits to the 4 piston set ups, but there are drawbacks too. Like having 3 more seals to leak.

And doing the fabrication on this won't be the only issue, there's more to it than just slapping a set of calipers on. You have to consider the braking force, how much fluid the calipers need vs how much the master cylinder moves, amount of travel on the brake pedal, size of the brake pad (just because both rotors are 11.75" doesn't mean the braking area is the same width), pedal feel, etc.

Again, not saying it can't be done, but with as many brake kits as there are out there I don't think I'd be inclined to engineer and fabricate a whole brake system just to get common 4 piston calipers and a whole bunch of brake system headaches.
 
How are you going to proportion the front to rear bias? The stock Mopar proportioning valve may not work.
 
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