Rear disc brakes ???

[tx1975]

I think this has been discussed before but any way , is it possible to fit the rear disc brakes and calipers off a UC torana which also ran the 10bolt small salisbury to a gem i any way? Or fit the LSD centre which was an option in the UC.
Any one ever tried this conversion

[TXcoupe]

well it might be pretty simple as the UC has the same dif code as the gemini. so the LSD should go in easily just the front pinon might be a problem.

I am also interested in a rear brake conversion so any info would be great

[tx1975]

that u dave?

[Loz]

Yeah it all works in theory, at leat the diff centre, and probably the brakes, but trying to find one is another story. Not only are wrecking toranas hard to come by now, but there are even fewer UC's and only about 1/500 were sold with the lsd centres. Hope you have more luck than I have.

Loz

[Birko]

I dont no how hard import diff are to come across, but they are LSD, 4.11:1 ratio and have disc brakes.... how easy would that be. Well i think that 'DOHC' had one in his car, use the se4rach and search for some dohc questions and i think youll be able to get his email.

One more point.. if , like some people have said, the Vl centre fits.. which im sure there are more lsd's then UC's, the instead of using a Vl centre(3.45 ratio), why not get a aussie skyline centre which has 4.11:1 which is what the Vl turbo guys do???

anyways... just raising some disscussion.

And also...... Dave, there is this place (i think mechanics) on gnangara rd in lansdale that has had this piazza sitting on the front for close to 6 months, i drive past every day.. i think it just sitting ther waiting to be bought/wrecked... it has the gbox out and is sitting next to the car for all this time.. Why not give em a try? see if they want to sell the brakes??? it doesnt even get put inside so i dont think they really give a shit about it...

anyways...

[Gemini Driving Yobbo]

so do piazzas have disc at the rear???/ and are te ya straight bolt on??? and is the master cylinder he same as a gem aswell??/

[Ben Wight]

I'm curious as to why people are so keen to put disks on the rear of their gems??? The introduction of disk brakes was primarily to reduce brake fade when temperatures rose. As disks are more exposed to the atmosphere than drums, they can coold down more effectively, which is why most older cars have drums on the back, but disks on the front.

By now, most people should know that the front brakes do probably 60-80% of braking when braking hard, people are trying to impove something which may be only doing 20% of the vehicles braking, due to the static weight distribution of the car, and the dynamic weight shifting to the front whilst braking.

People should also be aware that a standard brake system in good working order should easily lock the front wheels when stepped on hard.

Therefore, the only benefit I can see of disks on the rear is reduced fade while racing the thing in a 24 hour endurance race. Maybe people should concentrate on uppgrading their front brakes to ventilated units if using their car for circuit racing. If not racing, then why bother? I completed several circuit sprints with standard brakes, but Bendix ultimate pads on the front, and they worked well untill they overheated after several hot laps. It was then that I converted my fronts to ventilated disks, I did they fronts because they do most of the braking.

For street driving, I would have to say that a brake upgrade is a waste of time, and people should be spending their money more effectivly on new standard componentry.

I'm really not trying to bag anyone, jsut trying to save you guys some money becuase I feel you may think that disks are better, end of story, maybe because all new cars have them. Well I'm sure they the main reason all new cars have them would have to be that they would have to be virtually the same price, if not cheaper to make than drum brake assemblies. Street cars dont have brake fade problems.

Ben Wight

[Adam]

I will whole-heartedly agree with a lot of your post, just a few minor points...

Even with ultimates and fresh dot 4 fluid, I can and regurlarly do experience fade on the street, and on the mount nebo road, I can do it without ever exceeding the speed limit.

I definitely agree that the front upgrade should be first on the list, but there is a definite advantage in rear disks, it gets rid of the crappy ineffective self-adjuster, so in a day of motorkhana use you don't have to keep pulling the rear wheels off to adjust the brakes to keep a good pedal.

One last and final points, if the upgrade *is* purely aesthetic, then I'm much happier to see people doing something positive like rear disks, rather than something stupid like neon lights and 11 inch exhaust tips.

[TXcoupe]

give me there number or show me tommorrow if u come down i'll come up type shit

[TXcoupe]

yeah ben i agree with u but also with adam as my current car is pure circut and dont want to pull the rear drums off all the time.

[Ben Wight]

Wow, someone actually read my long winded post.

I too agree that it gets rid of the rear adjuster which is a good thing, but I have only once experienced fade whilst driving on the streets, but that was after a drag on a back road, and I decided to slow down from about 200 really slowly, and then tried to stop suddenly at the end of the road at a T intersection, and nearly went through the bloody thing.

I then put in the ultimates, and never had another street incident, but then again, there are no hilly roads like the one you mentioned around here. Maybe there is something different about our cars that is contributing, like more airflow through different design wheels or something.

I was more aiming at people who think they need disks to improve their car because thats what race cars and later models cars have. In that case, disks would simply be a waste of money as drums will provide the same if not more (in some cases) retardation when at a coolish temperature.

Ben Wight

[Adam]

Your posts are always worth reading Ben.

Surely there are some good roads, Mt. Nebo isn't exactly at my back door, it takes me about 40 minutes to drive there, and if I go all the way to the far end of Mt. Glorious it is about an hour and a half to get home. On a couple of occaisions I've had to drive around in the carpark at one of the look-outs waiting for my brakes to stop burning... and I mean burning in the flames sense of the word.

[FrEeKy]

yeah well i read the first few sentences and that was enough.

does anyone want to buy a diff with vs commodore disk brakes on it? $400