PR91 wrote:Yes my race car has 4 spot front calipers.
Yes they're Toyota ones but not those. Toyota has used a heap of different ones over the years so being year and model specific with them is vital.
Mine are not on Bellett rotors. Or even GT hubs. They're a combination of parts I put together.
There was a ton of work to make it all fit together too.... not the least was custom made bracketry.
And they need at least 14" wheels.
And a massive booster. Anyone who thinks they can make a Bellett stop with 4 spot calipers without a booster has no idea what they're talking about at all. They do not work.
The ones you mentioned are way too big for a Bellett. We put a similar set as those mentioned on an XE Falcon I race as well. Again, alot of work but at least we kept the standard rotors on it so that saved a heap of hassles.
You need 15" wheels as a minimum because you need a bigger rotor than I use to get the correct swept area inside the caliper so the pads work properly.
You have to be very careful with how wide across the rotor they are as well because some wheels still won't fit as they hit the caliper at the back of the wheel spokes. We had to modify the 15" wheels I use and the calipers I use on the Bellett to make it all clear.... And I use the smaller Toyota ones. The ones mentioned are massive.
Drum brakes at the rear of a Bellett are useless with 4 spot calipers too. In fact, anything decent size caliper you put on them to be honest. The bias is miles out of whack and they will lock fronts dangerously. I know because I tried mine... it was deadly. You need decent sized rear discs and calipers as well and then a bias valve plumbed into the years so you can get the balance correct again.
The kit you mentioned is far from getting rare for donor parts. They're everywhere. I saw 2 in a wreckers only last month.... And that was just 1 wrecker.
The best part about that conversion is it all bolts together, fits inside standard 13" wheels, doesn't need disc brake rear and parts are on the shelf at any Burson or Repco.
Bellett people aren't using them tho as much as was thought they would tho because a few hundred dollars for a bolt on disc brake conversion is nothing these days, especially when you look at some that are available for more common cars that cost thousands, but Bellett people seem to want everything for nothing so they still drive around on drum brakes that were notoriously inadequate when new and every other car on the road was drum braked as well, so they're death traps in 2020 when compared to the cars of today that they share the road with in my opinion.
Thanks for detailed reply Brett. Just doodling around on ebay: I just happened to see those calipers on ebay and its hard to gauge size from the pictures. I did think they would be large though coming off a landcruiser.
I have 14" Watanabe wheels so that's a help. I also have two brand new TP Magna vented Disks here. They are 266mm diameter and 24mm thick. (and very heavy, certainly not ideal) Somebody in Sydney I think (blue GT) adapted these to his car, although don't know his wheel size.. Peter Mc was looking at this conversion years back too. At one stage i had the matching calipers too but got lost in the shift to new place. But at the time I couldn't see how they (calipers) could fit as it was very tight. And Peters caliper picture did not match the ones i had either. Other than that I turned the centres out on my lath to fit the hubs. Just a mm or so is needed.
The 24mm thick is a problem, bearing in mind the calipers I had at the time won't fit and 24mm calipers seem not too common, judging by my perusals of the DBA catalogue. But S40/V40 Volvo calipers would fit the disk, thickness wise. No idea how big they are or even what they are (maybe 4 spot too on a Volvo?), though to fit the wheels.
All this is just window shopping really, my current GT brakes on the Sport are working fine. I have a VH44 booster which needs reco to fit maybe some time. But "looking ahead" for maybe sometime when the disks or calipers no longer function. ie need fairly expensive reco'. BGT charges $250 per GT caliper for example and that was some time ago. BGT appear to have moved to Keysborough, by the way. Same people.
The reason for not looking at the conversion you mention is because of the GT hubs I have. I would need disks which fit over the studs. And apart from the Magna ones, have not got all down and dirty in a wreckers yard to see what might fit etc!!!
Every now and then I check u-pullit for the 13" conversion caliper and rotor and there at least, becoming harder, OK, not impossible, to find them. In any case DBA and ebay do new rotors.
Other than a GT (or Sport), the 13" conversion is very good. Yes, people pull back with costs. I don't know why it is actually, but considering it's all engineered and works well, must be good value.
I wonder what Mark in the UK uses on his race Bellett. I know he uses Mini-Metro 4 spot calipers though. Still solid disks? Probably.
glenn