Disc brake conversion

[Stangas]

zeeman...

it is partly the original thing, but mostly i have everything for the bedford...

all i need is the rims to fit on the front....   i didnt think it would be this difficult.
i was originally intending going for the holden rear but soon found that they are too short and the change over is not as simple as we think.

From what i can see, the F150 diff is a better fit, as it is wider than the sailsbury or the borg warner diffs.  (which i have access to heaps of all 3 diffs)

my thought process was that to change a simple disc at the front and would be about $400..  not realising the stud pattern physically wont fit on the blank. 

LOL...   might take the F150 body off and lower the bedford onto it...  LOL...   4wd too.   (JOKE!)

[Sundownernz]

Hey Stangas,

I have HQ disks on the front of my van with stock CF hubs and stud pattern. This is how mine's done.

You'll notice on the rear of the CF hub there is a spigot about 20mm or so from the outer edge. Machine the guts out of the HQ disk (the hub part where the beerings are) so that it fits neatly onto this spigot. You the machine either two or three holes between each stud on the CF hub to take 1/4" high tensile cap screws or c'sunk screws (your choice) so you end up with either 10 or 15 screw holes equi spaced on a PCD a bit bigger than the spigot diameter. This PCD is determined by the amount of steel left on the HQ disk. From memory there's nearly 10mm left to put the 1/4" screws into. Fit the HQ disk onto the CF hub spigot and spot the 1/4" screws through onto the disk. There's enough meat (10mm ish) on the disk to tap into so drill the spoted holes in the disk and tap to 1/4", then bolt the disk to the hub. This operation is better done using a CNC mill to ensure the 1/4" hole pitch is concentric and equi spaced so the disk will fit anywhere around the hub and not just in one position.

You now have an HQ disk fitted to the std CF hub using std CF bearings etc. You're also now stuck with CF wheel studs which as mentioned will severly limit the wheel options available. It works a treat if you do it right. You will also need to fit a plate on the wheel side of the hub to fill in the section where the drum flange was, about 5 mm thick I think. I have drawings of mine but not sure if I have photos or not. Will check.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Garry.   

[Bas / NZ]

Garry, would be intrested if you have any drawings laying around, have access to all the gear for such a job, but not to good on the know how............ But once I know , have no problems doing it............

[Bedfordcrazy]

When we did the front, HQs, i just bought 4x HQ discs and the rear just got drilled to match the front. I already had the HQ pattern all round so the decision was easy. Good luck.  I may be wrong, but at the time,  the advice i got was that the HQ pattern would cater for a lot of the new 5 stud wheels. The idea was to be able to throw on some of the new wheels if the urge was there.

george.

[Stangas]

awesome responses guys...  thank you very much

so you machine the holden hub completely out and then bolt it to the existing bedford hub?
i would love to see the drawing if you can dig it up...

i am going to spend some money on this van as it is my next project, so i want to do it properly and my machinist i am talking to in about 20mins has all the good gear to get the job done.

i already have the bedford rims right now, that look real cool, the missus likes em (biggest battle won), so i wont need to find any others now. (unless we smash one on a kerb or something, but i have only done that when being real stupid)

Right now i am investigating drilling the bedford rims to fit the holden stud pattern...   but the volume of meat on the rim is the decider...  and still doesnt solve my problem

[Stangas]

anyone have some bedford hubs they want to give me?

LMFAO!!

[Bas / NZ]

Here is the information I have.. Just did a bit of research, this is a interesting way to go....... This is the process from the van BELOW he used.


First step was to sort out some bigger wheels to fit bigger brakes, now you simply can NOT buy bigger wheels for CF Bedfords any more, the stud pattern is essentially a pain in the ass & extremely hard to deal with.

Studs removed, hubs drilled to six stud on the same PCD, then adaptors used to convert to the typical Jap 4wd/commercial stud pattern.

Now that we had some room for bigger brakes (stock wheels were 14") we could go on the hunt for something that would work.

After a HUGE amount of time was wasted on people that simply didn't respond to emails or return ph calls etc (because it just got too hard for them) we purchased a set of brake rotors.

They are the 13" two piece units, this allowed me to design custom hats to suit the Bedford hubs & have these & the caliper mounts machined just around the corner.
Z32 300ZX TT front brake calipers were overhauled & painted then the whole lot was slapped on:
 
« Last Edit: May 07, 2012, 08:49:55 AM by Bas / NZ »

[Warren]

Baz - do they state what the discs were off - they do mention the caipers

Warrenl

[Stangas]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

i dont know what to do...

everyone says to stick to holden and convert the rear...   then we can get any sized rim to fit..
i am thinking i should go that path... 

the machinist says he can make adaptors real easy, but the back wheels will stick out a little further (about an inch) which is not too big a problem with the scooby flare kit thats going on.  albeit illegal...  definately the cheapest option...

Someone has mentioned holden diff in its entirety...  but that looks harder than it sounds.

he can also make the front end as Sundownernz recommended...   need to source some original bedford hubs and then about $300 of machining...  but then have the rim problem of bedfords being rare.

the machinist can also make the bedford rims fit the holden stud pattern, but is quite laboursome and still have the different stud patterns problem

[Bedfordcrazy]

Mate i know your delema, but here's the easiest way and the cheapest.

1. We left the complete diff in place, including axels.
2. We went to the wreckers and bought a set of EA Falcon rear disc brakes for $60 including backing plate.
3. We redrilled 2 new holes in the backing plate to line up with the standard studs.
4. Dragged out the plasma cutter OOOHHH YEEEEAH cut the center out of 2 of the drum brake covers / cleaned up / painted.
5. Bolted everything up.
6. DONE & DUSTED.

All up the cost was about $60 for the brakes, the drum covers were free, 4hrs with my mechanic @ $60 per hr. Having said all that, once we had everything fitting nice i went out and bought a nice set of shiny new brakes, which will go on when we put the van back together. In my opinion that was the cheapest disc brake conversion i have seen.
If you are not in a wheelchair like me you should have no trouble if you go this path.

Hope this helps.

george