Rod shop disc brake kit conversion

[D-MAN]

Has anyone used the disc brake kit from the Rod Shop

https://www.rodshop.com.au/holden/fb-ek ... rsion.html

Tried to find some information and when I rang up the guy was pretty vague

Is it a straight forward conversion?

Can you still run 13"rims with HQ-WB discs and calipers?

[Mick]

nah would have to use 14" and unless you bought blank rotors and got early holden bolt pattern put in them you would also have to run HQ rims

[Blacky]

will most likely move the front wheels out a bit too.

[Harv]

There are a couple of blokes who have used them. I am intending to do so too on the FB in it's meth monster reincarnation (gotta get the EK wagon on the road first). A while back I collated the various info from forum threads and summarised into some notes as preparation for the meth monster project- see below:

DB005: LH-UC DISC & CAL TO EARLY HOLDEN KING PIN FRONT END (note that kit DB006 does HQ-WB discs) ~$300

Kit Contains 1 off Bolt Kit, 2 off LH Kingpin Caliper Bracket, 2 off LH Kingpin Steering Arm Spacer, 2 off LH Kingpin Caliper Spacer, and BOLT KIT.

ASK THEM TO SUPPLY UNF BOLTS!

1. Remove wheels, hub grease caps, cotter pins, spindle nuts and spindle washers. The hubs and brake drums may now be removed as complete assemblies. In some cases it may be necessary to back off the brake adjustment if worn linings holding the drum on.
2. Drill out all four backing plate holes on the spindle to allow for a 7/16” tap. The kit came with UNC bolts (drill 0.3680”), consider replacing with UNF bolts (drill 25/64”) as all the factory bolts here are UNF.
3. Dummy fit the adaptor to the kingpins (calipers go to the back), and trace around the adaptor with a texta.
4. Use a small angle grinder on the back of the two kingpin top holes to machine them flat to the same thickness as the bottom holes. Only grind as large an area as is required so the adapter plate will sit flush when lined up with the holes. You can use EH kingpins as they already have the machining done on the back of the two top holes, though this is the only advantage (and it is a lot more work to replace kingpins).
5. Fit up the adapter again and see if the calipers will clear the top of the kingpin (calipers go to the back). If not, grind the edge off the rear top of the kingpin to allow the caliper to bolt up.
6. Bolt it all up on the car and check clearances.
7. Fit the spacer in front of the rear bearing race on the disk rotor (this means the spacer goes in before the race goes in).
8. Bolt the disk on (you will need to take the pad holder thingy off the calipers to do this). Drill a new hole in the front of the spindle to allow for a split pin to be fitted in the castle nut (the spacer has moved the hub out so you can't use the original split pin hole).
9. Fit the disk pads and check that there is enough clearance to allow the disks to be turned in the calipers. As I had to grind in place, I could not get them down to the same thickness as the factory machined bottom holes and as such had to fit a spacer (1-2mm) between the caliper and the pad holder to allow enough pad clearance otherwise my disks were locked against the outer pad. Alternatively, you can have the face of the adapter plate machined down about 1mm where the caliper mounts onto it. This will move the caliper out enough to eliminate the spacer.
10. Obtain steering arms from an EJ, EH or HD king pin vehicle to use in place of the original steering arms as these do not protrude out to allow the old drums to be bolted to them like the earlier models. Fit them up, you may still need to grind a millimetre or so off the outermost section to clear the disk rotor.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Harv

[D-MAN]

Thanks Guys

[EK JAY]

I also Was looking into doing this to my daughters FB by using the adapter brackets
And using lc torana disc and callipers keeps the same stud pattern at least
And should be able to run hr rims ?
Can any one see any dramas with this combo ?
I know there not the biggest brakes but would be better then drums I guess

[D-MAN]

Jay you can be the guinea pig and let me know how it goes!

[EK JAY]

Will do mate you not coming up this way for oz tag this week end ?

[D-MAN]

Nah not this year My son broke his shoulder/arm last game of rugby this year and just got it out of plaster last week... maybe next year

[Harv]

Finally managed to get my notes together from this conversion. Hope it helps the next bloke.

Note there are a couple of places in this process (like redrilling rotors and using port plugs) that your engineer may not like.

Disk brake installation notes.pdf

(657.21 KiB) Downloaded 157 times

Cheers,
Harv

[Errol62]

Excellent Harv. You are amazing. I will be following your process on the hydraulic side on the van eventually. I was thinking of using a VH44. Mainly because I have one. The master cylinder is a great fit rather than using HK HQ style. Pity about the metric threads, and shush no swearing on here as to OEM fitment…


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

[Blacky]

Dang, I wish I had your attention to detail .....

[Mick]

Harv where do you find information? i'm after a master cylinder similar to HG type or maybe HQ type (got to figure out which i have) but want smaller diameter bore size

[Harv]

For brake stuff, I normally drop into Burt Brothers in Fairfield. When they get stuck, I give Hoppers Stoppers a call. When it gets really tricky, I'll pm Ken Mclean over on the FE/FC forum.

This is not a bad starting point for hunting down similar parts... start around page 215 for the HKTGs.
https://www.oziautoparts.com.au/content ... aulics.pdf

Cheers,
Harv

[Mick]

For brake stuff, I normally drop into Burt Brothers in Fairfield. When they get stuck, I give Hoppers Stoppers a call. When it gets really tricky, I'll pm Ken Mclean over on the FE/FC forum.

This is not a bad starting point for hunting down similar parts... start around page 215 for the HKTGs.
https://www.oziautoparts.com.au/content ... aulics.pdf

Cheers,
Harv