Brake upgrade + S13 front suspension for AE86

[JamesM]

(just thought this might be helpful to some)

Brake & Front Suspension Upgrade

Overview: The car now has Nissan Skyline R33 GTS25T brakes on the front (4 pot) and rear (2 pot) with Mintex m1166 racing compound pads. (And S13 Coilovers)
1. I sourced the calipers and rotors off trade me for 300$. Note: 300zx uses the same brakes. Apparently R32 brakes are slightly smaller but I cant confirm this.
2. As my hilux diff was restudded to 5x114.3 the rotors slipped over nicely and then I fabricated up some caliper mounts to hold the calipers. The mounts are 6mm thick steel plate. A template was made first and then once happy with that we cut from the 6mm plate. As the calipers mount approximately 10mm out from where the brackets are some bushes were made up and then once we had the exact thickness we required (by slowly taking them down on the lathe) we welded them onto the plates. Note: when welding small items like this it is advisable to attach the bracket to a much larger item to stop warping as the weld will pull on the bracket as it cools. (I tack the bracket in a number of places to a large piece of steel channel beam)
3. The internal drum handbrake was then modified to suit the hilux diff which proved to be quite a major headache. The skyline rear cables were used and adapted to fit onto the ae86 front cable.
4. As I was using the factory AE86 struts and hubs on the front I bought some hub adaptors from www.technotoytuning.com which converted the stud pattern from 4x114.3 to 5x114.3. I did not want to put the rotor on the outside of these adaptors as I believe this would increase the stress on the stub axles and studs majorily so I bought some Skyline GTS4 rotors which are only a couple of millimeters smaller in thickness than the GTS25T ones but are 4x114.3. I then fabricated some mounts to hold the calipers in place (same process as described in 2.).*edit* as I wasn’t happy with this setup I changed as described in 8.
5. Now as I had 4 pots and 2 pots on the front and back respectively I installed a Skyline GTST brake booster (which bolts into the 86 firewall) and master cylinder to keep up with the extra force required to operate the bigger brakes.
6. I bought steel brake tube from BNT and then re-fabricated steel lines from the new master cylinder to the brakes at the front and the back using a pipe bender tool, I then took all my lines to Hi Tech Brakes in Newmarket where they flared all the ends for no charge. I did notice that some end fittings (the parts that screw the line into the cylinders and the calipers) are the same between Nissan and Toyota. But some are slightly different, so make sure you get the ones that fit nice and snuggly.
7. I also bought Silkolene ProRace 2000 brake fluid from BNT which I had recommended to me.
8. I wasn’t too happy with my front suspension/brake setup so I decided to get Nissan S13 coilovers. First thing I did was bought brand new Coilovers from Al at Driven Performance. To fit the top hats into the AE86 I just had to slot two of the holes on each side. The other parts needed are S13 lower arms, S13 knuckles (the part the hub rotates on), S13 hub bearing, S13 custom 5 stud hubs (I bought these from K-Style). I reused the bearing from the S13 hubs I had as it was in good nick and put it in the custom hub.
9. Then all that needs to be done is put all the parts in. Redrill the hole on the subframe where the lower arm connects onto the subframe as the hole in the lower arm is slightly bigger than the 86 item. I cant remember the exact sizes. The Sway bar will mount onto the lower arm without any changes (I used a Whiteline AE86 adjustable one).
10. There needs to be one bolt hole drilled on top of the lower arm so that the standard AE86 castor arm will fit. There is already two holes there for the S13 item (which is mounted on an angle). The new hole just goes in line with one of the holes.
11. The AE86 steering arms are not used as they are built into the S13 knuckle. However I bought AT141 (4age) corona steering rack ends from repco and used the AE86 tie rods to connect onto the knuckle.
12. The big brakes now just bolt on with no special calipers needed. Easy
13. So now I have massive brakes. I have not been to check my alignment yet but by the looks of things I can get between 0- minus3?deg camber. Have more track than before also (haven’t measured but its obvious) Also don’t need to use the brake bias thing that the AE86 comes with if you use the GTST master cylinder as its built in (stupid old AE86). Also I have no need for camber plates now really.