GrahamC
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| posted on 28/1/21 at 05:51 PM |
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English Axle Budget Disc Swap
Hi,
Decided to swap the 8" drums on my English axle for a disc setup and looking for advice about choice of rear discs.
I have got myself a set of Rally Design English Axle disc conversion brackets to get me started.
I'm aware that some swaps require either the axle half-shaft-ends or the new disc to be machined, something I'm trying to avoid.
My half-shaft-stubby-part measures an outside diameter of ~64mm (Aldi Verniers) and ideally would like a solid rear disc that'll drop straight
onto the 4x108 PCD.
Sierra discs seem to be showing an inner diameter of 63.5mm which I guess will either fit straight on (with a gentle tap from the big hammer) or will
need 1mm removing. So before I expend more cash does anyone have any suggestions?
Cheers
Graham
[Edited on 28/1/21 by GrahamC]
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JimSpencer
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| posted on 29/1/21 at 09:02 AM |
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Hi
lsdweb on here did a neat conversion on this topic
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=196651
had a look at it for mine, but ultimately decided to just keep it simple as it was working just fine as it was, been following your thread as got a
Mk3 and i'm just up the road from you but unfortunately mine's, quite literally, buried in storage at the moment!
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GrahamC
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| posted on 29/1/21 at 09:36 AM |
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Jim, thanks for the pointer.
I'm just playing with my Striker build at the moment as I have IVA booked next month for my GBS Zero. Once I get that through and done I'm
going to sell the Zero and put some funds back into the Striker for my summer build.
I'm only swapping to discs as I thought it'd be an interesting thing to do, don't expect to have any performance issues with
drums...I just like shiny discs. Trying to do it all for about £120 including calipers so we will see how I get on.
Chopped a good chunk of Striker chassis out yesterday to see if my MK2 MX5 lump would sit a little further back, struggling a bit with the Striker
pedal box area. Need to do more thinking.
Cheers
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JimSpencer
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| posted on 29/1/21 at 10:30 AM |
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Lol ref the shiny discs - know exactly what you mean..
Just in case it helps;-, on my Reynard I have to get the OE discs machined down, Crewe Engineering Supplies have always done a first class job for a
reasonable price (and lots of other bits too) NTDWM other than a happy punter.
Re space, it's tight getting the engine angled to the nearside seems to be the key and the gearbox choice is crucial too, but there must be
somebody who's made that lump fit perhaps worth asking on the sylva facebook group?
Even with the 'std' 4AGE and Type 9 my pedal box has a 'easing' of the side that was subtly applied with my version of that
big hammer you mentioned!
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obfripper
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| posted on 29/1/21 at 02:05 PM |
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I used mk2 fiesta front discs, but did have to take off about 1.5mm from the outer flange of the halfshaft to allow the disc to fit over, the centre
spigot was fine though.
IIRC sierra rear discs will fit over the flange, but need different offset brackets and 13" wheels will no longer fit.
I assume the brackets you have are for sierra calipers, they also sell ones for hydra (mk4 golf) calipers, and fiesta front calipers (which are fine
on a rally escort, but would be overbraked on a striker rear end and don't have a handbrake).
If you're set on finding discs that will fit without machining, look at the small citroen and peugeot options, they use 108pcd and a 70mm
centrebore (apart from aygo/c1/107), but you will likely need to make brackets to match as it's an untested solution.
I changed to discs due to the rear being underbraked (was having to simultaneously use the handbrake to counteract this!). The disc setup sorted this
out however this was at least partially due to 11/16 bore wheel cylinders being fitted where 13/16 or 7/8 bore should have been used. As it is the
disc setup just works, no adjustment, no cleaning out drums on a regular basis to keep them working properly.
The handbrake cable mechanism is the only area which isn't great, it works well enough to pass an mot (20% effort), but 60kgf a side means you
can just about push the car along with the handbrake on. This is partially due to the original cable route passing round a welded tube on the chassis
causing too much friction, and partially due to an insufficient lever ratio. Pressing the pedal firmly while applying the handbrake gets over this
though as your effort is used to hold the brake in place instead of applying it.
I replaced my rear pads for the first time recently, they had lasted 25k miles (just standard pads, plenty good enough for the rear end), in the same
time i had used 4-5 sets of front m1144 escort pads, a swap to wilwood front brakes and 2 further sets of 1144 pads.
There's nothing in it where weight's concerned, about 300g/side difference between a sierra caliper setup and a 8" drum setup, with
hydra calipers the disc setup is slightly lighter, either way you also loose the weight of the handbrake drum pull bar.
As Jim said there is very little room for anything bar a type 9 gearbox in the tunnel, the mx5 box has a wider profile to the type 9, and the
bellhousing tapers slowly so is still wide where the tunnel starts. My type 9 doesn't touch but is damn close to it, it used to touch with the
oe type rubber mounting which i replaced with my own copy of a vibratechnics one.
Dave
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