Anton's build

[turbo-tom]

ahh classic with the washer jets! i did that yesterday with some metal brackets then i thought nah it will be allright for the otherside!

[Jordi]

Love it. Classic booze and mechanics! Its a great combo!

[Anton]

Yesterday I nearly got heatstroke trying to work on the SJ. I got the pistons out of the rear calipers using a compressor and an adapter made from a bleed valve (ground it down a bit). Pistons pitted to hell again! Ho-hum. So I tried to get the pistons out of my spares (which had decent boots, even fi they're a rusty mess, so was hoping to find the pistons useable) - nerp, not coming out. Damaged the surface of the piston trying to get it out with grips.

So I went inside and just ordered a new set from brakes international. Went back out and fitted one out of 4 wheel arch extensions, and had to go inside because of the freakin' heat - I screwed the second one up pretty badly because of the heat, so I've taken it off and I'll try again once it cools down a touch.

[Anton]

Ok, the parts came - and I have the wrong Tokico calipers.

I have 5 door vit calipers (53mm) when I need 3 door vit calipers (48.1mm).

So I've ordered the right calipers from ebay. I'm such an idiot.

[donkeychomp]

In that case so am I Anton, I order the wrong parts all the bloody time!

[Anton]

I think I'm going to fit the grand vitara calipers on the front, and fit the standard vitara calipers on the back. I did the maths, and turns out that if I put the 53mm's on the front, and 48mm's on the back, I should end up with the same brake balance as a standard sj 413 with 51 fronts and 44 millimetre (2x22mm). drums on the back. I might need to get a grand vitara master cylinder though.

I will re-check my maths just be sure.

This does mean that I have to junk the 51mm aisin calipers I just rebuilt and painted. I've got a brand new pistons, bleed valves, brake pads and retention clips. I suppose I could always just ebay them off...

[ScottieJ]

Remember if you run GV calipers then you'll need to also run 16" wheels.

[Anton]

Scottie - I *think* that's the GV 57mm calipers for the vented discs - I've had these 53mm's on with 15's and they seemed to fit ok.

According to brakes international, the 53mm's are for solid discs, not the vented ones.

Just as I start thinking I know about the flipping things, I go and prove myself wrong buy buying the wrong calipers. So I'm all set for something to bite me in the ass again.

[ScottieJ]

My bad, didn't realise that there where two sizes on the GVs, I presume the small ones are off a 1.6 though.

I'm not sure if the 1.6 GV runs a different master cylinder/servo but if they runt he same one as the 2.0l they have a HUGE servo, that I think you'll struggle to fit in an SJ, not sure if the master cylinder is compatible with the smaller SJ/vit servo?

[Anton]

My bad, didn't realise that there where two sizes on the GVs, I presume the small ones are off a 1.6 though.

I'm not sure if the 1.6 GV runs a different master cylinder/servo but if they runt he same one as the 2.0l they have a HUGE servo, that I think you'll struggle to fit in an SJ, not sure if the master cylinder is compatible with the smaller SJ/vit servo?

Yes, the 53mm's are fitted (or *were*) to the 5dr 1.6 vitaras. The 48mm's and 48.1mm's to the 1.6 3dr, and the 57mm's to v6's and 2.0's etc. Or so it seems (I'm quite prepared to be told I have that wrong).

As for the servo, I am going to see how it works with the standard one (I'm upping brake piston area by 14%) before deciding what to do. I may just need to swap in the master cylinder from the vit 5dr. I may need the servo, master cylinder etc from a gv2000. I'll suck it and see.

:-D