Brakes

[CVDatsun510]

Now it's time to get some advice on a brake setup. What's the easiest brake conversion for a 71 datsun 510 coupe? I want to get rid of the rear drum and go bigger.

[datzenmike]

Surely you mean a 2dr. sedan?

Can only assume you don't want larger drum brakes? Only two good reasons for going to rear disc brakes. Racing or for looks.
Easiest would be a kit like from Wilwood.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Datsun-510-New- ... 2329bfe86b

That's a lot of money for looks.


Some 'kits' you can source the calipers and rotors yourself. I recently got theses '02 Maxima rear calipers for $25.



They'll fit these 280zx rotors... (ignore the zx caliper)

[CVDatsun510]

Yes I meant 2dr sedan, sorry. The idea is for racing. So 280zx rotors are good?

[datzenmike]

That was just a suggestion. I'm putting rear disc on my 710 which is similar to the 510 goon. I have 280zx rotors but S110, S12, Maxima sedan are all four bolt too. The caliper bracket may have to be made to center the caliper differently for each one. Another thing to watch for is how the e-brake pulls on the caliper. Some are across the back of the differential and some like the sedan are angled to the front.

[defdes]

What type of racing? Some bodies will have restrictions on types of set ups.
Bigger fronts, aluminum drums in the rear with race pads all around and a bias adjustment is more than enough for these little cars.

[okayfine]

The idea is for racing.

Yeah, when you say "racing" you need to clarify whether you'll be running sanctioned events, or just something like a sign-and-drive track day/HPDE. Given your whitelisted engine solutions, I'm going to assume you're just looking at track days and not actively campaigning an actual race car.

The main thing you need to concern yourself with is the overall package. You need to think about brakes in concert with the engine. The more engine, potentially the more brakes you'll need (in addition to suspension upgrades, cooling, fueling, etc). That said, as datzenmike indicates, rear drums can be workable (with mods) for most street cars. Porterfield rear shoes and the aluminum-finned rear drums can handle any street driving needs.

One seemingly-small but potential benefit of ditching drums for discs is removing the need to manually adjust them. Some people don't, which can leads to hard lessons (far) down the road. Since a 510 isn't a maintenance-free car anyway (i.e. you should be regularly adjusting the drums as a matter of course), IMO it's not a big deal.

[Byron510]

If you really want to improve the braking, look forward to the front first. A 280zx conversion for a street car driven in any sort of sporting manner would be your minimum requirements. After that, the sky is the limit. The rear brakes do little, ever. Only when you run a really stiff chassis set up where weight transfer is less of an issue AND your running really good sticky rubber, than rear brake upgrades will benefit you. But to be honest, on most street cars, a ZX front set up or equivalent with good pads and proportioned well front to rear and your on decent tires, 95% of the people out there are pretty happy with them.

Just some rambling thoughts.

Byron

[datzenmike]

Lowering slightly if not done yet will also help.