Rear Full Floater Disk Brake Conversion

Important notes: This conversion applies to pre-79' rear FJ40/45 full floater axle only. Modifications to your braking system could be dangerous to you and people around you. You modify your vehicle at your own risks, I will take no responsibility over whatever happens.

When I bought my FJ40, the stock drum brake system worked OK except when I stomped on the brake, it would not stop on a straight line. Then I acquired a pre-79' full floater rear axle from Australia and decided to rebuild my drum brake system with all new OEM parts from Toyota. Yes, It cost me a lots and I could stop on a dime but it needed lots adjustments regularly. The major reason I that want to get rid of the stock drums was the brake could barely hold truck from sliding backward during a steep incline off-road. It was scary at time!!!

I decided to use all Toyota Land Cruisers parts for this project. TSM also markets a rear disk brake kit for the full floater but the kit uses GM calipers and rotors instead.

Parts needed for the conversion:

• 2 FJ60 disk vented rotors -  I bought my rotors from Stevens Creek Toyota, with 25% of TLCA member, I paid around 150 bucks for 2 rotors. Part number: 43512-60100
• 2 FJ60 loaded disk brake calipers -  I bought these from Kragen, they are the high quality Raybestos remanufacture calipers that come with pads and hardware. I paid around $120 for 2 calipers. Part number: Raybestos RC3190, Raybestos RC31989.
• Spindle seals/gaskets -  Since the rear FF looks very much the same as the front disk, I bough a gasket/seal set from Cool Cruisers of Texas, there were some left-over parts but I save them for the next time I need them for the front disk. The cost was 29 bucks. Part number: SpndleKit
• 2 Custom Flexible brake lines - Some people ran the hard line directly to the calipers, but like the idea of being able to remove the calipers (to change rotors/pads/wheel studs/wheel bearings) without re-bleeding the brake.
• Used FJ60 (or '79-84 4WD mini-truck) disk steering knucle housings, brake backing plates and bolts, caliper mounting bolts. I was lucky to got these cheaply from local junkyard.
• FJ60 wheel studs.
• Some washers for the wheels studs from local hardware store.
• Hard brake lines. I bought these from NAPA, they're 3/16 line with 10mm Metric fittings. Make sure you get the correct flare lines. Costs around 10 bucks.

Now let's get dirty:

• Choke the front wheels, remove the battery (yeah!!!), get the rear axle supported on jack stands and removed the rear wheels. Verify that everything is stable and safe enough to work with.
• Remove the all the drum brake hardware including drum backing plates, shoes, wheel cylinders,...
• Remove rear FF axle shafts then remove rear wheel hubs. And remove the wheel studs from the hubs .
• By this time, after removing everything, you should only see bare spindles of the rear axles.
• Now it's time to make the brackets to mount the calipers: Remove the steering studs from FJ60/mini-truck knucle housing. Use some kind of saws to cut the outer of  knucle from the inside, then use the grinder to clean up the cuts, here's a picture of the knucle before being cut off:

• The finish brackets should look something like this:

• Mount the brackets on the spindles:

• Use the right paper gasket between the spindle and backing plate, and use the seals too, bolt them all up. I used the original disk OEM bolts:

• Bring the wheel hubs and rotors to a machine shop and ask them to machine the back of the hub just a tiny bit so you can fit the rotors onto the hubs, this is the finished product:

• You will need to use the FJ60/mini-truck wheel studs because the drum wheel studs are just too short and the stud shoulder cannot support the rotor, on the left is the FJ60/mini-truck studs, on the right is the drum studs:

• But the FJ60 studs are still a bit too long so I need to use some spacers to mount the studs:

• Mount the rotors and and calipers, I used OEM caliper bolts. This is how it looks from the front:

• And the back:

• Install your flexible brake lines, You will need to re-plumb you hard lines because of this.
• Remove the pressure residual valve for the rear circuit of your master cylinder.
• Bleed the brakes.
• Make sure there is no leak.
• Install tires.
• And test drive.
• Finally, you may need a proportionate valve to keep the rear from locking before the front, I used V6 4Runner disk calipers for the front to balance it out a bit with the rear.

That's all folks!!!!