ATTENTION! Z31/Altima Rotor Rear Brake Owners!

[EliteGTR]

Wasnt tricked. i didnt ask what year they were until after i bought them. Only later did I ask when I saw this thread. im just trying to figure out if these were that missing link. My main goal was to take the dimensions of the bracket and modify what need to be done and make my own and eventually offer them for sale. As soon as i get a chance to test ill report back.

[float_6969]

I forgot to update this as well. I've been running the 84 Z31 rear bracket and altima rotors for a while now. I do have some pad overhang, but it's so minuscule, it won't cause any issues.

I'm not using a stock brake master, but rather a Wilwood on a customer booster eliminator adapter I built with an external proportioning valve. I can tell you that I I have the proportioning valve turned off to the rear brakes. IMHO, even the Z31 + Alti rear rotor isn't enough rear braking for the S14. I have Q45's in the front and they're working fine.

I'm seriously tempted to find another brake situation that gives more rear brake bias. I think Nissan put too much of the balance to the front for any type of serious braking work.

[float_6969]

I was messing with the rear bushings today and I need to update this to note that I DO have about 4mm of pad overhang. Trying to find a larger rotor is a pain. BAH. Stupid brakes.

[float_6969]

OK, so I just spent the last 2 hours on the internet trying to find an "off the shelf" rotor that will solve our issues and I think I have it sorted out. I found a website Dura International with a PDF of all of the brake rotors that company makes, with Make, Model, Year, brake type, position, sizes, etc. So I went through everything they have, and this is what I narrowed it down to;

MAKE MODEL YEAR ROTOR DIAMETER OVERALL HEIGHT LUG PATTERN PART NUMBER
Honda Accord Crosstour 12'-10' 305 mm 61 mm 5 -114.3 mm BR900898
MITSUBISHI ENDEVOR 11-04 302 mm 58.7 mm 5 -114.3 mm BR31353
MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER 2011 301.86mm 59.25mm 5 -114.3 mm BR900594

NISSAN ALTIMA 12-02 291.7 mm 62 mm 5 -114.3 mm BR31312 (this is just for reference)

Now I don't have information like rotor thickness, hat diameter, hub daimeter, etc., but having it narrowed down to 3 is going to make it pretty easy. I think the Crosstour might be too big at 305mm, and the Endevor might be too shallow with only 58.7mm of total height, so I'm leaning towards the Outlander. I'm going to the parts store tomorrow to see if they have all of these rotor's in stock so I can compare them.

IF YOU POST THIS TO ANOTHER FORUM, PLEASE LINK BACK HERE, OR GIVE CREDIT WHERE IT'S DUE!!! I've spend A LOT of time on this, and I want NICO to get the credit.

[LoserCard]

I actually found a replacement rotor Float_6969, I am actually in the process of developing a kit for it (hub rings and proper spacers). I will be releasing the info and kits late December or early January. It will be very economical and utilize the 84-86 bracket.

[float_6969]

Now you tell me! LOL. Well I'm still going to see if those rotor will work. I put too much time into it to not test it out.

[LoserCard]

Sorry, I have been meaning to update this post, I was busy in the middle of moving and getting married. It is just now that I am finally getting my bearing straight and tieing up loose ends. The only problem I foresee with using the 84-86 bracket is that my caliper e-brake cable bracket hit my sway bar link bolt/nut on top of the control arm when I used the Altima rotor. Hopefully since the other rotor I found has a smaller hat height than the 2002 Altima rotor, the spacers I will use will push it outwards a little and it wont interfere with it. Let me know of your findings as well float_6969.

[float_6969]

The rotors I'm looking at won't be using a spacer, so if you're having interference issues (my S14 is a base model, so I don't have a rear ASB yet) these rotors wouldn't help that at all.

[float_6969]

I picked up the Endevor rotor today and from the look of it, I think it's gonna work, but I'm gonna try to install it tomorrow to make sure.

[DMan II-40]

Interesting stuff. I picked up a bracket from a yard awhile back with plans to do this upgrade. Good to see more people interested in it and fine tune the swap before I make any more purchases. Something else that might be helpful is pictures of the brackets detailing the differences and how to figure out which one you have.

[LoserCard]

Easy, 87-88 is made for a 18mm rotor (about 22mm opening) and the 84-86 is made for 9mm rotor (about 15mm opening). No need for pictures.

[float_6969]

Yea, there is an easily identifiable difference between the 2 caliper brackets. If you use the 87-88 caliper bracket, it is WAAYYY too wide and as the pad wears, it will likely fall out. The 84-86 is about the same internal diameter of the stock caliper bracket.

Also, I'm still working on the Endeavor rotor. So far I think it's going to have to be shimmed out, and the rotor is too big in diameter, but just barely. Like <1mm.

More to follow this weekend.

[LoserCard]

Float_6969, regarding the rotor diameter (302mm), does it need to be ground down or does it fit the caliper/bracket even though it is too big?

I am trying to decide if we would be better off with the rotor I selected since it is slightly smaller in diameter and the same hat height as the 2002 Altima rotor (no spacers needed). Problem with my rotor is it needs the lug holes redrilled. So if yours actually fits, yours would be much more cost effective than my solution.

Couple washers < Redrilling lug holes

Money wise.

[float_6969]

I messed with it a little today, and the diameter is definitely too big. I dropped it off at the machine shop I use and am having hom take about 1 mm off the diameter of the rotor. That with the washers should work, but I won't know for sure until probably next week.

[Marcinko]

Any more info on this? I'd like to use the 84-86 brackets with a 300mm non-vented rotor but looks like nobody's found one that works yet.
Has anyone tried a thicker vented rotor with the 87-89 brackets? Looks like the 350z rear rotors will bolt right on with this bracket.

[LoserCard]

Can't use a thicker rotor, the bracket will work but caliper itself will not fit it. Maybe maximum or 12-14mm rotor will fit but that's pushing it. Give me a couple more weeks, I may have found a solution to this setup.

[blank]

I did plan to do this upgrade, but with all the issues and not being able to find the brackets I might just stick with the stock ones... hopefully a final solution is made!

[float_6969]

I gave up trying to find another rotor. I've been doing some looking and when the weather warms up here, I'm going to start trying to fit a rear brake caliper from GM. A lot of them had cable actuated rear disc brakes just like on the S-chassis. It will require an adapter bracket, BUT they use MUCH larger pads, which should help the balance by itself.

[LoserCard]

Did your machined rotor work?

[float_6969]

no, I didn't catch that the hub diameter was too big.

[Marcinko]

Got around to installing some 84 z31 rear caliper brackets, 2003 Altima rear rotors and S14 calipers with Hawk HP+ pads onto my s14 and ran into two issues.

First, the caliper bracket sliding pins (with the two small boots that are now way stretched) is extended basically as far as it will go. The bracket and the caliper don't line up at all... It looks like the inner pad could possibly fly out of the caliper like what was experienced with the 87-89 brackets. I measured the rotor gap in the z31 bracket I have and it's around 15mm.
Is this something you guys overlooked or am I the only one with this issue? The only remedy I can think of would be to shave the bracket mounting points.

The other issue I have is the E-brake cable bracket is hitting the top of the endlink as the wheel travels. Only way I could see getting around this is to either slam the crap out of my car which brings other issues, bend the bracket away from the endlink slightly or cut into it with a grinder.

[LoserCard]

That hasn't been over looked. A couple of "problems" arise when using the 84-86 bracket, obviously the e-brake cable bracket hits the sway bar endlink bolt at "fully extended position" meaning it only touches if the car is fully jacked up. Some people with coilovers don't even experience this because they have less strut travel when slammed I believe. Also people who do not run a sway bar do not experience this. As for the rotor to bracket alignment, they should line up close to dead center. Is it possible that you may have something spacing out the hub or rotor? Do you have the stock hub, swapped oe, or aftermarket?

[Marcinko]

Should have mentioned I also have PBM knuckles. Just got confirmation from PBM that they move the caliper mounting point down a bit which is why I'm hitting the endlink with only 2 - 3 fingers worth of wheel gap on 18s. I was able to pivot the bracket away from the endlink a little and shaved the bracket slightly so I'm at about 4 fingers worth of wheel gap without hitting which should be more than enough travel since I'm on coilovers.

As for the off center issue the PBM knuckles were made to run the stock brakes so spacing is the same. I'm using z32 n/a rear hubs which also has the same spacing as the stock hubs.
I messed with it more today and turned the caliper piston outward a few times so the pads would be tight against the rotor as I pulled the e-brake. I don't have the brake lines hooked up so I couldn't just pump the brakes. Here's what it looks like after everything was tight with e-brake pulled>


So is it normal for the rotor to be off center from the caliper and the pin boots stretched like this with this setup?

Maybe I'm being paranoid but I'm afraid as the brake pads wear the pins/boots might overextend....

[float_6969]

IIRC, that's about how mine looks too. I've never been happy with this setup...

[LoserCard]

Couple things you have to understand about sliding calipers and this setup:

1. Pins are for alignment only. All torque is being held by the caliper bracket.
2. Don't judge the "centeredness" from the caliper position, you judge it from the bracket/rotor position.

So as long as the pads are centered on the bracket and the pins still align the caliper you should be safe to run. I don't think I have heard of the pins falling out when the pad gets low yet. A good test would be to find a "dead" brake pad and try installing it and seeing how much of the pin is still in the bracket.

[Marcinko]

IIRC, that's about how mine looks too. I've never been happy with this setup...

Would you still say it's better than stock?

So as long as the pads are centered on the bracket and the pins still align the caliper you should be safe to run. I don't think I have heard of the pins falling out when the pad gets low yet. A good test would be to find a "dead" brake pad and try installing it and seeing how much of the pin is still in the bracket.

Is this how your caliper is positioned? I don't have any old pads on hand but I'll mock something up and take some measurements to be sure.

This is another issue I'm having. The outer pad has a gap towards the inside of the rotor for some reason. This is with lug nuts holding the rotor in place and the e-brake cranked. The inside pad that sits against the piston is perfectly flat. Could not having shims on my pads have something to do with this...or maybe the caliper itself needs to be worked on or replaced? Or is this just how these sliding calipers are?


Thanks for the replies.

[LoserCard]

Kind of just looks like the pad needs to break in.

[float_6969]

IIRC, that's about how mine looks too. I've never been happy with this setup...

Would you still say it's better than stock?

yes, but it's still not great, just better.

[LoserCard]

Should run a close second to a 300ZX Rear Setup since both share the same pad size and the rotor sizes are close to the same diameter (292mm vs 297mm).

[float_6969]

The more I think about it, the more I think the pad size is the issue with both of these upgrades. Compared to the front, there is hardly any pad there. Going to a bigger rotor will only gain you so much. The brake bias on these cars is HEAVILY front biased from the factory, presumably for safety's sake. I have no front/rear bias on my setup right now. I put an adjuster in the system, and the more rear bias I turned off, the better the braking was. I would like the setup better if there was a little bit too much rear braking so I could turn it down a little bit and actually have some control.