Hopefully others could chip in and we could have a thread filled with all the info for all generations of the 240sx. I'm sure Daunt, Jesse, Ryan etc.. can chime in and make this a good sticky thread so we wont have anymore "300zx to 240sx brake upgrade ?" threads. It seems to be one of the most frequently asked questions here.

I cant speak for all generations, but, I did convert my s14 (95). I upgraded my front brakes and converted my car to a 5 lug. Here is how it happened.

What I got:
-1 set of front z32 calipers.

-1 set of used s14 SE hubs. If the junkyard wont sell them seperatly, then buy the whole spindle assembly. It was a direct bolt on, watch out for your dust boot covers.. be careful when swapping. Ofcourse, from now on you will have to order brake pads for the same model nissan 300zx. I would like to recommend Porterfield R4 or the Carbotech XP pads for the serious road racer (streetable too). If you want to retain the s14 rotor heat/dust shield you will have to modify it slightly to fit the larger 300zx rotor.

- 1 set of rear rear hubs from a z32 Nissan 300zx. You can order the rear spindle assembly aswell, but, I heard that you have to customize your shock or get custom coil overs and new ball joints. I think SCC went over this and got JIC coilovers and Moog ball joints, it worked quite well.

- Set of used s14 SE rear rotors. If you have a lot of money get new ones, no need for fancy cross drilled or vent holed rotors, they just tend to crack and warp or create massive brake dust.. a regular rotor is all you need, trust me.

- Front stainless steel braided brake line kit from http://www.pdm-racing.com, the rear brake lines dont change since I retained the rear spindle & caliper. If you decide to switch out the rear spindles aswell you will need new brake lines for all four corners, a buddy of mine ordered a complete set from http://www.heavythrottle.com and he said they were nice. Make sure to use some teflon thread tape.

I think thats about it for my swap, I could have forgotten something. As we are getting more feedback on this thread I am constantly changing this first post... if you see anything in this post that seems wrong please post and let us know and I will update this post. Thank you =)

Over all impression of the brakes... AWSOME!
With agressive brake pads I can out brake most similar cars on track days, I do have custom made brake ducts which also helps alot. Very good brakes and very affordable, bang for buck it cant be beat. The simplicity of changing the front brake pads with the upgraded calipers made it all worth it to me.

Most of the used parts were purchased from local wreck yards or over the internet at http://www.car-part.com. The installation is hands on, if you are fairly smart you can figure it out. If you cant figure it out or dont have the right tools.. maybe you should pay somone else to do it or bring a friend over that knows how to do it.

It would be really great if some other guys that have done this (other gens..too) could contribute to this thread.. I am sure I have not touched all bases yet, so help would be appreciated =)

thx,
nils

???
Be more specific.... front or rear? way easier than swapping hubs?? huh?

n

What are spindals? I am assuming that hubs are where the wheel studs are. It isnt necessary to swap either is it?

It looks like the hub comes off with just a cotterpin, Then you just pin the 5lug hub on? Otherwise you need longer studs.

What is picture 4 showing?

It looks like you need much larger wheels to fit around those giant calipers?

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The spindle is the piece shown in photo #5. It connects the wheel assembly to the TC rods, steering rack, shock assembly etc....

The hubs come out pretty easily, relatively speaking =)

The cotter pin is only holding a metal cover/washer that secures the axle bolt. The hardest part is to remove the bolts off the axle. Sometimes it can be a ***** to get loose and its a big bolt (I think it is a 36mm, not sure). You need a breaker bar and some sort of extension to brake it loose. Then there will be some small bolts to remove, once all nuts and bolts are off, the hub might still be stuck on there.... just grab a rubber mallet and whack it good a couple of times and it should brake loose.

The hub might not be a direct bolt on to a 240 spindle... I am not sure on that.

Longer studs are needed depending on what wheels you have, some guys need 60mm Nismo studs (me) and some use stock... that is something you'll have to figure out as you go =)

Picture #4 is showing the backside of the 300zx caliper.

If it was up to me I'd atleast put on the 5 lug hubs with the brake swap. The thought of self-drilling holes in a brake rotor scares me.

My buddy and I just finished a complete 300zx spindle, brake, hub, auto to manual tranny swap on his s13. We had to get a bunch of stuff from the yard.... Master cylinder, parking brake lines, calipers, spindles and SS brake lines from heavy throttle.
It is amazing how much lighter the rear 300zx spindles are.

I am not sure if you need a master cylinder on a s13 for the swap, we just swapped everything because the car was stripped. But that could be true.

n

Reason is theres a NA Z32 300ZX in a junkyard near me with all 4 brakes intact, and i would like a complete list of what i need before i go down there.

Well, to swap both sides like we did on my buddies car you'd have to get:

Front and rear spindles with hubs. Front and rear calipers. Parking brake lines, Rotors. You would then have to get custom SS brake lines and cutom made rear shocks.

Like I said.. I am not sure on the master cylinder, but, I would grab it anyways if I was at the yard.

I personally have a s14 with only the front 300zx brakes.

nils

Thanks! You just answered my question without me asking it. :)

I like building s hit

Better to be a SMART *** than a DUMB ***

try to write in english....

I am pretty sure that 15" rims wont fit over the 300zx calipers. We bought a set of 16" 300zx N/A rims for my buddy which fitted nicely over his 300zx turbo calipers (front and rear).

nils

As far as MCs go...this is a bit tricky. There are 5 different MCs on Z32s. There are 2 different size Tokico MCs (1" and 17/16"), and 3 different Nabco models (15/16", 1", and 17/16"). With minor modifications, they'll bolt up to S13s and S14s without ABS. ABS S13s, these bolt right on. Non-ABS S13s, if you just want to go to the 15/16" MC (stock is 7/8"), then you can get an 86 S12 200SX MC from autozone, rebuilt, that will bolt right on.

Fitting the brakes behind wheels is more about spoke design and offset than about diameter...some 15s will fit, some 18s won't.

Dennis

Thanks for the well-written write-up.

I've seen that bad-*** Supra of yours in Sport Compact Car, IMO it's the best looking Supra I've seen.

Just wondering, I know some of the downsides to cross-drilled rotors include shorter pad life, more brake dust and supposedly, lower performance but wouldn't the weight-savings nullify that somewhat?

I ask because, as of right now, I'm looking for a machine shop to fabricate some nice steel brackets to mount the Z32 calipers outboard to fit 13" Cobra rotors. Now I'm sure these outweigh the stock S13 rotors quite a bit and adding a lot of unsprung weight worries me.

Thx for the good comments =)

The weight savings on the rotors wont really be that much. The chances of you cracking or warping your rotors are alot greater if you have drilled ones or even more so with custom drill stock rotors.

IMO, I wouldnt do it.... I road race with solid brake discs and they work great. Most race teams that use cross drilled or slotted rotors have insanely large budgets which most of us cant hang with... they change rotors "very" often.

For easy street driving I guess the odds of you cracking a drilled or slotted rotor are pretty small... on solid rotors it would be a VERY small chance =)

Cross drilling and slotting is mostly for looks when it comes to street cars, only when you step in the road racing arena does it really matter.

If you want to cross drill your rotors.. go ahead.... I dont see you having problems with them. BUT, if you plan on doing any sort of track events... be careful and let the rotors cool down plenty before stopping the car completely. It aint fun to warp or crack your rotors... $$$... I have done it alot in the past =)

n

#5 in the Ben(n) revolution

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EDIT: PS Buddhist, learn how to spell or dont bother at all you are giving everyone a headache.

http://www.heavythrottle.com/

http://www.importnut.net/300zxbrakeswap.htm

great website

Quote »

-1 set of used 1995 (any year from that generation) Nissan 300zx (no ABS) front spindles with hub. It was a direct bolt on, watch out for your dust boot covers.. be careful when swapping.

What did you bolt it up to? S14 LCA? If so, it will NOT work on S13 unless you press in new S14 ball joints on the LCA, or swap over to a S14 LCA on the S13 setup (which would make the LCA longer by about 1/2" and dial in a lot more negative camber).

Quote »

- 1 set of rear rear hubs from a 1995 (any year from that generation) Nissan 300zx (no ABS). You can order the rear spindle assembly aswell, but, I heard that you have to customize your shock or get custom coil overs and new ball joints. I think SCC went over this and got JIC coilovers and Moog ball joints, it worked quite well.

No, what you need for rear upright swap is to run either Z32 rear shocks and Z32 rear springs (which is not the same length as S14 OR S13), or get coilovers with a removable lower shock seat and swap that with a Z32 fork-type unit. Much like this:

In the picture the shock on the left is with Z32 fork type rear lower shell casing, the 3rd one fromleft is with S13 rear bolt-type shell casing.

Quote »

- 4 used brake rotors from a 1995 (any year from that generation) Nissan 300zx. If you have a lot of money get new ones, no need for fancy cross drilled or vent holed rotors, they just tend to crack and warp or create massive brake dust.. a regular rotor is all you need, trust me.

If you are just swapping front calipers like your post suggests, you do not need all 4 rotors. Get 2 Z32 rotor (and NOT any year, for 26mm caliper use ONLY 26mm rotors, for 30mm calipers use ONLY 30mm rotors), and 2 S14 SE rear rotors (or redrill 4 lug rotors to 514 bolt pattern).

-alex

-alex

And yes, I want to know too, what ball joint did you use? S14 or Z32? If you used the s14 ball joint, isn't that dangerous or is it the same as the z32 ball joint?

Ahhh Dennis you should know better.

The ONLY Z's with 26mm rotors were the 1990 non-turbos.

ALL 90-96 twin-turbo Z's used 30mm rotors. ALL 91-96 non-turbo Z's used 30mm rotors as well.

In mid-year 1992, they switched from aluminum to iron calipers. The iron calipers take 30mm rotors.

http://www.princeton.edu/~asad/zbrakes/

Asad