Caliper Options
NOTE
This is another caliper option that should not require either drilling the piston bores or a manifold.
This information was provided on the Ratsun forum and copied straight from there. You will still
need to drill the mounting holes to fit the bolts. Please verify for yourself and use at your own risk.
I'd like to add one piece of information that will save some work for people doing this conversion. (please don't shoot me if this has already been mentioned in a post and I missed it) The volvo calipers that you really want to use are those found on a 1992 240 with abs. These calipers only have a single brake line and do not need the adapter manifold or the drill mod.
http://www.autozone....22_977303_2362/
Sample from Rockauto's site
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I received this info from a customer(Thank you Gary Y! He used the '92 240 calipers as mentioned above.
This is what he used for the brake hose to connect the caliper. Both can found on Summit Racing's website.
This is another caliper option that should not require either drilling the piston bores or a manifold.
This information was provided on the Ratsun forum and copied straight from there. You will still
need to drill the mounting holes to fit the bolts. Please verify for yourself and use at your own risk.
I'd like to add one piece of information that will save some work for people doing this conversion. (please don't shoot me if this has already been mentioned in a post and I missed it) The volvo calipers that you really want to use are those found on a 1992 240 with abs. These calipers only have a single brake line and do not need the adapter manifold or the drill mod.
http://www.autozone....22_977303_2362/
Sample from Rockauto's site
______________________________________________________________________________________________
I received this info from a customer(Thank you Gary Y! He used the '92 240 calipers as mentioned above.
This is what he used for the brake hose to connect the caliper. Both can found on Summit Racing's website.
Here is an example of the caliper used with this upgrade. Be sure to order left and right, not just two of the same part number. This caliper will have two brake line inputs and will require a manifold, cross drilling the bores(plugging one
input), or some fancy plumbing.
These calipers are popular upgrades for a variety of vehicles out there besides the Datsun Roadster, so you should be able to find even more info by searching the web. Just keep in mind that a lot of the other mods out there are using a non-vented rotor, so even though the calipers look the same, they are too narrow to fit the vented rotor.
These calipers have two separate brake circuits in them. In their stock usage, they have two brake lines running to them. There are two common options used for connecting them to a single brake line. One is a caliper manifold and the other is to disassemble the caliper and drill a connecting passage between the pistons.
The caliper manifold is no longer available from Breck Myers. I personally checked with him 9/20/2020. He did give his blessing to post up the blueprint for the manifold for anyone that would like to make their own. If the supply of ABS calipers dries up, I may start to make these. I'm actually working on a Wilwood caliper option to fix both of these issues. The blueprint is here.
Here's more info about the manifold option:
http://www.311s.org/pmwiki-311/pmwiki.php?n=TechSection.VolvoCalipers
http://www.mildevco.net/chevypowereddatsuns/volvo_brakes.htm
For information about the drilling option, visit this link:
http://www.jcna.com/library/tech/tech0031b.pdf
NOTE:
It has been noted by previous users of the Volvo calipers that the surface around the brake line mounting holes is not always machined. There seems to be no way to insure getting ones with the machined surface. Some have clamped the manifold on with the copper crush washers and it's been okay. You may want to get your calipers first if you think this will sway your decision about how to connect your brake lines.
Steering Arm Clearance
This has recently been brought to my attention. After doing a bit of research, it seems it has been mentioned before.
With either, the manifold or the Russel hose/banjo bolt, there's a chance that you'll need to clearance or grind a bit off the steering arm. An 1/8" would be more than enough, but I think less than that will be enough more most cases. Since I don't recall hearing about this from anyone else, I'm assuming that most installations cleared enough. It could also be that the owner noticed the posts in the 311s' thread that mentioned/showed it being a potential issue. It's really long, hard thread to read, so I'd tend to think most just cleared enough.
Ray A. sent me a couple of nice photos to show me his clearance issue. I'll share them here, along with a couple of others that found on the 311 thread. The second two are with the Breck Myers' manifold. I'm sure it's made to be the same thickness as the banjo fitting, so it makes sense that it would have the same lack of clearance.
With either, the manifold or the Russel hose/banjo bolt, there's a chance that you'll need to clearance or grind a bit off the steering arm. An 1/8" would be more than enough, but I think less than that will be enough more most cases. Since I don't recall hearing about this from anyone else, I'm assuming that most installations cleared enough. It could also be that the owner noticed the posts in the 311s' thread that mentioned/showed it being a potential issue. It's really long, hard thread to read, so I'd tend to think most just cleared enough.
Ray A. sent me a couple of nice photos to show me his clearance issue. I'll share them here, along with a couple of others that found on the 311 thread. The second two are with the Breck Myers' manifold. I'm sure it's made to be the same thickness as the banjo fitting, so it makes sense that it would have the same lack of clearance.
