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ET Disc Conversion on your N12 EXA Turbo

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Ben Hewitson
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ET Disc Conversion on your N12 EXA Turbo

Post by Ben Hewitson »

I've been working on this for a while and decided to share the processes with other members. Hopefully this will become a technical article and other people can learn from my mistakes and hopefully improve on the process.




Ok then... This is a little thread about converting your 83-86 Nissan Pulsar Exa Turbo with rear drum brakes to the 84-87 Pulsar



ET rear disc brakes. you may or may not swap all the parts over, but my motives for doing so are outlined below.




I started out getting a complete back end out of an 86 ET. This includes the Rear swing-arms, disc brake hubs, calipers, back plates, adapter arms, hand-brake cables, hydraulic hoses and the ET swaybar and its inplace mounts. I also found a full set of ET front and rear calipers, back plates and adapter arms to use as spares and share with another member who is doing the conversion later..



My motives for getting the ET swing-arms when i knew that everything bolts onto the EXA swing-arms was decided apon because i am fitting wider rims and tyres in the process and the swing-arm seam (as everyone knows) is too wide and scrubs badly on the tyres...

It is also next to the fuel tank and the filler so i wasn't doing it on the car.. as i use the car daily and cant take it off the road for too long, i needed a spare set of arms to modify. It then became easier to get everything rebuilt off the car and just one day do the complete changeover.. 3 hour job and is fairly easy.. It also gave me the advantage of having arms with swaybar mounts on them... a decent upgrade to make the EXA handle 298 times better (you can quote K-Mac for that one.. lol)



Ok.. the first step was to work out how much swing arm to cut away.. I had all the rotors and calipers fitted to i placed it into the spare Mag i intended to use and spaced it out by 5mm.. I chalked out the areas and got to work stripping it all back...


This Image shows the swing-arms and the area that needs to be cut and welded..

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The next step was to strip it all down and start the cutting process.. Unfortunately my dad bot bored this day while i was at work and started and finished the arms while i was away... many thanks dad.. So what he did was, he used the Angle grinder with a small cutoff wheel and made perpendicular cuts along the seam. He then broke the little tabs of and cleaned it all up with the grinder.. After that he simply Arc'd the seam back together. I think it looks rather neat and also increases strength because it replaces 3 spot tiny spot welds with a continuout bead.. Well done Dad and may many thanks..


This image show the weld..

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Uncie-G wrote: As for the drift steering wheel, if you use this combined with earthing kit at the same time the overall road feel and torque steer gets reduced.
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Ben Hewitson
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Post by Ben Hewitson »

This image shows the weld and the adapter plate sitting on top.. this and the rotor/hub is the only parts that differ on the EXA and the ET... plus the caliper of course.. everything bolts on...

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The next step in the game is to rebuild the brake calipers.. This is what they look like with the handbrake and hydraulic hoses attached.. pretty crappy condition, but and hour of cleaning and cleaning some more they were rebuilt with new seals and grease..

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I'll spare everyone the details of pulling the brakes apart as i'm sure it will be easy.. they only have 3 moving parts.. lol...

I basically soaked them in Kero, scrubbed them with a hard paint brush then sand blasted them to a sweet finish.. After that i simply ran them over the wire buffing machine and polished them up.. good as new.. There are 2 seals that may or may not need replacing, better to just do it i think, then theres the piston and handbrake actuator (little 4x worm thread).

The following images are of the brake comming together, and then the last one is one down, one to go.. As you can see someone painted on of them red.. that took ages to clean off.. Also be carefull when sandblasting or buffing. make sure you protect the areas that need to remain smooth.
Uncie-G wrote: As for the drift steering wheel, if you use this combined with earthing kit at the same time the overall road feel and torque steer gets reduced.
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Ben Hewitson
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Post by Ben Hewitson »

Before Cleaning

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Underside

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Topside

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One down, one to go...

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Uncie-G wrote: As for the drift steering wheel, if you use this combined with earthing kit at the same time the overall road feel and torque steer gets reduced.
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Ben Hewitson
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Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2006 9:19 am
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Post by Ben Hewitson »

Image

this is the Back plates ready to rock and roll..

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Back plates on the swing arms. and...

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...with the shrouds..

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these are the longer studs you will need for the conversion.. they cost about $6-8 each. and will need to be cut down once on the vehicle.. NS#4500's...

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rotors ready to go.... stay tuned as i will install it all next week with the new brake hoses and mags..
Uncie-G wrote: As for the drift steering wheel, if you use this combined with earthing kit at the same time the overall road feel and torque steer gets reduced.
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Ben Hewitson
Posts: 1136
Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2006 9:19 am
Location: Adelaide, SA.
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Post by Ben Hewitson »

ok.. i stripped off the wheels and got ready to to do the conversion.. i started at about 7:30 last night.. this stage took an hour..

I took this photo as a 'before' the conversion as it shows my pissy little drumb brakes...
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I shit you not... 30mins later i had both arms out, the handbrake cable out and everything ready to go.. there are only six (6) bolts to get the out... hardest part was getting underneith it to take of the handbrake cable.. had to unwind it first

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Ok here's one i prepared earlier..... lol... ready to go in...

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And hey presto... all in and ready for dinner at 8:30.... was easy as pie. got all the brake lines made up so i will put them in tonight and fit the rotors and calipers properly. also i can get my mags on now... sweet..

you can also see on these two below that mods i made to the swing arms are hardly noticable.... should go through any scruteny with ease..

Image

Image
Uncie-G wrote: As for the drift steering wheel, if you use this combined with earthing kit at the same time the overall road feel and torque steer gets reduced.
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Ben Hewitson
Posts: 1136
Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2006 9:19 am
Location: Adelaide, SA.
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Post by Ben Hewitson »

Ok did some more work on the beast last night.. i basically crawled inder neith it adn attached the brake lines and handbrake cables. the story is as follows...,

The first thing to note is the EXA uses a rubber hose and and steel brake lineto the drum brake from the rear chassis rail, whereas the ET uses rubber all the way to the caliper. So custom lines hadto me made up anthough the swing arms are essentially the same.

This image shows the EXA swing arm and steel brake line, plus the little rubber hose that goes through the chassis rail.

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And this shows the one i cut off the ET and the new hoses i had made up.

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This is where the rubber hose goes...

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Uncie-G wrote: As for the drift steering wheel, if you use this combined with earthing kit at the same time the overall road feel and torque steer gets reduced.
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Ben Hewitson
Posts: 1136
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Post by Ben Hewitson »

i got under neither and started fitting the handbrake cable.. these ET cables are completely different on the brake end to the EXA cables. The 'Y' piece is common to bother systems.

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NOTE: they are both different lengths and need to be installed on the correct sides.

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Almost there...
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Uncie-G wrote: As for the drift steering wheel, if you use this combined with earthing kit at the same time the overall road feel and torque steer gets reduced.
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Ben Hewitson
Posts: 1136
Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2006 9:19 am
Location: Adelaide, SA.
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Post by Ben Hewitson »

dont forget to attach this little clip. it stops the brake hose rubbing on the chassis. the little gromit is a slipt type and can just be pulled off. you can retain the one from your exa.. no need to take it from a donor ET..

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While i was under here i fitted the ET sway bar..!!! hmm... nice...

Hey Presto..!!!!!!! Finished.. I decided that i wasn't going to paint the calipers. so i sandblasted them and buffed them with a wire wheel.. they will look awesome behind the mags. especially with the shinny rotors..

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Tonight i will fit the 10mm spacers (to clear the shockie mount) and cut all the studs 25mm shorter so i can put the mags on.. i think i'll have to have the rear gaurds rolled as the tyres are fairly wide and i think they just touch..

also interesting to note is the bit of swingarm i cut away... remember this..?

Image

well i think it was still necessary cause the tyre comes close to this location and may catch with cornering..

Ok thats it. I have decided not to use an ET bmaster cylinder or ET brake lines as its a mesay modification to do. instead i decided to put a small washer into the EXA proportioning valve and that has helped heaps. The reason was the EXA master has a smaller piston size than the EXA. The other difference is the 'crak point' of the proportioning valve.. the ET has 1.5mpa and the EXA has 3.5mpa.. huge difference..

I found that i had to stand on the brakes very hard to get the back to work.. so i pulled the top of the proportioning valve and inserted a washer to reduce the spring tension.. i played around with it will i got the desired proportioning and left it at that.. its been to a suspension and braking engineer to be inspected and looked over and they said it was all working just fine.. so i'll leave it.. tons easier than pulling the master cylinder and steel brake lines out..

This is a spare proportioning vlave and the spring is actually nearly double the tensioned length when it is relaxed.. so heaps of room to play there.

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Please do this at your own risk.......
Uncie-G wrote: As for the drift steering wheel, if you use this combined with earthing kit at the same time the overall road feel and torque steer gets reduced.
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