HOW TO: 300z 4 piston brakes

[Jesses240]

Here is what your stock brakes look like.

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/JesseS13/300zbrakes001.jpg

Start off by taking the 2 19mm bolts off. Now you can remove your stock caliper assembly (Do not leave hanging by the brake line)

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/JesseS13/300zbrakes002.jpg


Take a rubber hammer like shown and hit the rotor (not on a stud or on the rotor surface) to knock it off from its home.

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/JesseS13/300zbrakes004.jpg

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/JesseS13/300zbrakes005.jpg

Here is where you are at now, Some people modify the backing plate or go 5 lug, I deicded to remove it completly.

To do this remove the cap to expose the 30mm nut. After you remove the hub gently pry on the back of the backing plate and it will pop off.

Reinstall your hub and zap her down tight, and replace the locking pin.


http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/JesseS13/300zbrakes007.jpg
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/JesseS13/300zbrakes008.jpg

[Jesses240]

Now put on your new rotors and use the 2 19mm bolts you removed to put your new calipers on. (note I put the wrong caliper on the bleeder screw SHOULD be at the top of the caliper. I fixed it but didnt take another picture.

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/JesseS13/300zbrakes009.jpg
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/JesseS13/300zbrakes010.jpg



Now use pliers to remove the tab, then use a 10mm line wrench to open this brake line. Plug it with a small vacuum cap while you are fiddling around with putting the new conversion lines onto your car. Now screw in the line into your caliper and position it the correct way. Now route the line behind the suspension using the lock tab to hold it to the suspension, then your ready to screw it in to the brake line and use your locking tab to secure it in place.

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/JesseS13/300zbrakes011.jpg
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/JesseS13/300zbrakes012.jpg

These pdm lines use a 13mm and a 15mm to screw into the caliper and a 10mm to screw into the oem hard brake line

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/JesseS13/300zbrakes013.jpg


Now with a friend bleed your brakes like crazy starting with the passenger side, then moving to the driver side last (if you are doing rear brakes start with the farthest away from the master cyl (pass rear) then go driver rear, then pass front, then driver front.

AFter you bleed it make sure your brake fluid is full, put your wheels on and torque them.

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/JesseS13/300zbrakes014.jpg
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r299/JesseS13/300zbrakes015.jpg

First few hundred miles should be taken easy on NEW rotors/pads...


Good luck, this is a great mod, I love the way my car stops now!

[nissantfsx]

are u goin to do the rear brakes too?

[Jesses240]

are u goin to do the rear brakes too?

I will end up getting good rotors/pads for the rear... but not 300z rears

[turtle m3th]

What rotors are you running? Maybe it's just me but they look like the 5 lug wholes were plugged and you had them re-drilled to 4 lug. Let me know man! it's driving me nucking futs!!!:aw: J/k......(sorta)

[Jesses240]

What rotors are you running? Maybe it's just me but they look like the 5 lug wholes were plugged and you had them re-drilled to 4 lug. Let me know man! it's driving me nucking futs!!!:aw: J/k......(sorta)


They are stock 300z brembo replacements redrilled for 4 lug

[hay_hay13]

hey did you drill the rotors yourself???? if you did i'd like to know how to measure it so i can do mine. i have q45 brakes that are just sitting cuz i can't find a machine shop or anyone to teach me how to measure and drill it from 5 lug to 4 lug

[Jesses240]

hey did you drill the rotors yourself???? if you did i'd like to know how to measure it so i can do mine. i have q45 brakes that are just sitting cuz i can't find a machine shop or anyone to teach me how to measure and drill it from 5 lug to 4 lug

I personally didn't drill them, I bought them this way.

You do need to use a drill press and using one of the 5 lug holes, you measure out 4x114.3 for the other 3 holes

[fantasya98]

how do the brakes feel? I really want to do this, but I dont want to change out the master cylinder and bend the brake lines. It would be such a pain if one of them snapped and require replacement

[FaLKoN240]

Your bleed order is incorrect.

When you work on your car, please refer to the FSM before posting up incorrect info.

[yarou]

hey did you drill the rotors yourself???? if you did i'd like to know how to measure it so i can do mine. i have q45 brakes that are just sitting cuz i can't find a machine shop or anyone to teach me how to measure and drill it from 5 lug to 4 lug

Just put your old rotor on top of your new 5 lug one, line it up, and spray paint the holes. Voila, you now have dots that make up 4x114.3 and you can just tell a shop to drill those dots. One of the holes line up, so you'll have 3 dots per rotor

my q45 rotors with dots for reference

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f102/nenhenry/summer%20project/IMG_3576.jpg

[timlush]

Your bleed order is incorrect.

When you work on your car, please refer to the FSM before posting up incorrect info.

Ummmmmm.....

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m129/xHeather35/bleedbrakes.jpg

[FaLKoN240]

Ummmmmm.....

http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m129/xHeather35/bleedbrakes.jpg

Taken from the model S13 series FSM.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a163/FaLKoN240/untitled.jpg

Maybe S14 is different.

[Gjohnson7]

I'm willing to bet someone got their info from a Silvia FSM.

[Jesses240]

how do the brakes feel? I really want to do this, but I dont want to change out the master cylinder and bend the brake lines. It would be such a pain if one of them snapped and require replacement



They feel awesome, it stops so much quicker and the pedal feels great.

I did a few 50-0 stops on the way home and boy does it stop fast.





If you have a Right hand drive car or your master cyl is on the right side (yes some cars have that even though they are LHD), your brake bleeding sequence would be different. 99.9% of the time you bleed the farthest away from your master cyl then work your way towards it. I have yet to run across this personally and I have been a professional tech for almost 2 years have probably more than 200 brake jobs completed. very few cars bleed in a different sequence, yes there are some, but not many.

[scarecrow27]

did u change ur master cyl to a z32 one? cuz u prolly should

[Dousan_PG]

should change your BMC
make the z32 brake sheild work too on there
bleed you got jdm fsm
usdm is right rear first (farthest from BMC)
jdm (rhd) left is farthest

and u dont have to hit the rotor
those little bolt holes are what you use to get the old crusty rotor off.

[timlush]

I have seen some Hondas (all ones with ABS I believe) that have weird bleeding patterns. I think the 97 + up Prelude had a weird one...

[FRpilot]

hmm i've always thought for s13, the left rear is the furthest away, but that's because i am going by the brake hardlines.

The left rear has the longest line because it comes out of the master cylinder, extends to the right, runs down to the rear, and the extends to the left again while the right side just extends to the right from the master cylinder and runs down.

[FaLKoN240]

I'm gonna bleed according to my FSM, and then test the feel. If it's squishy I'll try the other way.

Bleeding brakes isn't that hard anyways.

Some more pics from my JDM FSM?

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a163/FaLKoN240/untitled1.jpg

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a163/FaLKoN240/untitled2.jpg

[sairaag]

have you ever had any problems with your z caliper locking up?

[Jesses240]

should change your BMC
make the z32 brake sheild work too on there
bleed you got jdm fsm
usdm is right rear first (farthest from BMC)
jdm (rhd) left is farthest

and u dont have to hit the rotor
those little bolt holes are what you use to get the old crusty rotor off.

Do you know off hand if the z32 brake sheild fits directly? If so it would be nice to have it, I was going to try to make my own using the center section of my stock ones and make a aluminum backing plate but if the z32 ones fit I'll just use those.

in your experience did changing the BMC gave you a better pedal feel, or what? I have only driven 15 miles from my shop to home on the new brakes, it feels almost perfect (slightly low) but it still stops on a dime and the clamping power feels excellent, not to touchy, nor did I lock up the brakes on a 75% hard stop



Yes you can use the brake rotor holes to get them off, but.... lol it takes to longer to find the bolts then it does to get a rubber hammer which takes em off in a second instead of having to thread bolts in equally. :-P

[mrmephistopheles]

I will end up getting good rotors/pads for the rear... but not 300z rears

You should really do the rears and BMC. Doing only the front is foolish.
If you don't want to take my word for it, that's fine, but I'm speaking from experience.


should change your BMC
make the z32 brake sheild work too on there
bleed you got jdm fsm
usdm is right rear first (farthest from BMC)
jdm (rhd) left is farthest


and u dont have to hit the rotor
those little bolt holes are what you use to get the old crusty rotor off.

Gospel as usual.

Do you know off hand if the z32 brake sheild fits directly? If so it would be nice to have it, I was going to try to make my own using the center section of my stock ones and make a aluminum backing plate but if the z32 ones fit I'll just use those.

in your experience did changing the BMC gave you a better pedal feel, or what? I have only driven 15 miles from my shop to home on the new brakes, it feels almost perfect (slightly low) but it still stops on a dime and the clamping power feels excellent, not to touchy, nor did I lock up the brakes on a 75% hard stop

Yes you can use the brake rotor holes to get them off, but.... lol it takes to longer to find the bolts then it does to get a rubber hammer which takes em off in a second instead of having to thread bolts in equally. :-P

Dunno. Just cut off the lip around the circumference, or cut notches in it and bend it to be flat.

BMC + all 4 corners = ideal braking solution. Car will 'squat' under heavy braking as opposed to 'diving'.

Sometimes mallets don't work. Bolts always work.

[GSXRJJordan]

As I've said a bunch of times, if you're going to only do nice pads/rotors in the rear (not change out to Z32), you want to run the Z31 (mine's from an '85 300zx) MC - it's got the perfect bias for that braking setup.

Don't run the Z32 MC unless you have Z32 rears to go with those fronts.

Mrmeph's right that Z32 rears are a little improvement, but the ebrake situation has most of us doubting the value.

[Tenchuu]

As I've said a bunch of times, if you're going to only do nice pads/rotors in the rear (not change out to Z32), you want to run the Z31 (mine's from an '85 300zx) MC - it's got the perfect bias for that braking setup.

Don't run the Z32 MC unless you have Z32 rears to go with those fronts.

Mrmeph's right that Z32 rears are a little improvement, but the ebrake situation has most of us doubting the value.

meh skyline ebrake cables for a perfect fit. with Z32 rear S14. on S13 i heard all you have to do is re-route the cable and it works.

[hay_hay13]

thanx for the info on how to do the rotors im just scared it'll be off and the rotor will be rotating funny. but if thats how you did it and it works i can't complain.

[mrmephistopheles]

Mrmeph's right that Z32 rears are a little improvement, but the ebrake situation has most of us doubting the value.

I'd say more than a litte, considering that some egghead engineers decided that they were a good combination. :)

The Z32 ebrake system scares alot of people off for some reason.
Yes, it's slightly more complicated than the stock system, but the extra torque provided by the drum ebrake FAR outweighs the one-time difficulty of installation.

[Jesses240]

which Z master cyl / rear brakes are supposed to be used, or do they need anything special with them to install?

[babowc]

17/16 is what I've in the garage to be put on with my current brake setup.. (Z32 4corners)

[OptionZero]

which Z master cyl / rear brakes are supposed to be used, or do they need anything special with them to install?

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

Had you searched before posting you would have found links to ^that article, which would have saved you the trouble of typing out instructions to a task that's been done on s-chassis' for years and years

[trsilvias13]

dont s14 comes with the z32/skyline 4 piston brakes in japan?

Also isnt the bmc and rear brakes the same (usdm or jdm), so technically, if you have a s14, all you have to do is change the front to the z32/skyline brakes and you are set (just like factory jdm)?

[OptionZero]

i dont think we ever got a definitive answer to that

is the JDM S14/s15 BMC and brake booster and other associated stuff the same as a USDM s14? anyone?