Sc300 Tt Front Conversion - Brake Job

[AWJ]

It has been a few weeks since I finished the job but I have found some time to write about it now. A hydraulic floor jack is ideal and necessary. A torque wrench is recommended. Assorted millimeter box end wrenches and socket ratchet set. Pliers, metal cutters, a wire brush and depending on how far into cleaning a dremel.

Also:

Brake parts cleaner

Carbuerator cleaner

Brake fluid

Funnel

Rags

Jack stands

Rubber mallet

All necessary parts for the job:

TT calipers

TT rotors

TT pads, shims, clips

Anti squeal

rear rotors

rear pads

shims etc.

Stainless steel lines

Here I'll try to make some sense.

Remember, your new TT brakes will only fit under the right wheel. 17 inches minimum. A supra TT offset will be needed to clear those calipers. They are insanely close to the inside of those wheels.

[AWJ]

Get your tire iron out. Remove your wheel caps. Break those bolts free on the front wheels.

Jack your car up with the floor jack in the recommended location.

[AWJ]

Set the car on your jack stands in the recommended location. Make sure the car is stable. Now you got those lugs loose remember? Take them off and lift those front wheels off there.

Check out your stock set-up. Dirty eh? That dust cover is going to need to come off too. But first, pull that caliper. The mid section comes out with two 12mm bolts in the back. Take it out. The carrier section comes out with two 14mm bolts. I used PB blaster to eat through some of the corrosion. I also blasted everything with brake cleaner before I got into it. Keep that cleaner away from the paint though. Here is a pic of this apart.

[AWJ]

You gotta whack that rotor. I used a rubber mallet because it won't ding the rotor and my rotors are still good. Who knows if I'll need them or someone else will in the future. The passenger side rotor was reluctant to come off. I sprayed more blaster around the lug studs and hub and anywhere I could to try and get in there. I let it set overnight and came back, whacked twice and it fell off. I got lucky. These things can really freeze up on there sometimes. We are fortunate though that there are two holes threaded for a 10mm bolt in the hat section of the rotor where two bolts can be threaded in to push off the hub plate and jack the rotor off of there. I had to use this method on the rear rotors.

[AWJ]

So you have the hub bare. That damn dust plate needs to come off cuz your new rotors are way too huge. Undo the 4 10mm bolts holding it. Cut the skinniest section. I had to make a few cuts and bend and pry and finally, it came off. Or you can take the hub off and remove it 1 piece. Cutting it is easier in my opinion. You can get the TT dust covers or fabricate your own. I my try to come up with something in the future.

[AWJ]

At this point I took some time to clean up the hub and arms a little bit. I used some citrus blast and a wire brush and scrubbed until I got bored. A lot of crap came off. It looked pretty good. But could have gotten a lot better. But then it just gets dirty again. So I quit. But not before I used my dremel with a wire brush attachment to scrub the lug threads and hub face free of crap.

Then, I disconnected the brake line from the caliper. Brake fluid is going to leak out. No way around it. Things start to get messy here. *Never pump the brakes with a caliper dismounted or on an open brake line.* These line bolts are tight. Be very careful not to strip them as you may need them later in the event of a problem. I tried to catch the run out fluid in a glass jar. Not much luck. I used carboard underneath to soak up any spills. Then undo the stock rubber line where it meets the hard line. Some wrestling, slipping and slamming knuckles will occur. I tried to wear these crappy gloves I have an abundance of, but they quickly become soaked with slippery brake fluid and dirt at this point in the game.

Any time you disconnect the brake line, air is introduced. In order for your brake system to function correctly, this air must be removed. It is important to have an understanding of the brake bleeding procedure and or how brake/hydraulic systems operate. If this understanding is not had, do not do this. This is a life and death matter.

[AWJ]

So where are we now....

Ready to mount the tt rotors I geuss. Put them on there. It is handy to use one of the lugs to secure it for the time being. Grab your new shiny TT caliper. Once you are done admiring it close up, put it over the hub and use the old bolts to bolt it up on there over the rotor. mmmm... Starting to look real good.

Do you like my mechanic's seat? :whistles: I think some of my blood is on the cardboard down there with all that old brake fluid. I said a couple times.

[AWJ]

Here's the caliper and everything. I started to become amazed at this point. Everything was going very well....

Or so it would seem eh? I think the brake parts cleaner can got high on fumes and had trouble standing. <!--emo&--><!--endemo--> You guys will want to do this with the garage door open.

[AWJ]

Notice I say everything was going very well. My roadblock came when I went to install my Goodrich stainless steel brake lines. Apparently, the goodrich female compression side was not going to go over the compression nut from the stock hard line. This was not good. The stock nut had to come off. But that meant I had to cut the stock ferrule off. Then I'm left with a stub hard line that needs a flare. To make matters worse, I could not find my digital camera, so I can't show you guys what I'm talking about. That is also why a lot of these pictures are general because they were taken after the fact. This is no place to goof around. I was worried. I had to go to bed to think on it. And I had to work in the morning. <_<

[AWJ]

So I went to autozone at lunch the next day. I took the brake line and got some metric hard tube to match it. I liked it because it had two male fittings on a 4 inch long flared hard line. I also got some compression fittings to match because I had a feeling I would need them. So I had these nifty little pieces but no way to assemble them. I cut the stock ferrule off the stock hardline in the wheel well with a small hack saw. Sprayed clean. Then filed the edges. I cut the store bought hardline with some pipe cutters to a length just long enough to fit the new compression nut and enough room for the other compression piece. I then used this rig to compress joint onto the stock hard line. I used the stock clips from the stock lines to resecure the new stainless lines in the bracket and routed them clear of any moving stuff. This compound compression was a little shady, but I have done lots of work on hydraulic systems and was very confident in my work. I would not recommend this be done by anyone else that is not certified. The best way would have been to completely replace the hard line after bending things correctly. I will do this eventually. After bleeding and pressure testing, there were no leaks. It worked well.

The compression set up is in the upper left corner of this picture where the brass nuts are.

[AWJ]

Your TT brake assy. will go together like this. The pads clips and shims will load in from the top of the caliper after it is mounted onto the rotor.

I drew this picture.... :whistles:

Not.

[AWJ]

Hmmm.... revisited - had some typo's and unclear statements in there. You guys should tell me when I do that. I added some comic relief too.

[jzz30]

you drew that? how did you do that so well?

[AWJ]

You are just playing along right? I grabbed the image from www.mkiv.com - they have some jza80 factory service manual images available. Kind of a handy site to have bookmarked.

[jzz30]

i thought you had some nuts skills in CADish drwing

[AWJ]

My CAD skills are fairly good actually. But that was not me. Some engineer for toyota probably did that.

[dp_roberson]

I did a similar brake upgrade on my '92 SC300... but I changed out the back brakes too. I swapped to a full set of Supra TT calipers (all 4) from a 95 TT. Aside from having to remove the dust shield from the front spindles, the install was direct "bolt-on" replacement with no other mods needed. The back setup is even easier to swap than the front.

When I swapped out my brakes, I also bought a set of stainless braided brake lines for the front (also from iRotors.com). When I placed the order, I specified that they were for a '95 Supra TT. The brake lines that they sent were an exact fit with no mods necessary. I have no idea how they compare in quality/performance to the Goodrich lines that AWJ used - but they seem to be easier to install. :D On the back I just used the stock brake lines - but I am planning to go back later and replace them with stainess lines.

I also went with slotted/drilled rotors (got mine from iRotors.com). The responsiveness and braking distance are much, much better than the stock brakes. As mentioned... you will have to get bigger wheels. I have 18" wheels - and no problems with clearance.

AWJ - I am curious about why you did all of the mods to the brake lines... mine didnt require modification. Maybe a year model difference?

David Roberson

Arkansas

[AWJ]

David, the goodrich lines have the female compression side fitting that is supposed to fit over the furrule and male side oem compression nut on the hard line. Like you said, no big deal. Unfortunately for me at the time, this did not work. The Supra TT stainless lines did not fit onto my oem furrule. So I hacked it. That's basically all there is too it.

I have heard both accounts - on several sites - sometimes, the lines go on just fine. Other times, the ferrule needs to be filed or in my case - cut off. This is the case on both the supra mkiv NA and SC3/4 from various accounts.

Who knows?

Glad to have your input and see that it went just that much smoother for you. I agree, the difference in braking is night and day and very necessary when you have 345+ horespower to the tarmac. When I drive other vehicles - even my own, I think there is something wrong with the brakes now. I'm used to stopping on a dime with my SC.