Its a tried and tested method that I pinched from Peter -

Not done that many miles yet, but so far the difference it has made is very encouraging 

No more smelly fuel in the cabin   

If It gets rid of the smelly fuel in the cab that`s a good thing, will give it a go, cheers 
Only one smelly thing left to sort...

I know that there are many arguments over Discs Vs Drums and which is best, and if I am totally honest, even when towing the trailer, I have never really had any issues with my standard drums on the front except one - they constantly need adjusting, so it was time to investigate a disc conversion.

Something I hadn`t considered was that most 14" wheels are said to foul the calipers, so a quick mock up to see how much clearance I had with my 7x14 Wolfrace Slots was called for.





There was enough room to get a fag packet where the caliper goes, so as far as I was concerned, the conversion was GO!





The conversion kit (With Beach Buggy Discount) came in at just under £220 from GSF and included everything - Discs, Carriers, Bearings, Hoses, Pads, and looked to be fairly straightforward to do.

This was to be my starting point:





I cannot praise this little balljoint separator tool highly enough - simply loosen the balljoint nut, pop this in place, and wind the nut in until the joint separates. Only had trouble with the main lower balljoint nut, as it had seized on the shaft which was now turning, but after cutting a slot in the top to hold it steady with a screwdriver, all went well.





And it really is that simple, once you have disconnected the track rod end joint, upper and lower balljoints, the old drum assembly can be removed in one unit - remember its heavy, and you may need to apply a bit of upwards pressure to the torsion arms to get it free. The new carrier then simply bolts back in its place.





My kit even came with drilled discs (Bonus!) but if you are fitting these yourself, remember that drilled discs are handed and must be fitted to the correct side as shown. Press in and pack the wheel bearings, connect the hoses, adjust the tracking and then time to bleed the brakes.





I used one of those "single person" brake bleed kits that operate by applying a vacuum to the bleed nipple and essentially suck the bubbles out of the system in one go. What a pile of poo ! It doesn`t work very well, gets through fluid as fast as you can top up the reservoir, and due to ill fitting of its parts, seems to supply a constant stream of bubbles for as long as you like. Ended up doing it the old fashioned way, with someone pumping the pedal for me.


So . . . . .  How did it drive?


Answer . . . .  Bloody Awfull !!


The brakes were working, but the trouble was that there was so much pedal travel that it really didn`t inspire confidence. Don`t get me wrong here, the brakes locked up just fine, slowed the car down a treat, no spongy feel to them at all, its just that when you pressed the pedal it traveled the full distance all the way down to the floor.

I was made aware of a device called a Residual Pressure Valve, and told that this was what I needed. What it did was to maintain 2 psi of pressure in the brake lines to the front calipers so that when you pressed the pedal, you already had a starting pressure rather than starting from scratch. They are supposed to be fitted as close to the master cylinder as possible in order to maintain pressure through the whole hose, and in the case of my twin circuit brakes, I needed to fit one to each caliper.

Dave Fisher of Kingfisher Kustoms came up trumps with a pair of these for me, and I decided to fit them just before the flexible hose as shown here.





A quick bleed of the brakes again, and time to try it out.


Oh my! What a transformation ! The pedal was not only good and firm, but was biting back at the top of its travel again and felt good.


So . . . . I know the question you are going to ask me now . . . .


Was it worth doing the Conversion?   Are the discs any better ?


Well, Apart from the obvious one that they no longer need adjusting, I don`t honestly think that they stop any better than a well adjusted set of drums, even when towing the trailer. However, what is very noticeable is the smoothness of the braking, whereas the drums always felt a bit "Wooden" the discs feel very smooth and "progressive" and for that alone, I would say that the discs most certainly win as the car is much nicer to drive and stop as a result.

Good write up. Do gsf do a kit for king and linkers? Convinced me to do mines in the future.

I`m sure someone will do a kit for K&L suspension 

Its well worth investing in though, the difference in applying the brakes is quite something - 

Very interesting as I have thought my brake pedal had a lot of travel since doing my disc conversion earlier in the year, like yours they do stop ok but you have to push the pedal a lot further down I thought it was just me

Looks like I will be investing in some residual pressure valves!

Very interesting as I have thought my brake pedal had a lot of travel since doing my disc conversion earlier in the year, like yours they do stop ok but you have to push the pedal a lot further down I thought it was just me

Looks like I will be investing in some residual pressure valves!

A quick tip on that one - Don`t bother with the cheapie ones from eBay as they do not seal very well on the brake lines - The ones from Kingfisher are absolutely spot on, and if you also obtain a male>male brake pipe thread adaptor it makes fitting them where I did an absolute doddle.

Looking on Kingfisher site now as reading your other post I wouldn't bother with eBay, did you get the male>male adaptor from them too?

No, I had a couple of Male>Male adaptors left over from a  previous project - Worth asking Dave though, he may well have some, but just watch the thread sizes if searching the net, as most listed are USA ones which are different. The valves I used for the front are also 2psi ones

I think (someone will tell me if I am wrong) that the reason you get too much travel after a conversion is all down to the diameter of the cylinder in the disc along with the fact that the disc pads come off the disc and can push right back.

What I mean is that for a small movement on drum brakes you push a relatively small amount of fluid into the wheel cylinders as they are quite small bore, take your foot off and the shoes come back to the adjusters and only push a small amount of fluid back.

With discs on the other hand the cylinder is much larger diameter and when the pads come off the discs they are free to drift right back forcing a lot of fluid out that you have to put back in before they bite again, a small amount of pressure in the system solves this.

The real danger comes when the pads are worn down and you could reach the point where it needs a pump to refill the cylinders after a long run without braking.  This is usually after a long run at high speed so can be a bit buttock clenching.
When I put discs on my Anglia 105e in 1970 pressure valves werent available so I fitted a larger bore master cylinder to solve the problem but it really exercised my right leg when I needed to brake hard 

Hope you dont mind me waffling on your thread but I always like to know why something happens and even more why a gadget fixes it

All t he best
Dave

Hope you dont mind me waffling on your thread but I always like to know why something happens and even more why a gadget fixes it

The problem arises because unlike the 1303 Disc brake master cylinder that doesn`t fit Buggies very easily (but often had RPV`s attatched), the master cylinders we have all ended up with were never meant to be used with Disc brakes, and do indeed suffer with varying pressure issues because of the differing sizes of pistons and bores as you have correctly described. I too, have heard of so many stories of people swapping master cylinders and brake cylinders around the car from front to back in order to achieve a useable system, and I was dreading having to go down this experimental route myself. Using the RPV to keep the lines pressurised means that the first press of the pedal overcomes the varying bore sizes by minimising the need to initially bring the hoses up to pressure and means that the pad to disc contact happens far sooner as a result. I have now driven this in anger too, and can report that the braking effect is really positive as a result.

Good write up Dave the biggest bonus is disc dry out faster and more evenly in the flood conditions you get down there during winter..

   Never thought of disc drying times in the wet   

Hope you dont mind me waffling on your thread but I always like to know why something happens and even more why a gadget fixes it

The problem arises because unlike the 1303 Disc brake master cylinder that doesn`t fit Buggies very easily (but often had RPV`s attatched), the master cylinders we have all ended up with were never meant to be used with Disc brakes, and do indeed suffer with varying pressure issues because of the differing sizes of pistons and bores as you have correctly described. I too, have heard of so many stories of people swapping master cylinders and brake cylinders around the car from front to back in order to achieve a useable system, and I was dreading having to go down this experimental route myself. Using the RPV to keep the lines pressurised means that the first press of the pedal overcomes the varying bore sizes by minimising the need to initially bring the hoses up to pressure and means that the pad to disc contact happens far sooner as a result. I have now driven this in anger too, and can report that the braking effect is really positive as a result.

Funny you should say that as my pan is a 1302S I thought mine might have such a master cylinder but alas obviously not 

Looks good dude, bet your pleased with the outcome 

Certainly am mate 

Now I`ve got it stopping properly, next on the agenda is the long awaited engine upgrade