I have had alot of inquiries about the toyota rotor conversion on my truck . I will do my best to explain the swap and answer question . This was t.j. white was the first successful swap , and i believe i am only the second .
This swap consist of adapting Toyota Hilux (base 2 whell drive) rotors to a Chevy luv(1978 in my case) . You will use the luv spindle , caliper bracket , dust sheild , caliper , brake pads outer washer , nut , keeper , and of coarse a new cotter pin . From the Toyota you will need the rotor , inner and outer bearing and hub assembly . I believe my rotors came off a 1987 , but i believe from 1987-1994 are the same . The rotors will only allow for a 5 x4.5 pattern , which is small Ford 5 lug . The inner races of the toyota bearing are larger than the luv bearing , so 2 spacers need to be fabbed by a machine shop . I will add the deminsions for these spacers tomorrow . The inner seal I used was National seal #471868 This is a double lip seal were the origanal was a single lip . Spacer deminsions are as follows :
Inner bushing : O.D 1.375 I.D. 1.178 width .830
outer bushing : O.D. .8425 I.D .7855 width .800
These deminsions are on the tight side and outer deminsions may need to be polished a tad with emery cloth to fit .
I started by removing the old luv brake parts down to the spindle . I heated the interference fit "spacers" and slid them on to the spindle . I coated the spindle with red loc-tite and had to tap them on with a hammer and flat punch working my way around the spacer as I went . Here are the spacers installed .
The next challenge will be clearencing the inside of the caliper mount (the one that bolts to the spindle) and dust sheild . The toyota hub assembly outer dia. is a tad larger than the caliper mount inner dia. I clearenced this with a air mandral and a porting bit from the auto parts store . It was no biggie . Here they are clearenced and re-installed .
I knocked out the old studs and bought 1/2-20 tuds to replace the metric studs . I also had my hubs machined on the wheel face to reduce the wheel base difference from the factory Luv set up . The best I can tell the toyota rotor set up is approx 1" wider than the stock Luv . I had almost 1/4" machine off . This is a judgement call on your part . I did mine , you will have to decide for your self if you feel safe removing material from the hub or not .
Once this was done I cleaned up the bearings and repacked them with new grease , installed new rotors and seals and mounted new rotors on spindles .
Next I had to clearence the inside of the outer caliper mount . This was done with a 4" angle grinder with a new disc . I relieved the inside of the bracket until sufficent clearence was gained . Next step i shimmed the bracket with different thickness washers to "center " the opening in the outer bracket over the rotor .
I replaced the brake pads with new and they were to thick for the now bigger ventilated rotor , so they had to be surfaced on a belt sander to fit . I reassembled the calipers and bleed the brakes for good measure . This is what I came up with when finished .
This was not a very easy conversion . It took me 3 months of parts prep and about a week working at night to complete. I just thought i'd show you my work . Weigh the options and By all means use common sense . If it does not look correct and your not sure don't risk it . Go with the aerospace kit .