markovr
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2003
- Messages
- 3,072
- Reaction score
- 252
- Points
- 83
- Age
- 62
- Location
- northside brisbane
- Website
- youtu.be
- Members Ride
- 07vessv 94vr .04vz wgn,93vp wgn,82 vhV6 wgn 88 vn
Ive just installed vt rear 289mm 16mm ventilated rotors on my vr solid rear axle that previously had the standard solid 289 11mm ones and you could do the same to any solid rear disc braked commodore borg warner or salisbury or even with a couple of extra parts from a disc braked vn /p/r/s you could find in any wreckers and the necessary rear axle bearings and seals installed on your axles, convert a drum braked one and it works well and it's a platform for higher end brakes too like brembo/harrop or hsv and use 315 or bigger mm discs
This is what I did...bought some good rear hand brake shoes and vt rear calipers secondhand
Got some old vn/p/r/s handbrake shoes and took all the friction material off them and found when assembled on the original backing plate their outside diameter was exactly the same as the inside diameter of the vt hand brake shoes...so the vt handbrake shoes slipped over the top...so I centred them on the vn/p/r/s shoes and welded them to each other in 6 places a side careful not to create too much heat and then cut them off when it was all welded so now they were 2 separate shoes like original.
Got the vr hub backing plate and removed all the rust built up over many years by soaking it overnight in vinegar (backing plate from factory is left bare metal) and slipped the end of a bolt through the original mounting hole welded one side the cut it off and welded the other side so now the original caliper mounting holes were gone and then redrilled 2 new holes 7/16 drill size inboard at 76 mm centres, 4mm closer to the centre of the hub to fit the new vt calipers...found the standard vt caliper mounting bolts were a 12mm x 1.5 mm thread which happens to be the same thread as a wheel nut so I welded a wheelnut over each new hole , bevel side of the nut up and cut the bevel part off of the wheel nut once welded so it is flat with the rest of the nut...(found out later that I didnt need to cut the bevel off as there is plenty of room) and ran a 12 x 1.5 mm tap through the nut to tap out the thickness of metal of the backing plate and trimmed off the corners of the backing plate where the new caliper bracket touched .When i first tried to work out where to weld the new nuts on the hub I tried them the same distance as the old vr caliper mounting bolt holes but found the vt pbr caliper was too far out from the centre and the very outside edge of the pad was not contacting the 290mm disc so i had to move the mounting of the nuts inboard 4mm and it worked out perfect and everything now simply just bolts up and the handbrake works properly .Cleaned up my welds and smoothed out any sharp edges and painted it black.In time after I had a few dramas getting the nut centres in exactly the right place that if I got a longer wheelnut and ran a shoulder on it the same thickness as the backing plate and then made the hole in the plate bigger now so the barrel part of the nut was a interference fit so now I could have the caliper bolted up tight before I welded it so now the positioning was perfect everytime and it still had thread all the way through.
When fitting up to the car I found I had to trim the dust shield a little where it made slight contact with the new caliper. I used slightly longer caliper bolts that had captured washers that originally came from front standard vz calipers to use more of the thread in the nut just to be on the safe side but the old ones would have been fine. This mod would have worked on any pre vt disc braked commodore salisbury or borg warner. Handbrake actually locks the rear wheels if you are moving (only for test purposes )and travel on the handbrake at the console is only 3-5 clicks now.
This is what I did...bought some good rear hand brake shoes and vt rear calipers secondhand
Got some old vn/p/r/s handbrake shoes and took all the friction material off them and found when assembled on the original backing plate their outside diameter was exactly the same as the inside diameter of the vt hand brake shoes...so the vt handbrake shoes slipped over the top...so I centred them on the vn/p/r/s shoes and welded them to each other in 6 places a side careful not to create too much heat and then cut them off when it was all welded so now they were 2 separate shoes like original.
Got the vr hub backing plate and removed all the rust built up over many years by soaking it overnight in vinegar (backing plate from factory is left bare metal) and slipped the end of a bolt through the original mounting hole welded one side the cut it off and welded the other side so now the original caliper mounting holes were gone and then redrilled 2 new holes 7/16 drill size inboard at 76 mm centres, 4mm closer to the centre of the hub to fit the new vt calipers...found the standard vt caliper mounting bolts were a 12mm x 1.5 mm thread which happens to be the same thread as a wheel nut so I welded a wheelnut over each new hole , bevel side of the nut up and cut the bevel part off of the wheel nut once welded so it is flat with the rest of the nut...(found out later that I didnt need to cut the bevel off as there is plenty of room) and ran a 12 x 1.5 mm tap through the nut to tap out the thickness of metal of the backing plate and trimmed off the corners of the backing plate where the new caliper bracket touched .When i first tried to work out where to weld the new nuts on the hub I tried them the same distance as the old vr caliper mounting bolt holes but found the vt pbr caliper was too far out from the centre and the very outside edge of the pad was not contacting the 290mm disc so i had to move the mounting of the nuts inboard 4mm and it worked out perfect and everything now simply just bolts up and the handbrake works properly .Cleaned up my welds and smoothed out any sharp edges and painted it black.In time after I had a few dramas getting the nut centres in exactly the right place that if I got a longer wheelnut and ran a shoulder on it the same thickness as the backing plate and then made the hole in the plate bigger now so the barrel part of the nut was a interference fit so now I could have the caliper bolted up tight before I welded it so now the positioning was perfect everytime and it still had thread all the way through.
When fitting up to the car I found I had to trim the dust shield a little where it made slight contact with the new caliper. I used slightly longer caliper bolts that had captured washers that originally came from front standard vz calipers to use more of the thread in the nut just to be on the safe side but the old ones would have been fine. This mod would have worked on any pre vt disc braked commodore salisbury or borg warner. Handbrake actually locks the rear wheels if you are moving (only for test purposes )and travel on the handbrake at the console is only 3-5 clicks now.
Last edited:
