Corona XT130 Ke / Ae / Te Brake Upgrade Options

[Teddy]

Thank Kevin Jensen - evosti@nofunatall.com for this write up. It works well, as ive personally used it.

Corona XT130 Ke / Ae / Te Brake Upgrade

First of all I take no credit for coming up with this brake upgrade, I merely used an
existing idea designed for upgrading brake on a Celica and adapted it to the sprinter.
There’s not a lot different but I know that if I had it all planned out for me for the
sprinter it would have been a little easier. Most of this you can do yourself if you have
the appropriate tools, I was lucky as I had access to a mechanics workshop with air
tools, bench vice, spring compressors etc. while it may look a little daunting at first it
really is quite easy if you have just the tiniest bit of mechanical experience. I was only
18 at the time and second year apprentice mechanic so anyone can do it! I wrote this
article a little while after I did the conversion so I may have forgotten a few things but
if I have email me and I might be able to clear them up.

Parts needed:
Corona XT130 front struts
Peugeot 604 front disc rotors
Mitsubishi Starion master cylinder
Hilux LN106 callipers

Plus more parts which ill explain later

So you start with the corona struts which are from an XT130. I’m told that there’s
another model corona strut that works but when I found an XT130 dumped on the
side of the road one day it was decided. Saved myself about $100 on struts by taking
them from a dumped car on the side of the road in the middle of the day which got
some guy taking photos of me as evidence I spose but anyway, once you got the struts
make sure the bolt holes used for mounting the calliper are 90mm apart. This is the
important bit.

The parts you need from the strut are the strut itself only, the rest you don’t need. The
backing plate comes off to fit the calliper, the spring is useless as is the top spring
saddle.

When you take the discs off you may as well repack the bearings. It costs you a
couple of bucks in seals and some time but I would think everyone would do this
anyway but I thought id mention it.
European discs are known for being soft, so you may want to by new ones instead of
second hand ones, maybe from DBA. I went for new Brembo’s, but this was mainly
because I got them for less than $90 a pair.
The Peugeot discs have a diameter of 273mm whereas the original corona discs are
266mm. You need it to be machined down and any brake shop should be able to do
this for you. While your there, get them to machine approx 1.2mm off the disc ‘hat’ to
compensate for the disc being over to one side by approx 1.2 mm when its all bolted
up. Some people use spacers in between the calliper and strut but id rather not so I had
the disc machined.

Once you have the discs back when you go to bolt the disc to the hub it looks like it
will work but the boltholes are a fraction too close to the centre. You could drill the
hole out ever so slightly or do as I did and spend 10 mins with a file. Now the hub
goes on the struts as with the calliper.

With the struts in the vice and the springs removed take out the wet leg insert. I had
after market shocks in my sprinter struts so I wanted to use them. They fitted into the
corona strut but were a bit to short, I cant remember how much exactly maybe 6mm.
All you have to do to overcome this is insert spacers in the bottom, simple.

The next problem is with the top spring saddle. The corona spring saddle does not fit
inside the sprinter strut tower so you will need to use the original sprinter top spring
saddle off your old struts. This would be ok if the corona springs fitted into the
sprinter saddle but they do not. You will most likely be wanting after market springs
anyway rather than the stock ones so you will need some custom work to be done. I
did not have after market springs in my original struts so I needed custom ones made
up. I went to All Springs in Liverpool, if your not near Liverpool you’ll need to find
another shop that makes up custom springs which shouldn’t be too hard anyway. Now
what you want is a spring which is the same as the corona spring at the bottom, but
the same as the sprinter spring at the top. If you already have after market springs in
your sprinter you could just get the spring rewound at the bottom to suite the corona
bottom spring saddle.

Here is a picture of what the strut looks like:

-------

Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo while I was doing the conversion but I
remembered afterwards when I had the car on the hoist but I couldn’t be bothered
taking the wheel off. You can still see the custom spring which you may think would
be expensive but only cost $125 for a pair. Note that the factory wheels have been
ditched as the brakes will not fit inside the 13-inch rims. I don’t not know if they will
fit in 14’s because I have 15’s and they definitely fit in them.


Once the custom springs have been made chuck them on the struts with the sprinter
spring saddles on the top, they are now ready to bolt in. Some people say you need to
replace the lower control arm with ones from a TA22 Celica because the sprinter ones
interfere with the discs. I did not find this to be the case however my lower control
arms are not stock, they are in fact rose-jointed for camber adjustment but, using the
stock control arms. I cannot see why stock control arms should interfere with the disc
as the outer end of mine are identical as you can see in the picture only the inner end
is different.

--------


The next thing that needs to be done is the master cylinder. The master cylinder that
the Hilux callipers worked with originally had an internal diameter of 15/16th of an
inch. If you do not change the master cylinder you will have no pedal feel. The master
cylinder off a Mitsubishi Starion bolts straight up to the sprinter. The rear brake pipe
will bolt into the master cylinder when you bend it a little. The front pipe however
does not reach and a new one will need to be made. This will cost you next to nothing
for a brake shop to do but I made mine myself with copper piping and a flaring kit
which cost about $50. The other thing is you need is the little brake pipes that
originally went into the hilux callipers to bolt from the calliper to the rubber brake
hose. They’ll cost like $5 from a wrecker. Finally I cut and soldered the low-level
indicator plug from the old sprinter master cylinder to the Starion one.

So that’s it I think. Heres a pic of the final product:

-------------

As you can see there isn’t much room between the lower control arm and the disc but
they do not touch. If however they do for some reason, I can’t see why it would be a
problem to grind a small amount off. Or, use TA22 control arms if you think its
necessary however I cannot confirm these will work. There are probably a few things
ive missed so if you have any questions email me and ill try and help you out.

Kevin Jensen - evosti@nofunatall.com

[TWNCAM]

Hello Everyone,

My first post on KE70.com, so please be gentle...........

I've been searching for a front brake replacement for my AE71 that would just bolt on, fit under 15 inch rims and not cost over a grand. I have considered all the hybrid kits using Corona, Celica, Hilux bits etc, until I came across a company in Melbourne that sells them for $865.00 (plus freight anywhere in Oz) - well I did loan them my strut to use as a template so that all you members who like me wanted a kit that you could bolt on yourself and uses Australian made pads and rotors (read Holden or Ford) which means that they should be cheap to replace and available at every corner brake store.

You can specify 4 or 5 stud hubs and the kits should be ready in the next week or so.

They also have a shop on eBay - "mr-spares" or you can order direct from their Melbourne Warehouse - Ultra Performance Components - Tony or Randall
PH. 03 97239987

I will post some pics when I pick up my kit so that everyone can see what you get,

regards Gavin

Thank Kevin Jensen - evosti@nofunatall.com for this write up. It works well, as ive personally used it.

Corona XT130 Ke / Ae / Te Brake Upgrade

First of all I take no credit for coming up with this brake upgrade, I merely used an
existing idea designed for upgrading brake on a Celica and adapted it to the sprinter.
There’s not a lot different but I know that if I had it all planned out for me for the
sprinter it would have been a little easier. Most of this you can do yourself if you have
the appropriate tools, I was lucky as I had access to a mechanics workshop with air
tools, bench vice, spring compressors etc. while it may look a little daunting at first it
really is quite easy if you have just the tiniest bit of mechanical experience. I was only
18 at the time and second year apprentice mechanic so anyone can do it! I wrote this
article a little while after I did the conversion so I may have forgotten a few things but
if I have email me and I might be able to clear them up.

Parts needed:
Corona XT130 front struts
Peugeot 604 front disc rotors
Mitsubishi Starion master cylinder
Hilux LN106 callipers

Plus more parts which ill explain later

So you start with the corona struts which are from an XT130. I’m told that there’s
another model corona strut that works but when I found an XT130 dumped on the
side of the road one day it was decided. Saved myself about $100 on struts by taking
them from a dumped car on the side of the road in the middle of the day which got
some guy taking photos of me as evidence I spose but anyway, once you got the struts
make sure the bolt holes used for mounting the calliper are 90mm apart. This is the
important bit.

The parts you need from the strut are the strut itself only, the rest you don’t need. The
backing plate comes off to fit the calliper, the spring is useless as is the top spring
saddle.

When you take the discs off you may as well repack the bearings. It costs you a
couple of bucks in seals and some time but I would think everyone would do this
anyway but I thought id mention it.
European discs are known for being soft, so you may want to by new ones instead of
second hand ones, maybe from DBA. I went for new Brembo’s, but this was mainly
because I got them for less than $90 a pair.
The Peugeot discs have a diameter of 273mm whereas the original corona discs are
266mm. You need it to be machined down and any brake shop should be able to do
this for you. While your there, get them to machine approx 1.2mm off the disc ‘hat’ to
compensate for the disc being over to one side by approx 1.2 mm when its all bolted
up. Some people use spacers in between the calliper and strut but id rather not so I had
the disc machined.

Once you have the discs back when you go to bolt the disc to the hub it looks like it
will work but the boltholes are a fraction too close to the centre. You could drill the
hole out ever so slightly or do as I did and spend 10 mins with a file. Now the hub
goes on the struts as with the calliper.

With the struts in the vice and the springs removed take out the wet leg insert. I had
after market shocks in my sprinter struts so I wanted to use them. They fitted into the
corona strut but were a bit to short, I cant remember how much exactly maybe 6mm.
All you have to do to overcome this is insert spacers in the bottom, simple.

The next problem is with the top spring saddle. The corona spring saddle does not fit
inside the sprinter strut tower so you will need to use the original sprinter top spring
saddle off your old struts. This would be ok if the corona springs fitted into the
sprinter saddle but they do not. You will most likely be wanting after market springs
anyway rather than the stock ones so you will need some custom work to be done. I
did not have after market springs in my original struts so I needed custom ones made
up. I went to All Springs in Liverpool, if your not near Liverpool you’ll need to find
another shop that makes up custom springs which shouldn’t be too hard anyway. Now
what you want is a spring which is the same as the corona spring at the bottom, but
the same as the sprinter spring at the top. If you already have after market springs in
your sprinter you could just get the spring rewound at the bottom to suite the corona
bottom spring saddle.

Here is a picture of what the strut looks like:

-------

Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo while I was doing the conversion but I
remembered afterwards when I had the car on the hoist but I couldn’t be bothered
taking the wheel off. You can still see the custom spring which you may think would
be expensive but only cost $125 for a pair. Note that the factory wheels have been
ditched as the brakes will not fit inside the 13-inch rims. I don’t not know if they will
fit in 14’s because I have 15’s and they definitely fit in them.


Once the custom springs have been made chuck them on the struts with the sprinter
spring saddles on the top, they are now ready to bolt in. Some people say you need to
replace the lower control arm with ones from a TA22 Celica because the sprinter ones
interfere with the discs. I did not find this to be the case however my lower control
arms are not stock, they are in fact rose-jointed for camber adjustment but, using the
stock control arms. I cannot see why stock control arms should interfere with the disc
as the outer end of mine are identical as you can see in the picture only the inner end
is different.

--------


The next thing that needs to be done is the master cylinder. The master cylinder that
the Hilux callipers worked with originally had an internal diameter of 15/16th of an
inch. If you do not change the master cylinder you will have no pedal feel. The master
cylinder off a Mitsubishi Starion bolts straight up to the sprinter. The rear brake pipe
will bolt into the master cylinder when you bend it a little. The front pipe however
does not reach and a new one will need to be made. This will cost you next to nothing
for a brake shop to do but I made mine myself with copper piping and a flaring kit
which cost about $50. The other thing is you need is the little brake pipes that
originally went into the hilux callipers to bolt from the calliper to the rubber brake
hose. They’ll cost like $5 from a wrecker. Finally I cut and soldered the low-level
indicator plug from the old sprinter master cylinder to the Starion one.

So that’s it I think. Heres a pic of the final product:

-------------

As you can see there isn’t much room between the lower control arm and the disc but
they do not touch. If however they do for some reason, I can’t see why it would be a
problem to grind a small amount off. Or, use TA22 control arms if you think its
necessary however I cannot confirm these will work. There are probably a few things
ive missed so if you have any questions email me and ill try and help you out.

Kevin Jensen - evosti@nofunatall.com

[fozz]

Hello Everyone,

My first post on KE70.com, so please be gentle...........

I've been searching for a front brake replacement for my AE71 that would just bolt on, fit under 15 inch rims and not cost over a grand. I have considered all the hybrid kits using Corona, Celica, Hilux bits etc, until I came across a company in Melbourne that sells them for $865.00 (plus freight anywhere in Oz) - well I did loan them my strut to use as a template so that all you members who like me wanted a kit that you could bolt on yourself and uses Australian made pads and rotors (read Holden or Ford) which means that they should be cheap to replace and available at every corner brake store.

You can specify 4 or 5 stud hubs and the kits should be ready in the next week or so.

They also have a shop on eBay - "mr-spares" or you can order direct from their Melbourne Warehouse - Ultra Performance Components - Tony or Randall
PH. 03 97239987

I will post some pics when I pick up my kit so that everyone can see what you get,

regards Gavin

lots of companies already do this a company in adelaide already makes a kit that uses rx7 calipers civic rotors and is completly bolt on and is a bit cheaper too. still interested to see how your brakes turn out though do you have any specs on them?

[TWNCAM]

lots of companies already do this a company in adelaide already makes a kit that uses rx7 calipers civic rotors and is completly bolt on and is a bit cheaper too. still interested to see how your brakes turn out though do you have any specs on them?

Will post pics and specs once I have them - stay tuned!!
Update of phone numbers - workshop - Randall - 03 9723 9987 or Tony - office - 03 9723 9924 or you can enquire via the eBay site.
regards Gavin

[crostek]

If anyone is doing this conversion I have found a place in Sydney that sells the LN106 calipers new, yes new toyota calipers from japan so if you need a new set for under $500 let me know by PM and I wll forward you the details.