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Rear Disc Brakes for a Sunbeam Alpine! Tiger?

Jay Laifman

Donation Time
I have no need for disc brakes either. I believe fully that drum brakes are more than adequate for the car - unless you are racing, but then if you are racing, disc brakes will not be allowed for groups that require things to be period correct.

My Tiger has manually adjusted drum brakes in the rear, and they work fine. My Alpine used to have manually adjusted, but at some point I switched to self-adjusted. They seemed to be fine for a long time, though not great. I recently tried to get them great, and could not. I got everything to go back to manual (which I still had from when I made the swap). But, after seeing this thread and learning how reasonable the prices are, I decided why not.

The packages arrived today. Wow, as Charles appreciated the good metal work from pictures, I'm doubling down on that appreciation now that I've had them in my hands. I've so far very impressed and very satisfied. Also very appreciative of the attention to packaging them well.

More to come as I make the swap.
 

Jay Laifman

Donation Time
I am finally midway into installing the rear disc brakes. I don't have it fully installed yet. But I have to say, I am really impressed by the kit (I bought the full thing from DanR) and I can see how nicely it all fits together. So far it has gone super smoothly.

FYI, I have aftermarket wire wheel hubs. The back side of them is already flat. So I don't need to have them machined (like for the original factory hubs). Also a nice plus.

I'm bummed I have waited this long! Both for how long I suffered with trying to get the self adjusting rear drums to work, and for how long it has been since I got the kit from DanR.

More updates to follow.
 

DanR

Diamond Level Sponsor
Jay, Here's a few PIC's of my wire hub puller designed for my wire wheel disc brake kit
 

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Bill Blue

Platinum Level Sponsor
Disks, brackets and caliper mounts are now in and on. Pretty darn simple. If my time was clear, I would have had the whole thing done in one day. It's so great how efficient and easy it is.
Thanks to DanR. I had a workable, but crude, Saturn system. Gave the well used parts to Dan when he asked about the possibility of using an outsized (for an Alpine) Ford rear caliper. Dan was able to install the grungy parts onto an Alpine axle. No trivial feat, as it was made for a Ford 8". Anyway, Dan fell in love with the concept and developed it into a kit that any company would be proud to offer.
Bill
 

Aladin Sane

Diamond Level Sponsor
It didn't require much in the way of modifications to adapt this system to a dana 44 out of a postal jeep. I did have to add a 1/2" spacer and some longer studs to make things work.
 

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Bill Blue

Platinum Level Sponsor
People tend to underestimate the importance of wheel configuration. Thinking the bigger the wheel, the easier the installation and more room to work with. The initial installation of this kit was on a car using the Ford 8" axle and 13" cast wheels. It was tight, but it worked just fine. Dan has a set of 14" wheels that interfere with the brake.

Bill
 

Warren

Bronze Level Sponsor
I have the Fiat X19 set up and they don't wanna fit 13" Cosmic wheels I have ...
One of the period mods I have wanted to do for years .
 

sunalp

Diamond Level Sponsor
Alan, for the record tell us what wheels you are running?
Not sure what wheels Brian is using, but I'm using 15" Rotas on my car with Dans rear brakes.
No issues what so ever. Dans kits are really well thought out and easy to install!
 

Warren

Bronze Level Sponsor
Michael as always it's more than one problem when you change things. The quick rack that's on the car pushes out the track ends into the wheel.
 
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