You will need to find a 93-97 NIssan Altima with it's front wheels intact.
Jack up the car and remove the front wheels.
Unbolt the brake caliper from the bracket and set aside, we don't need it.
Unbolt the caliper bracket and take that along with the bolts and brake pads if they are any good.
Remove the brake rotor and take that as well. To remove a stubborn rotor, use 2 bolts in the holes between the lug studs to force the disk off. Nothing is holding it on except rust and the lug nuts when the wheel is secured.
Clean up the rotors or buy cheap replacements and inspect the pads for wear. Inspect caliper pins and boots and replace if needed.
Back at home we can reassemble on the van. Make sure you have larger wheels than the stock 14" Axxess wheels as they will not fit the larger brakes. I used 16x6" wheels from a 97' Acura CL that had an offset of 50. The stock Axxess wheels are 14x5.5" with an offset of 45 and have a 4x114 lug pattern.
On the Axxess, start by removing the caliper as you did before.
You may want to clamp the caliper piston so it does not expand out of place. Be sure not to clamp too tightly. Hang the caliper so as not to stress the brake line. Then remove the bracket and rotor.
You can see how much larger the new rotors are compared to the originals, the pads are larger as well.
You will need to bend or remove the brake shield so the new larger rotors will fit. I used some channel locks.
If the rotors and pads are serviceable you can lube up the caliper pins with some brake grease and slap it all back together.
Be sure to pump up the brakes before you try and drive away or you may find it hard to stop. Do some low speed testing then work up to full braking before driving on busy public roads.
The size increase of the new brakes is only 15-20% but the improvement in braking is much more than that. This is one of the easiest and cheapest upgrades you can do but the results are a major improvement.
Now about those rear drum brakes...
yes, there is at least one person reading this....and i am up in Lynnwood, have had mine from 92, and will not get rid of it, it is my truck, i use it for diving and snowboarding. right now it jumped the timing chain...common problem with the plastic chain guide breaking and droping down, nissan says it is not a design flaw, but guess what, the newest 'kits' for the timing chain have a new metal one, hehe, so I am going to rebuild the engine...many mods to mine nice wheels, auto start, one touch windows, killer stereo, etc. love the brake upgrade, will look into it...keep it up.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dan.
ReplyDeleteMaybe do a writeup with pictures of your rebuild and I'll post it here or link to your axxess blog :P
Keep an eye open for the rear brake upgrade blog post which is almost done.
Cool.
ReplyDeletethis is very timely for me. My 95 Axxess calipers died yesterday. This brings me to my question - do you know if the calipers from the Altima fit on my stock Axxess rims? I only ask because you said we don't need em for this upgrade. I'm pumped since I could definitely use the upgraded brakes as well!!!
I'm pretty sure the 93-97 Altima calipers will fit the Axxess as far as size and bolt placement.
ReplyDeleteBest bet is to take your old part to the junkyard or parts store to match it up. The gen3 Maxima and other Nissans may also use the same caliper.
Let us know what you find out.