The Ultimate Four Eyed 4 Lug Brake Upgrade Thread

[erratic50]

So you're staying old school, eh? Traditional 4 lug, traditional coil springs, shocks, and struts. You want it to look factory but drive much better than it did originally.

I don't think I've seen anyone do that type of thread. Now that 5 lug swaps are getting more and more popular, fewer cars are rolling on 4-lug wheels and real resources and info that is current in 2018 is getting a bit more scarce. These factors, over time, are slowly making it harder to achieve reasonable 60-0 performance on our old foxes for the crowd that love their old-school 4 lug rims.

I recently started looking into this very thing for my 1985 "Saleen-006" (for those that get the joke) and found it was much harder than it was "back in the day" --- PRE SN95 swap parts bin era.

Lets settle on some goals and discuss good/better/best approaches to 4 lug setups that will produce a car that actually stops, and how well it stops, etc.

For those who like to cruise around town or in the parking lot lets identify an ackerman correction capable 4-lug compatible spindle

Also maybe pinpoint front disc setups that work well
-- Under old-school metric TRX wheels
-- Under 14" wheels
-- Under 15" and larger wheels
-- Under 16"+ wheels (doubt those will ever be a problem with 4 lug parts bin brakes but who knows)

Rear drum of stock size - what works the best.

What pads -- what work the best.

Alternative rear drum setups that work well

Rear disc conversion setups that work well

General suspension changes that help transfer weight properly for better stopping - be it X2 balljoints up front or torque arms out back, etc.

Not even opposed to talking about which springs yield what ride height with parts being played with, etc. The thought is no coilovers and no 5 lug. Four lug pride??