Series 1 brake upgrade for the mechanically challenged.

[sly]

Got mine $550 ex Brissie +$60 freight +$44 16" spare +$50 16" tyre (about 70% tread)... say $650 without tyre or $700 with. Much dearer in Newcastle or Sydney, dearer again in Melbourne. May get a cheaper price online eg autoparts.com.au, findapart.com.au, or just google "parts locator" or "parts finder". Definitely do bushes and check balljoints. My upper control arm balljoints were flogged out when I upgraded... at 300,000+km though... I replaced upper control arm bushes & brackets as well, put in an adjustable camber/caster kit while doing so.

[Night]

Rang around some other wreckers and most of them want about$650 just for control arms and stub axles, f... that! This was one of the only guys that understood why I wanted to do this upgrade most of the others said to just fit premium brakes to my car cause the sway bar wont fit, I got sick of explaining everything and gave up. This BA has done around 30,000 ks from what I gathered so the bushes might be ok, as I said I'm not sure what the fire might have done but it doesn't look to have done much damage to the suspension.

[sly]

Best not to explain what you want to do LOL. Just give them the list of parts you want and wait for the price. Some wreckers will tell you some of the things members here routinely do, are impossible...

[JC]

Originally Posted by Night

Rang around some other wreckers and most of them want about$650 just for control arms and stub axles, f... that! This was one of the only guys that understood why I wanted to do this upgrade most of the others said to just fit premium brakes to my car cause the sway bar wont fit, I got sick of explaining everything and gave up. This BA has done around 30,000 ks from what I gathered so the bushes might be ok, as I said I'm not sure what the fire might have done but it doesn't look to have done much damage to the suspension.

I got mine from Brissy (probably the same place sly did - maybe I even recommended them, lol). And it was around $500 for the parts, and $80 freight to ACT. But that was without a spare wheel, so $650 sound about right. In fact, anywhere up to $1k, is still alright, just not as all right as $650!

If the BA had only done 30,000km, I wouldn't change any bushes at all - but if it's done around say 100,000km, then I would certainly look at changing them to be on the safe side.

[lostdude]

Originally Posted by JC

Probably not as the upper control arm bolt for the upright is pretty easy to get out on the AU. If it was an E series, I would say you definitely need one, as it takes a hammer to break the upper balljoint, but AU pretty much slips out.

BUT, if it does need a shim or two (or even a shim removed), that should be all part of a standard wheel alignment charge, and the shop that does the work has millions of shims that cost them nothing.

thanks jc, i just bought this off ebay is it an alrite price? http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....ayphotohosting

i think i only need the sway bar and maybe brakes don't know if they come with it and i'm set. :

[lostdude]

*brake pads

[Night]

Went to help pull the gear off the BA today and came across 2 problems I hope I don't get in the AU. The first was the steering rack was in the way of the rear control arm bolt so it had to be droped to allow the bolt to be backed off enough to get the control arm out. The second problem was with the front of the control arm, there are 2 bolts coming down infront of it and one of those stops the control arm coming out of its mount. I was told the stering rack is bolted differently on the AU so it just need to be loosened and backed off. Haven't heard anyone mention any of these things so I gather it's not a big problem with it, am I right?
Another thing I noticed when I looked at the AU next to the BA was the sway bar bracket. The BA bolts through the sides of the chassis where as the AU bolts underneath. I know its different and everything but there where bolts in the chassis in a very similar place on the AU to where the bracket mounts onto the BA. Those bolts didn't look like they were doing much and looked exactly like the bolts on the BA but as everyone has said, you just use one of them and drill through the chassis for the other. Which one do I use and can I just drill the bracket for the other hole? I didn't have a time to look further at that one.

[lostdude]

Night your making it sound complicated, now i'm worried about my conversion.

[Night]

It does look fairly straight forward. These don't look like big problems. I'm just curious as to what other have done.

[Night]

I was interested in the set up you got off ebay by the way, but he wouldn't post. Damn you, lol

[lostdude]

, yeah his in wollongong, and i live in campbelltown which is about 40 minutes away and its a very easy drive. :

anyway, keep posting up issues about the conversion when you see them so i'll know what to do when i do mine lol.

[Night]

I probably wont fit mine for a while. Going to paint everything first then find a weekend free to fit it.

[lostdude]

what colour you going to do urs?
i'm thinking about painting the caliper too but probably do a red colour, like a brembo wannable, cause my car is the one in my profile and its galaxy blue.

[JC]

Originally Posted by lostdude

thanks jc, i just bought this off ebay is it an alrite price? http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....ayphotohosting

i think i only need the sway bar and maybe brakes don't know if they come with it and i'm set. :

Alright price? Are you kidding - that's sensational!

You will need swaybar, sway bar mount brackets (AU2/AU3), and swaybar end links.

Before fitting what you have purchased, it would be worthwhile getting the discs machined, and buying a new set of pads anyway - that way you know they are as good as they ever can be when first installed.

Good stuff - all the best with the fitting.

[JC]

Originally Posted by Night

Went to help pull the gear off the BA today and came across 2 problems I hope I don't get in the AU. The first was the steering rack was in the way of the rear control arm bolt so it had to be droped to allow the bolt to be backed off enough to get the control arm out. The second problem was with the front of the control arm, there are 2 bolts coming down infront of it and one of those stops the control arm coming out of its mount. I was told the stering rack is bolted differently on the AU so it just need to be loosened and backed off. Haven't heard anyone mention any of these things so I gather it's not a big problem with it, am I right?
Another thing I noticed when I looked at the AU next to the BA was the sway bar bracket. The BA bolts through the sides of the chassis where as the AU bolts underneath. I know its different and everything but there where bolts in the chassis in a very similar place on the AU to where the bracket mounts onto the BA. Those bolts didn't look like they were doing much and looked exactly like the bolts on the BA but as everyone has said, you just use one of them and drill through the chassis for the other. Which one do I use and can I just drill the bracket for the other hole? I didn't have a time to look further at that one.

Yep - the steering rack ends can be a pain, but if you knock them off the hub mount/upright thing anyway (you need to do this as they need to be attached to the new one), and then turn the wheels full lock one way (or the other) you will get enough clearance to undo the bolt. If not, then just undo the rack end of the steering arm. It's just a large nut that holds it in (you need to remove the rubber boot for access to it) - much easier and less messy than dropping the whole rack.

The other bolts you mention are the K frame/subframe bolts, and yes, they need to be removed, so you can lever the frame down a bit while pulling the lower arms out. Not hard - just fiddly, and I guess if you didn't know you needed to do it (like I didn't when I did mine), it can add up to a lot of lost time trying to figure out WTF is happening (hence why mine took 11 hours for what should have been a 5 hour job - between the subframe and the steering rack issues!).



It's really just a big mechano set that you need to do in order, and hopefully the steering rack tips will save you some time too.

With the swaybar chassis mounts, there are already at least one, and IIRC, two, bolts that you can use, and they're even in the right position. The AU 1's have the outer bolts, but not the inner ones, hence the need for a through and through bolt. Here's how mine ended up. The two outer bolts were already there. The middle bolt is a high tensile 95mm bolt (8mm diameter, I think) and I used a nyloc on the other end of it (and a real bugger to fit on the V8 - much easier on the I6):

[Night]

Your a champ JC I'd love to buy you a beer! That answered everything and the pics are great, spot on for what I was talking about. Cheers. By the way I don't have a workshop manual for my car so has anyone got torque specs for most of the bolts.

[lostdude]

I'm not sure if this is what you wanted Night but i got it out of my gregorys manual

Abs sensor retaining bolt 9Nm
Ball joint: lower stud nut 90nm
upper clamp bolt and nut 90nm
Brake caliper guide sleeve bolts 30nm
crossmember nuts 88nm
engine mounting bracket through bolts 50nm
hub bearing nut 305nm
lower control arm pivot bolt nuts 115nm
stabliser bar: Link nuts 22nm
mounting bracket bolts 18nm
steering gear: mounting nuts 80nm
intermediate shaft clamp bolts 22nm
suspension unit: lower mounting bolt 80nm
piston rod nut 35nm
upper mounting nuts 35nm
upper control arm: mounting bracket to body nuts 35nm
pivot bolts 50nm
tie rod end nut 55nm

[MADED-6]

didnt someone say u need new brake lines aswell?
cheers josh.

[Night]

Thanks lost dude, I was gonna buy a manual but thought the AU one might not give me all the info I need and I didn't want to buy a BA one just for this. I was going to paint my calipers blue like your car and might also paint some engine bay parts while I'm at it. Looking back at what was mentioned in the other thread I am understanding alot more about it now that JC has explained it. Once again JC your a legend, I'm pretty confident on this now even though others have told me I'm in for trouble.

Going to start painting the control arms, sway bar and brackets this weekend and hope to do the calipers and rotors soon. Then I just need some spare time to put it in. Oh and MADED-6, from what I've read the series 1 Brake lines are too short but I'm no expert.

[JC]

Originally Posted by MADED-6

didnt someone say u need new brake lines aswell?
cheers josh.

Yep - you must use the BA/AU2 brake lines on the front, and IIRC, the AU ones on the rear.

Night - no worries. Sharing this sort of info is what the forum is about (as opposed to the idiots that just post crap in the pub/bar).

[DoreSlamR]

my swaybar brackets still have a bit of movement in them even with the bolt through the middle, i was thinking of drilling out the 2 outer screw holes as well and using bolts.
Another thought was to reinforce the actual brackets, they seem very weak for what they're supposed to do. has anyone done this or thought of a possible way of doing it?

[Night]

Thinking about reinforcing the brackets as well, your right they don't look very strong. Just a couple of other questions if anyone could help. If I change the brake lines to braided ones then do I have to change back and front or will just front be ok. Secondly when I flush the brakes is it best to start at the one thats furthest away from the master cylinder and will the abs need to be bleeded by ford. I ask this because I have just heard that on the holdens that the abs module needs to be pluged into a tech 2 by holdens to bleed the air out.

[GK]

Originally Posted by Night

Secondly when I flush the brakes is it best to start at the one thats furthest away from the master cylinder and will the abs need to be bleeded by ford.

Yep. Start with the left rear, then right rear, then left front and right front.

As for the ABS module, I've never heard of that before and there's been lots and lots of talk about brakes here.

All the best with it.

GK

[Night]

Cheers, must be a holden thing.

[lostdude]

hi guys, just wanting to check some prices, is 150 for the sway bar and links an ok price? i got this quote from macarthur parts, i bought stuff from them before and they were on the expensive side.

thanks.

edit just called around Fordpro in smithfield have them for 80 bucks. : .

so its brakes 110
sway bar 80
beer for the old man to put it on 40 (i'm not very mechanically minded)
haehaehahe, i think this was cheaper than i expected lol.

[Husaberg-man]

Very impressed with the help and advice people give. Wow its good to know there are a few good blokes (and chicks no doubt) out and about.

[lostdude]

Originally Posted by Husaberg-man

(and chicks no doubt)

are you calling JC a chick???? :

j/k his a legend , always helpful with advice!

[poolkeeper]

Could someone give me a list of the tools needed?

I dont really want to be stuck half way through and have to go get another socket etc

thanks in advance

[JC]

Originally Posted by D1XR2C

Could someone give me a list of the tools needed?

I dont really want to be stuck half way through and have to go get another socket etc

thanks in advance

sockets and spanners from 12 through to 24mm should keep you out of trouble. And yes, most of them are used for this upgrade.

[JC]

Originally Posted by lostdude

are you calling JC a chick???? :

j/k his a legend , always helpful with advice!

I haven't been a chick since I was a little girl. Bet most of you thought I was male, didn't you!? j/k.

I always have advice - whether it's helpful or not depends on the context, and the reader.