On every 1500 I have driven, the drum brakes work fine under most
conditions. Only after several repeated emergency stops do they show any
sign of fade. There are a few things that will will have an adverse
effect on the brakes on a 1500 (and the others as well), one common
problem is that the firewall cracks just above the master cylinder,
causing the master cylinder to flex outward when you press down on the
pedal, making the pedal feel spongy. Also check the brake hoses at both
front wheels and onto the junction on the diff housing. If they are
cracked they will expand outward when you step on the pedal.
If you are after an easy disc brake conversion for a 1500, you can fit
the discs of a 1967 to 1970 Datsun Super 6 or Special 6. These cars use
the same Dunlop Sumitomo disc brake caliper as the 1600/2000, but they
use smaller disc rotors because of the 13 inch wheels on the car. These
units bolt on with very little work and can be used with the original
size 13 inch 1500 wheels. The Personal 6 and the Custom 6 have drum
brakes, not discs. Other cars that use the Dunlop Sumitomo calipers
include the Datsun Bluebird SSS RL411 and the second generation Toyota
Crown. You can use the 1600/2000 brakes and rotors on a 1500 but you need
to switch to 14 inch wheels. A 1500 in the Early Datsun car club has 14
inch wheels. He runs 185-65-14 tyres which are close to the same diameter
as the original 1500 tyres, meaning it didn't need a flare job on the
wheel arches to make the wheels fit.
I have seen 2 neat instalations of brake boosters on Fairladys. Both cars
had PBR VH-40 remote boosters with custom made brackets. One had the
booster mounted in the drivers side (on RHD cars) wheel arch and the
other had the unit mounted in front of the radiator, bolted onto the
chassis rail between the grille and the radiator.
Alan Bent. Queensland,Australia.
greg mitchell wrote:
> i currently have drum brakes on my 1965 1500 roadster which arnt real
> flash when it come to stopping ,is their a simple conversion to discs
> available instead of using hard to find and expensive 1600 parts,does
> any other car stuff fit.do i need to fit a brake booster? as room is
> practically impossible
> chers greg sp310 aust
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