101 Disc Brake Conversion

[L90OOK]

Hi

Does anyone know where you can get the parts to convert 101 axles from drum to discs?
Have had a quote for £750 + Vat from Local Supplier  :shock:
Cheers

J

[Lucy1978]

Zeus are the only ones who make a kit to do it; and that's the price they charge.

[sardonicus]

could you put rangie axle on it,dont know about diff ratios tho.

[thermidorthelobster]

101 axles use salisbury diffs and have welded swivel balls, so that might be a backwards step.

It's either Zeus or DIY I'm afraid J.  The Zeus kit does the job, but considering the price, you'll have to spend a lot of time reshaping the callipers with an angle grinder, although it's generally fairly straightforward to fit, bodges notwithstanding.  Some people have reported bad results with it (including a cracked disc in one case).  I have a spare pair of wheel spacers if you need...

There was talk within the 101 club of making their own conversion.  If your friend's in the club it might be worth asking (or on the Yahoo group).  Martyn Bailey may be worth asking.

[Lucy1978]

The other way of looking at it is why bother?  If they are set up properly the drums on a 101 are more than adequate to lock up all 4 wheels.  There's footage somewhere of a GS with it's rear wheels in the air under heavy braking during trials. Yes they do take a lot of fettling and they aren't so good once you've been wading or mud plugging, but £750 an axle is a lot og money.

[thermidorthelobster]

With the weight of mine, I used to find braking with just drum brakes all round was a bit hairy.  By the time you'd got to the bottom of a big hill (the one at Dartmeet being a case in point) you were seriously hoping nothing would jump out in front of you.  The brakes were adjusted OK but the weight of the thing was just too great by the time they'd braked you to the bottom of a big hill.

Putting discs on the front meant the thing would stop no matter how steep the hill, without any fading.  It still took a lot of effort but at least it would!

[tomarse]

What discs and calipers does the zeus kit use? (i assume they are std ones machined to fit the 101 hubs?)

There was talk within the 101 club of making their own conversion.  If your friend's in the club it might be worth asking.

I dont think anyone is working on a conversion at the moment, though if anybody were to want to do it and could find the discs and calipers to fit, and then do some measuring up, Steve T would probably be willing to machine them as required.