1978 Leone / DL Wagon Project (Front Brakes Help)

[jaa7227]

Hey everyone, I figured with my new purchase I should hop on one of these boards to document my work / get some advice on my 78 4x4 wagon project. 

I picked it up about a month ago and have been having a great time driving and owning it. It was a pain to pass smog and get all registered, but now that I've got the title It's time to start fixing it up and getting it ready to be a solid daily driver. 

The body is straight and the 64K original motor runs like a champ, but it's got some hidden issues that I need to repair and it needs a lot of love to get it back in good shape. I've got a lot of plans for this car and I'm starting to line out everything I want to do. 

I'll start off with the good. Like I said the body is straight and the tub is really solid. Original motor runs great and the car is fun to cruise around in. The trans was also replaced by a previous owner and shifts great, plus the 4x4 climbs some impressive little hills and will keep up with my Jeep! I had never seen a wagon like this before I bought it. I get waves from tons of people on the road every time I take it out. The loud exhaust helps get peoples attention haha. The interior is pretty clean and the headliner is perfect, something I was happy to see. And it was pretty cheap for being in good shape, always a good thing. 

And then there's the not so good. The car has one rust hole behind the rear passenger tire. It's not terrible being a California car but still needs to be cut out and a proper sheet metal repair before I can repaint it. There's plenty of sketchy wiring that previous owners have done. That means I need to start cutting stuff out and soldering in new wires the right way. I keep finding more wires just twisted together and taped over, something that needs to be fixed asap. Windshield is broken and I'm looking for a new one. Dash is cracked and seats are torn which I'd like to cover or replace. I'm trying to find a new speedometer cable to fix that too. My biggest issue now is the front brakes which I'll get specific about soon. 

The previous owner had a some extra goodies that he threw in that I still need to put on. I have the full Redline Weber kit to put on it for a little more power. He gave me an EA82 electronic distributor, but I'm still trying to figure out all that goes into that swap. I know that requires replacing almost all the wiring and the coil, but I'll do that in the future in since my points distributor is in great shape. 

So far I've done a bit of work to get it going. When I bought it the alternator, coil, and voltage regulator had been replaced but was not charging the battery. A half hour with a test light and found that one connector at the regulator was plugged in the wrong way when he put it all back together. All I had to do was spin the round connector one notch clockwise and everything worked! I had to buy tint because it was a complete fishbowl, so It's rocking 5% on every window. I built a custom front bumper which turned out great, and built a matching roof rack basket and slapped 8 cheap LED lights to get that old school rally vibe (too cheap to get any hellas but I'd like to in the future). I'm waiting to hook up the lights for once I get the wiring straightened out so for now it's just for looks haha. 

I'm excited to get started doing more to the car, but I'm already finding out just how hard it is to find parts for it. I'll be taking any help I can get on this board to get stuff to retrofit on here. Here are some pics of when I first picked it up and after with the tint and bumper / rack. Feel free to help me out with any knowledge anyone has for working on this beast! I'm not looking to do a full restoration since it's already too far from stock, but I'm looking to make it a one of a kind ride that I plan on keeping for a long time. 

Edited July 18, 2020 by jaa7227
Wanted to make the title more specific

[jaa7227]

I'll get right into my current project, overhauling the front brakes. I'm going to need some help with this one because finding info hasn't been easy.

Driving it was fun but I could tell that there were some serious issues with the front right caliper. It seemed to be sticking especially if you really got on the brakes hard. The caliper would stick and I could feel the motor struggling to get it unstuck. First driving it and it would want to pull hard to the right and if you really got on the brakes it would stick again. I finally took it all apart and It's not looking good. The pads were pretty much gone from it being compressed at all times. The rotor is trashed so I'll need to get a new one because I think machining it would take off too much out of it. I took the caliper apart and it has obviously been rebuilt before. It's dinged up from being taken apart and completely seized, so I doubt it would be wise to rebuild it. 

So I'm set on just redoing the entire front brakes, but he problem is finding parts. I can't find a single caliper or rotor that says it will be a direct fit. I've been doing a bunch of research and I'm looking to see how the gen 2 brakes will fit on it. I believe the bolt pattern for the caliper mount is the same since the hub assembly stays almost identical throughout the 80's models. From what I can tell any brake setup from an 80-89 should bolt on as long as I get the caliper, rotor, and pads for that exact year. The 80-83 caliper seems almost the same with a similar looking caliper, but with the updated style using a bolt to hold the pads in instead of the shims and cotter pins on my 78 caliper. These years use the same size rotor as mine so I'm pretty confident this setup will work well. I would just go ahead and buy it all, but I'm still struggling to find a matching set of calipers with the brackets (I'm only finding right sides and there's no point in swapping one side to an 80's and keeping the original on the other). 

So now I want to see if the 84-89 style will also bolt on. I know that the rotor is a little bigger (some are ventilated) , and the caliper bore is bigger, but does anyone know if it will still mount to my hub with the same 17mm bolts? The 4x140 bolt pattern is still used on these later DL's so I'm hoping it will fit since these parts are more readily available. I know it would probably be wise to also get the matching master cylinder for this year, but I think that my original one will do. 

So let me know if anyone has done a similar swap or you have any advice, it would be greatly appreciated. I want to get my rig back on the road!

[TXJayhawk]

I have a spare master cylinder (13/16 bore) that was in my parts bin along with rotors for an 80-83 Subaru car (not Brat). Neither fits my 1981 Brat (the 81 needs a 3/4 bore which I just got on eBay-there is one still available) Calipers are non-existent and rotors nearly so. I think I got the last Centric set that popped up on eBay earlier this year. Haven’t tried fitting it yet as my master cylinder rear reservoir keeps draining and need to figure out why.

The rotors for the 80-83 car did not fit my 1981 hub when I had new pads put on last December so I had to reinstall the old rotors which are well worn past the safety limit.

If you are interested in either or both parts,  I would like to get them to someone who can use them.

 

 

[gerisauer]

I sent you a private message, thanks.

G

happy wheels

Edited October 6, 2020 by gerisauer

[Leeroy]

Swap the 1983+ complete ventilated disc brakes from 1983+ EA81 engined models. Calipers, rotors, backing plates and hand brake cables will all swap over without issue.

They might be getting hard to find these days but it should be easier to source than the earlier stuff.

[newmexguy]

Guess that is something like this - '83 Wgn.  Unfortunately the local yard just crushed it.  The Executors didn't want to consider saving hardly anything old.