Short version: ONLY buy this kit if you REALLY desperately need rear disc brakes for some reason, and have incredible amounts of patience.
Long version: I'm new to the 4Runner/ off road aftermarket, but I really hope that this is not the status quo of aftermarket parts for this car.
Before I sound too negative, I did manage to get everything working and once I put a residual valve in in the rear everything will probably work great. But getting here was not easy.
First, you will have to cut your old drum backing plates out. I had a shop "press" one side off as per the instructions, and they ended up destroying my wheel bearing and ABS cog. This cost me about 250 bucks. The shop said this was unavoidable. So I went out and bought a Sawzall to remove the backing plate on the other side to avoid losing more money and time.
Second, there seems to be no 3rd-gen knowledge on the part of All Pro in regards to this kit. They couldn't tell me which caliper bracket went on which side. They also couldn't tell me the brake line size for a 3rd gen. I needed this (turned out to be M10x1.0) because I now have to install a residual valve (see next section).
Third, this kit does not come with a rear residual valve, which it desperately needs. Even with the system completely bled, it requires several pumps of the pedal to get full pressure on the rears. This results in a very DANGEROUS condition, especially when you do alot of towing, like me. I now have to source a residual valve and the correct adapters, do trial and error with 2psi and 10psi variants, and hopefully get everything in balance correctly.
Fourth, the brake lines supplied were within a few millimeters of not being long enough, requiring an excruciating amount of time and brake fluid trying to install them. If they were about an inch longer on either side, it would have been a breeze. The reason I had this problem was I mounted the calipers facing forwards on both sides, not backwards. All Pro said they could be mounted either way. I mounted them forward because otherwise the ABS sensor had to be removed. With them mounted forward, there was absolutely no slack with the brake lines.
Fifth, both caliper brackets had to be re-drilled in order to fit on the axle. The holes did not quite line up with the three bolts that they use for mounting to the axle. This is unacceptable. There are modern machine shop methods that can assure quality control to prevent this. This took about another two hours of fiddling with them and eventually giving up and going to buy a drill bit that was big enough and strong enough to cut through the steel brackets.
All in all, everything will probably be fine in the end once I sort out the residual valve. However, there were unnecessary headaches and time stoppages with this kit. Once you get everything together, the fit with the pads/calipers/rotors is very nice and I'm sure there will be increased braking performance, but I get the idea that 3rd gens were not considered very much in designing this kit. Every time I called to ask about something 3rd-gen related, I didn't get a particularly helpful or knowledgable answer. If this kit will work on these cars (as it states on the website) I feel that there should be equal support and knowledge as there is for the old models.
Would I do it again? No. I do not recommend it.
Patrick
Long version: I'm new to the 4Runner/ off road aftermarket, but I really hope that this is not the status quo of aftermarket parts for this car.
Before I sound too negative, I did manage to get everything working and once I put a residual valve in in the rear everything will probably work great. But getting here was not easy.
First, you will have to cut your old drum backing plates out. I had a shop "press" one side off as per the instructions, and they ended up destroying my wheel bearing and ABS cog. This cost me about 250 bucks. The shop said this was unavoidable. So I went out and bought a Sawzall to remove the backing plate on the other side to avoid losing more money and time.
Second, there seems to be no 3rd-gen knowledge on the part of All Pro in regards to this kit. They couldn't tell me which caliper bracket went on which side. They also couldn't tell me the brake line size for a 3rd gen. I needed this (turned out to be M10x1.0) because I now have to install a residual valve (see next section).
Third, this kit does not come with a rear residual valve, which it desperately needs. Even with the system completely bled, it requires several pumps of the pedal to get full pressure on the rears. This results in a very DANGEROUS condition, especially when you do alot of towing, like me. I now have to source a residual valve and the correct adapters, do trial and error with 2psi and 10psi variants, and hopefully get everything in balance correctly.
Fourth, the brake lines supplied were within a few millimeters of not being long enough, requiring an excruciating amount of time and brake fluid trying to install them. If they were about an inch longer on either side, it would have been a breeze. The reason I had this problem was I mounted the calipers facing forwards on both sides, not backwards. All Pro said they could be mounted either way. I mounted them forward because otherwise the ABS sensor had to be removed. With them mounted forward, there was absolutely no slack with the brake lines.
Fifth, both caliper brackets had to be re-drilled in order to fit on the axle. The holes did not quite line up with the three bolts that they use for mounting to the axle. This is unacceptable. There are modern machine shop methods that can assure quality control to prevent this. This took about another two hours of fiddling with them and eventually giving up and going to buy a drill bit that was big enough and strong enough to cut through the steel brackets.
All in all, everything will probably be fine in the end once I sort out the residual valve. However, there were unnecessary headaches and time stoppages with this kit. Once you get everything together, the fit with the pads/calipers/rotors is very nice and I'm sure there will be increased braking performance, but I get the idea that 3rd gens were not considered very much in designing this kit. Every time I called to ask about something 3rd-gen related, I didn't get a particularly helpful or knowledgable answer. If this kit will work on these cars (as it states on the website) I feel that there should be equal support and knowledge as there is for the old models.
Would I do it again? No. I do not recommend it.
Patrick
