My friend had bought a cracking 1978 sherpa autosleeper which is fantastic in almost every way. Except the all round drum brakes which are very poor.
Does anyone know of a disc brake conversion that has been done to save me hours of research?
See the van and click on paddy's friends.
Thanks
Paul
Hi Paul,
Was it your friends who changed the seats and the steering wheel ? If so, I don't suppose they have any of the original bits left ? I 'm trying to put it back to original.
Cheers,
Sam
For anyone else who comes searching:
I ended up doing the disc brake conversion on this van, as someone ( I have no idea if it was Paul's friends, or another previous owner ) had fitted new wheel bearings, then overtightened and Knackered them, and had liberally greased the brake drums !!??!!??? thus destroying a prefectly good set of shoes. There where also 3 leaky cylinders (no it was definately grease round the drums) and a couple of rusty pipes.
Given the cost of the parts, and the fact I fancied discs, and had acess to a Pilot as a donor, I took the whole Pilot front axle springs and all, and swapped it over. dead easy except for unbolting the shock absorber bracket from the Pilot axle; After much wd40 and wellieing with a sledge hammer, I eventually had to drill out one of the bolts. The Older one was easy, as it was designed to be, and just unbolted. Unfortunately , someone had previously damaged the thread (overtightening again), so I had to re-tap it, but it went into the new axle nicely.
Watch out for the steering tie rod; easy to get out as it has opposing threads, but the Pilot has a different thread, so you need to swap one of the rod ends to match whichever rod you're using.
That's it done. remembering to bleed the brakes check the pads etc.
p.s.check the kingpins before you remove the Pilot axle., it'll be much easier to change them (if needed) when the axle is out, as you can take it to someone with a press.
good luck
Sam