Still no caliper brackets from my machinist, so I took a little time to fool around a little more. I have a complete 1977 Volare FMJ front k-member sitting under my car. It's in the way and I haven't gotten rid of it yet. So, I figured I'd try out my combo on that to see if it works. Looks like it will. I pulled off the F-body caliper and rotor and put on the Dakota hub. The Dakota "hub" is not a match for the FMJ spindle because the bearing sizes are not the same so they are not interchangeable. BUT, for mock up purposes, it's close enough. With the Dakota "hub" on and the Crown Vic rotor on that, there's sufficient clearance to mount the Lexus caliper. Once I put the whole shootin' match together, I cycled the steering lock to lock to verify there was no binding to fouling on the knuckles, pitman arms or drag link. Turns clean. It also looks like an easier mount than the Dakota. OK, now you know.

So if somebody asks "Can you mount a Lexus 4 piston caliper onto a Mopar passenger car spindle?" The answer looks to me to be "Yes". Of course, the best part is it didn't cost you anything and maybe you learned something. Please don't ask me about master cylinder's and bore sizes. I haven't gotten that far yet. I do know the Lexus master cylinder has a 1" bore size.

I went with crown vic brakes front and explorer rear, the explorer rears were the same size piston as the crown vic rears. installing the fronts on standard drum brake spindles and hubs with the rotors that fit perfect. Took a while to find compatible studs, but should be a simple upgrade because ford already did the engineering for me. Tim

I took the factory FMJ style brake rotors and cut them into hubs for my AMG brake conversion.
Your thread made me think about all the fun I had putting my combo together.

I build my own cailper bracket by using Autocad. I 3D printed the bracket first before milling them.

I used the 2003 Mercedes rotor and a machine shop milled the mopar bolt pattern in them. For the caliper I used the Brembo caliper, 6 pistons, type Z18 used on a Porsche Cayenne.

That is EXCELLENT! However, I had to use a Sharpie, a pair of scissors and a piece of cardboard before I gave the plate to the machinist. Almost done with final mounting.

That is what I call CAD.

Cardboard Aided Design.


I do it too.

You got any pics?

I'd have to do some pretty deep digging to find any pics of building the parts.

Pics of the finished project are easy to find.

WOW!!!! Now I kinda wish I'd used the larger Mustang Cobra rotors or the SRT8 rotors. But, the Crown Vic stuff keeps me in my budget. What did your whole brake project run you? AMG calipers don't fall off of trees. I just spent another $200 bucks to my machinist to fab my brackets so I'm still under $500 total for the swap.

Man... that sure is pretty....

I had about $2400 in all four calipers, pads, and rotors. That was in 2005 when there were no big brake kits for our cars. These are the front 8 piston calipers and 14.25" rotors as well as the rear 4 piston calipers and 13" rotors for a 2005 S55 AMG.

I work at a Mercedes store and got them at my employee discount.

As for the work, I have a machine shop at home. My first set of brackets were made by carving up old 2x4 lumber then copying it in steel.

OK, summer is almost over and the kids are back to school. I did a bit on this setup but this is as far as I'm going for now. Got the caliper mounting brackets finished and after a LOT of grinding on both the spindle AND the caliper (keeping SAFETY in mind), everything fit up quite nicely. Again, this is a Dakota spindle and I don't believe you'll have half the heartburn doing this on an A, B, C, E, F, M and J body. Left to do are new wheel bearings and brake lines. I may rebuild the calipers anyway. Still, the whole shootin' match comes in under budget. I'm keeping my banker happy.

$120 machine rotors to hubs
$40 Lexus calipers from a boneyard
$100 Ford Crown Vic rotors
$22 Lexus brake pads
$36 1/2" thick steel plate
$200 machine brake caliper brackets
$20 new grade 8 bolts
$40 needed to re-machine caliper brackets (tweak)

Figuring this out... Priceless!

Nice work.
I pieced together discbrake conversions for most of my ('60s) cars this way.
Currently running '73 Chrysler C-body rotors and calipers on all conversions; '60,'62,'64 and '65 Chrysler and '73 Dart.

I do think however, you need to find a new machinist that works faster or smarter when you're paying him by the hour.
$200 for simply cutting the disc-part of a discbrake rotor is pretty stiff imo.

any chance to upload the pics from a different source than photobucket dickdale ? or did anyone save them ?

Nice write up. I finished up my brake swap on my 76 D100. I machined custom aluminum hubs and used 13" Mustang rotors and 2008 up Chevy s1500 calipers. They work great. I recently machined more hubs for my friends 89 D150 and made mounts for Wilwood calipers. He is also using 13" Mustang rotors. When machining the hubs, I accounted for the rotor mounting thickness so my wheels would be in the stock location. They barely clear my 17" Year One ralleys. I will post pics later if I can figure out how.

By the way, the hubs I machined for the later D150 work on the Dakota's as well.

excellent machine work on the hubs ! as a retired machinist, i recognize quality work when i see it. again, good job !

Thank you MoparX.