JoeColeman

I have owned my 1985 2WD for about 2 years now, and the time has come to do the brakes. Been researching my options and found an FAQ on 4X4wire.com. Thats where I'm lost. Although my truck is an '85, it has IFS. And while it has the 10" rear drums, it has the single piston front calipers. According to 4x4wire, since I have IFS and 10" rear drums, I should have 4 pot calipers. Do I just have a bastard late run '85?

Now for the obvious question, will the 4 pots bolt up to my caliper brackets? Do they use the same rotor? pad? Will the MC need to be changed? I trailer a fishing boat often in the summer, and any increase in braking power would be welcome.

My apologies for the newbie question, and I appreciate any help.


Thanks,
Joe

jimbo74

nope they are not the same, and they wont bolt up to each other.. you have single piston calipers up front and 10" rear drums with single wheel cylinders in the back.... welcome to the site... i am the 1985 4x2 authority on this site.... thats what i have....

jimbo74

let me explain why they are differnt... the 4x4s and 4x2s are a lot differnt, especially when dealing with the fact that an 85 4x4 was a solid axle and an 86+ 4x4 was ifs....

the 4x2 and 4x4 dont share much with each other mechanically, there are a lot of similarities but they dont share parts like that

kyle_22r

yeah, '84-95 2wd trucks have a double wishbone independant suspension. brakes are different from the 4x4s.

'79-83 2wds had a similar but incompatible setup, while '78 and earlier trucks used coil springs

JoeColeman

Interesting. So all the 2WD are IFS? Guess that FAQ only applies to the 4WD's. Will any of the later 2WD brakes work by switching out the caliper brackets?

jimbo74

sure but why? the 4x2s mecanically were all the same from 84-95 pre tacoma

all of the 4x2s are ifs with tbars from 84-95 and they are not the same tbars as a 4x4 either, the 4x2 are about 10" shorter

JoeColeman

So the only trucks with the 4 pots were the 4WD's?

jimbo74

yes... the 4x2s were a standard setup single piston per caliper

JoeColeman

Ahh, gotcha. Sorry for the confusion. What do you reccomend as far as pads for light towing?

jimbo74

i just have cheap pads on mine... they are the red raybestos ones... that suck! anyways, any brakes should be good... bear in mind though dont tow anythin heavy! my 85 weighs 2400 pounds and the gvwr is 4400.... jsut dotn put on some insanely ehave trailer... yeah trailer weight isnt that big a corner as long as hour hardware can support it, togue weight.... but i wouldnt tow anything that exceeds that 2000 pounds leway you have because unless your trailer is running its own brakes, your truck will be doing all the stopping for the truck and the trailer....

JoeColeman

What is the difference between the 1/2 ton and 1 ton brakes?

jimbo74

now you are getting into a whole nother animal, the 1/2 tons and the 1 tons are different... they are not interchangeable