Ordering some new calipers. Truck was built in October 88 but it's listed as a 1989 model year. My previous brake work showed I had a master cylinder from 88 and a booster from 89. So before I go and order, is there an easy way to identify which version I have and//or will the later model calipers bolt on in place of earlier models with no issues?

 

10/88 would be a 1989 model year. The emissions label on the hood will give the year it conforms to. The vin plate will list the year the safety equipment was designed for. The VIN also has a year identifier. I believe it was the 10th character. For 1989 it will be “K”.

if you go to Toyota.com and click the “Owner” tab it’ll take you to menu where you can get specs on your vehicle. Pretty interesting

 

That’s all great and stuff but doesn’t answer the question. How can I differentiate the differences? I’ve already run into issues with a mish mash of brake parts.

 

If you have a 1989 vehicle and a 1989 brake booster I’d guess someone replaced the master cylinder at one time.
what’s the first 10 characters of your vin?
1987 and 1988 were pretty straightforward years. 1989 got weird with mid year changes. My guess that’s where your issue lies. The first half of the vin will help

 

i understand thats a generational change but why wouldnt they fit anyways? i mean 2nd gen runner brakes, v6 or 4 banger, bolt right up to a 1st gen runner, so why not the pickup? the only thing i can imagine would be weird is if you tried running v6 brakes without the right master.

 

Bolt hole locations could change, thickness of material, pad location, size. Could be any number of changes that might not make them work across the generations.

 

yes I understand what COULD change, but I’m saying I can tell you for certain that the 1st to 2nd gen ifs calipers interchange. So it stands to reason the pickup would be the same, year to year. I believe the first real change came with the tacoma, when the rotor was changed to a slip on style.

 

That’s what I needed to know. If they interchange then I don’t care and will order the 89’s to make it easy to remember.

 

You want the 89 and newer V6 calipers, they have bigger pistons (than the 4 cylinder and the 88 / older), but otherwise will bolt right up. All the calipers from 86-95 had the same bolt pattern for the 6 lug trucks, some just had smaller pistons in them.

 

Perfect. Thank you. Time to spend money.

 

keep in mind, if you swap to v6 calipers, youll want to swap to the v6 master as well..not a huge cost but you wont see a performance gain without the right master to push the bigger calipers. do some searching on here for the v6 brake swap there are a million threads, i even have one somewhere. i am currently using some pickup parts, some runner parts, some fj0 parts, some fj80 parts lol. they all bolt up and you can really get some stopping power. i think im even running an fj62 booster, cant remember at this point but you definitely want to use a dual diaphragm booster if you dont already have one.