Samurai BBU (Big Brake Upgrade)

Trackick 4 door brakes are a big brake upgrade for the Samurai front brakes. There are a few diffrent

methods of doing this swap. When paired with Samurai disc brake conversion in the rear and a master

cylinder upgrade, a Samurai on 35's would stop with ease.

One thing to note before doing this is that brake bleeding will becom a little more tedious. The reason

for this is because of the mounting angle of the brakes on the Samurai compared to how they are

mounted on the Trackicks. In order to get all the air out of the calipers you will need to remove the

clipers from their bracket during bleeding and turn them so the the bleeder is at the highest point.

If you're feeling extra special you could also do 4 door Trackick calipers and rotors in the rear for

maximum stoping power.

Reasearch suggests that with minmal effort, massive Grand Vitara calipers may also be fitted. I will

include the information on that though it has not been tested yet.

Part #'s for 1999-2004 Trackcik calipers are different than those of the 1989-1998 Trackick calipers. Also

of note is that from 1999-2004 there is no more description as to whether or not the Tracker is 2 door or

4 door. I am guessing that they all became 4 door and the calipers were standardized. The differnce

between the two has to do mainly with the caliper bracket thickness.

Part #'s for 1999-2004 Trackick rotors are different than the 1989-1998 Tackick rotors. The difference is

in the overall height of the rotor. The earlier models had an overall height of 46mm whereas the late

models had an overall height of 29mm. It appears that the hub is more shallow on the late models.

However, Nominal thickness and diameter remains the same between the two.

Both styles can be used. 1989-1998 and 1999-2004 4 door brake parts. The way you mount and modify

them is different and can bee seen below. First we start with a little information.

Original set-up (This is what you start with)

15" rims

86-95 Samurai calipers:

Bore Size 51.054 mm

Inlet Thread M10x1

Bleeder Thread M10x1

86-95 Samurai rotos:

Type Solid

Lug 5

Outer Diameter 290.68 mm

Nominal Thickness 10 mm

Discard Thickness 9.017 mm

Bolt Pattern 139.7

Height 46.05 mm

86-95 Samurai Pads

These are the 3 options you have for mounting 4 door calipers to your Samurai based on what parts you

have access to.

Set-Up 1

15"rims

99-04 Trackick calipers:

Bore Size 53.848 mm

Inlet Thread M10x1

Bleeder Thread M10x1

99-04 Chevy Tracker rotors:

Discard Thickness 14.986

Nominal Thickness 17.018

Height 29 mm

Lug 5

Outer Diameter 286.5 mm

Pattern 139.7 mm

Type Vented

99-04 Chevy Tracker brake pad

Set-Up 2 -

15"rims

99-04 Chevy Tracker calipers

Bore Size 53.848 mm

Inlet Thread M10x1

Bleeder Thread M10x1

89-98 Trackick 4 door rotors:

Discard Thickness 14.986

Nominal Thickness 17.018

Height 46 mm

Lug 5

Outer Diameter 287 mm

Pattern 139.7 mm

Type Vented

89-98 Trackick 4 door brake pads

Set-up 3 -

15" Rims

89-98 Trackick 4 door calipers:

Bore Size 53.848 mm

Inlet Thread M10x1

Bleeder Thread M10x1

89-98 Trackick 4 door rotors:

Discard Thickness 14.986

Nominal Thickness 17.018

Height 46 mm

Lug 5

Outer Diameter 287 mm

Pattern 139.7 mm

Type Vented

89-98 Trackick 4 door brake pads

Set-up 1

You need to add 5/16" spacers between the calipers and the Samurai knuckles. The less-deep 29mm

rotors don't allow the caliper to touch the knuckle. The spacer fixes this. You can choose to run loose

spacers or weld them to the dust plate for more secuirity. Don't worry about it too much though. Adding

spacers is common for brake upgrades on many other vehicles. A *perfect* fit rotor would be 35mm

deep, but there is no such thing that I know of.

If you add 5/16" thick spacers then you need bolts longer by 5/16" to make up for the calipers and

rotors being that much more outboard. Will the strength and the integrity of the brakes be

compromised? It'd only be about 5/16" so I'm thinking not. However, if you're concerned its never a bad

idea to upgrade the bolt strength. 80mm long bolts should be long enough.

The wheel still fits without problems. If you have a high-steer kit you will need to grind the arms for

clearance.

Set-up 2

This requires you to grind down the caliper bracket to about a half inch thick for it to fit behind the

rotor.

No notching of the dust shield required but you may need to bend out just a hair. Bolts are the same

length. If you have high-steer you will need to shave them for clearance. Everything else mounts up the

same as the brakes normally would.

Set-up 3

This requires you only notch the dust plate for clearance and shave high-steer arms if you have them.

Everything else mounts up the same as brakes normally would.

Why do 1 and 2 versus the much easier 3? Well for one, late model calipers are easier to find as all 99-04

Chevy Trackers have this 54mm piston caliper and were more abundantly available than the 89-98 4

door Trackicks. Just wanted to show they can all be made to fit.

That's not all though. By proving these later models can be made to fit it's likely that so can Grand Vitara

brakes. Heres what I know so far:

According to Rock Auto and Centric's parts catalogs the 1.8L Trackick Sports had some pretty beefy

57mm caliper bores. The part number for this caliper also matches the caliper for a 99-06 Suzuki Grand

Vitara. Centric part # 1414812

Here are the specs on that caliper:

Bore Size 57.15

Inlet Thread M10x1

Bleeder Thread M8x1.25

OK? So why should you care? Because the caliper bracket bolts center to center are 111mm apart which

is exactly what the Samurai caliper bolts are from center to center. Also the same as the all the Trackick

calipers that we just used as a brake upgrade. See where I am going with this? I suspect that we may be

able to fit a caliper that is EVEN LARGER than the normal swap to the Samurai.

Next issue. Will the caliper fit behind the rotor? Short answer is yes. The thickest part of the caliper

bracket is 15mm. This is the same thickness as the calipers that we just went over fitting to the Samurai.

Again though, we have something else that needs sorting. Rotor diameter. The Grand Vitara and Trickick

Sport have 16 inch wheels so naturally the rotors will be bigger too.

Here are the rotor specs:

Discard Thickness 20.066 mm

Nominal Thickness 22.098 mm

Height 29.1 mm

Lug 5

Outer Diameter 310 mm

Pattern 139.7 mm

Type Vented

310mm of diameter. That's not going to fit in the Samurai dust shield. It is too big. Too big for 15"

wheels likely. However lets look again at the 99-04 Chevy Tracker rotors that were used earlier:

Discard Thickness 14.986 mm

Nominal Thickness 17.018 mm

Height 29 mm

Lug 5

Outer Diameter 286.5 mm

Pattern 139.7 mm

Type Vented

Alright, now we are getting somewhere. Rotor diameter is small enough to fit the samurai, yet the

height of the rotors are the same. Only thing I notice that is different is nominal and discard thickness.

That is something that will still need to be looked into. I am not sure how the caliper will sit mixed with

this rotor. The caliper might just need to be spaced differently. This is all research for now. Not real

world application.

Another common mod that may help proove this is that a lot of folks put 15 inch rims on their 05 Grand

Vitara. To do this they are using the same Chevy Tracker caliper and rotors that we used earlier so that

they could fit these rims on the Vitara. This is why I believe not only that we can make this mod happen,

but also why I believe that the rotors will be too big for a 15 inch rim.

I think as long as the nominal and discard thickness of the Chevy Tracker rotors have no major effect on

the Grand Vitara caliper mounting, then it should go in that same way the Chevy Tracker calipers and

rotors did on our Samurais.

Since the rotor depth is the same the back of the rotor should sit against the back of the caliper and

brake pad just fine. I think we will only notice the front side of the caliper and brake pad will be sitting

5mm away from the front of the rotor. I wonder if this will effect anything?

Next thing to do to help with the added brakes is a master cylinder swap.

The Subaru master cylinder swap is easy. You just need to adjust the booster push rod to the correct

length. Some said they used a 50mm machine head philips. On mine though 50mm was too long. I

ended up with a 40mm.

Basically you will want to take the old plunger out of the booster and unscrew the push rod from it.

Then screw in your machine head philips just a few threads. Stick the plunger back into the booster.

Next put your master cylinder onto the booster. If the push rod reaches the back of the master cylinder

before it mounts flush with the booster then your push rod is too long. So screw it in a few more threads

and try again.

The end result should be that JUST as the master cylinder mounts flush with the booster, the push rod

will be at the end of the master cylinder. Just barely touching. You don't want any gap for sure.

At this point you'll want to bench bleed the master cylinder, apply some RTV around the master cylinder

flange and install it.

The front brake line will need to be carefully bent to fit on top of the master cylinder instead of the left

side.

Then bleed your brakes.

Also, I used a nut on the push rod to lock it against the plunger. You could also use locktite.

You'll also need to adapt the Subaru connector for the low fluid indicator.

That should be it.

Compatible Subaru master cylinder OEM part number: 26401AE03A

The benefit to this swap is that there is more brake fluid volume moved with less travel in the pedal and

less effort.. Which is perfect for 4 wheel disc brakes, Tracker calipers or Toyota axle swaps.

Depending on how much larger you went on brakes you may also need to swap to a Trackick booster. I

have not done research on these just yet but from what I hear they are compatible with the Samurai and

are slightly larger.