Self Adjusting Rear Brakes - This is what I was really interested in as I would like to go to disc brakes on the rear, but the only car I could find with small enough discs was the Ford Lynx and then mounting them would require too must custom work for it to be a worthy mod for the masses.....
The MKI Swift drum brakes are self adjusting thus taking out the hassle of the 6monthly adjustment I make on the MB!!!! The down side is the plate that mounts to the axle has a bolt spacing of 50mm vertical and 70mm horizontal, the MB is 55mm vert. & horiz. so I will be making an alloy adapter plate which will have the added bonus of increasing the track on the rear!!!!!! Other than that they look to be a straight swap!!!!! The only pitfall I can think of at the moment is the bearings might not make it to the cylinder part of the axle and will ride on the tapered part which would kill them very quickly (all depends on how thick the plate has to be)
Rear Sway Bar - The MKI rear sway bar looks to easily mount to the rear leaf shackle, and the axle u-bolt plates with the sway bar risers look to be a direct swap for the MB ones(see pics below). The only concern is the bar is 150mm too wide. All the bends seem to match nicely to the spare wheel, suspension, exhaust, rear wheels and what looks to be a tow bar mounting point!!!!
My idea here is to cut and shut the middle part of the bar. To do this i'm thinking of drilling a core and tapping a thread on each half, then screw each half into a threaded bar. I would then weld the centre seam, slip a wide collar over the seam and weld each half again to that collar....would this be strong enough to withstand the torque/twisting of the bar in normal use????
Anyway getting to the point of this post.....has anyone completed/started this conversion and how did they go as I don't want to be 're-inventing the wheel' again.....
I think the rear sway bar and the self adjusting brakes are a worthwhile exercise as all the parts cost me the grand sum of $20 and the modifications appear to be quite simple to get them to fit....again inputs welcome, especially in the sway bar area as i've had zero experience with their construction, etc...
