Drift Frontier Mod #17... HYDRO HAND BRAKE !! :)

[hessianben]

So, as I'm sure a few of you do here, I take a lot of inspiration from PESJAHB's white hardbody drift truck. After all, he's totally rebuilt his rear suspension from scratch, gutted the interior, fabbed front coilover mounts, swapped to an S13 intake, tuned ecu, removed emissions, K sport hand brake... yadda yadda...

 

 

 

So... i'm taking cues from his book and slowly making the necessary changes to get MY truck to perform properly at the track.

 

So far I've Installed:

 

upgraded torsion bars

rear sway bar

Nitro 2 drop shocks

polyurethane bushings

S13 exhaust cams in. & ex.

timing bump

K&N filter

cat back exhaust

custom leaf packs

pathfinder rear end with LSD

pathfinder rear disc brakes

drilled and slotted front rotors

electric fan

removed abs

Exedy stage one clutch

Nismo pivot ball

Nismo pilot bushing needle bearing

...and a few other things

 

 

with all this working together, I've been able to get pretty consistent on the track- able to initiate drifts and link turns through most corners by either shift-locking or feinting into turns.

 

 

 

However, i found that i wasnt able to initiate drifts as early as some cars, simply because I didn't have a hand brake!

(I'VE BEEN DOING IT THE HARD WAY)

 

So i decided to build myself a hydraulic hand brake.

 

I found someone selling a sand rail 'cutting brake'. its meant to activate the brakes left or right to get the buggy turning, but I figured it would work fine just one-way.

 

 

I plugged the upper cylinder with a pipe plug and had a local pipe shop braize together some adapters (1/8" pipe thread to metric 1.00 inverted female) so I could plumb in to the same type of brake line fittings that Nissan uses.

 

I bought 3 lengths of 5' and one 2' length of steel brake line with Japanese fittings as well as some brass unions from Autozone.

 

Paid $15 for a 3/16" tubing bender and got busy!

 

 

Used a piece of plate steel laying around as a bracket

 

 

 

mocked up:

 

 

I did a bit of figuring before I decided on the position of the brake-

and decided that the little slot that nissan gives us next to the shifter would be a perfect fit if i cut out the bottom!

 

 

 

I bolted through the plate steel, (NOT SHOWN), through the trans tunnel, and through some more steel plate on the underside, so I wasn't relying on the weak sheetmetal of the trans tunnel to brace this thing.

 

 

Basically, to plumb this thing, you remove the brake line from your stock master cylinder which goes to your rear brakes, and plumb a new line from the master to your new hand brake.

Then, a new line out of the hand brake, and back to where the rear rubber brake hose ties into the stock steel line (above the axle, behind the fuel tank).

connect everything up (i used locktite for my own piece of mind)

and bleed the system (took a while for me)

 

I'm pretty happy how it turned out- doesn't look too rigged up

 

 

 

 

 

 

BUT I'M EVEN HAPPIER WITH HOW IT WORKED !!!

 

After going to weekly drift nights since July, I was beginning to think I was a pretty slow learner, but MAN!... now I know how they make it look soooo easy! just a tap on the handbrake as you brake and turn in, and then just steer with the gas!!! I couldn't be happier with this mod :)

 

 

 

here's a couple photo-cam vids my friend shot from inside the cab:

 

 

 

[ariascarlos1990]

Thats sweet!

 

btw your truck is dope.

[motavated]

Have you been really going every week? I am done with the cars man. Let me know when is the next one. NICE!

[hessianben]

Thanks for the comments!

 

and, yeah, I've been going almost every week for a while now. probly won't go this coming thurs cause i work, but i'll let you know about next week!

[SoCaLKiDz]

Dude... I wonder if that will work on the 720... if so im going to take your idea and put it in my truck.. That is if its ok with you!

[datzenmike]

So does the rear brakes still work in the usual way with the brake pedal? If not I'm pretty sure if used on the street this is illegal and worse very dangerous to you and everyone else. If this is on a dedicated drift truck not driven on the street or if the normal rear brakes are left unaffected, then just ignore this post.

[Guest DatsuNoob]

So does the rear brakes still work in the usual way with the brake pedal?

I was wondering the same thing. I've been thinking of how much nicer it would be to have a car style handbrake instead of the truck type. I'm curious if it's an "all or nothing" kinda lock up, or can you do quick short pulls like you can in a car. Any issues with it getting in your way? Either way, very cool! I may look into doing something similar :thumbup:

[datzenmike]

Back in the day we used to pull 180 turns by hard braking and just before stopping crank the wheel over and pull the e brake. The rear would immediately lock and the car would rotate in major oversteer and with practice come to a stop facing the other way. Further practice and you could down shift into 1st while rotating and dump the clutch in a smokey burn out in the opposite direction. There's really not much use for this on the street.

[hessianben]

So does the rear brakes still work in the usual way with the brake pedal? If not I'm pretty sure if used on the street this is illegal and worse very dangerous to you and everyone else. If this is on a dedicated drift truck not driven on the street or if the normal rear brakes are left unaffected, then just ignore this post.

 

 

Everything works exactly as it did before the install. the handbrake master cylinder is just inline on the way to the rear brakes, so when you don't use it, it just acts as a junction on the way to the rear.

 

Also, if you're driving normally and pull the hand brake while going straight, it's almost impossible to lock the rear.

 

The time that it does its thing is when you're braking into a corner, the weight has shifted to the front, and you're beginning to turn in- thats when you disengage the clutch, give it a light pull for half a second, countersteer, engage the clutch, and give it gas.

 

Other than that, it sits idle. doesn't get in the way of the shifter or the steering. it's a little in the way of the my hand's path to the radio dial, but that's just muscle memory.

 

 

I also agree that it shouldn't be and isn't used on the street. That's the reason I go to the track- to burn off those urges :)

[hessianben]

Some videos from a recent event at Irwindale:

 

Pesja and I got to throw down some tandem runs too!!

 

 

vid from inside my truck of some of the runs + tandems !!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

vid someone else made- sick shots!

 

[Zfighter76]

sick video, so how exactly does it hood up to the rear brakes? you just mae a t in the line near the rear brake and put this in and thats it? seems like there needs to be a check valve somewhere to stop the normal brakes from blowing out the hand brake, but i dont know thats why im asking lol

[Discopotatoes14]

hate to bring up a old topic but is this truck still alive? I'm about to build one similar