questions about 185s rear disc brake conversion?

[3wheelrider]

Well,-I'm sick of my new brake shoes detaching the linings after a few rides thru mud/water. Brakes fade after going thru water anyway. Cant keep em' working long. When they do work its not for long- then they get worse. Also, I cant control my wheelies which I hate.... I've seen a few 70s' and 110s' done on here with 200x axles- I believe. (Takes some maching to the carrier/case). I havent noticed any 185s/200s for some reason. I know a few of you must have done one. Anyway,- I would like to do this to my 83'185s if someone can give me a few pointers maybe? Just doing the rear brakes.... Do I need a 83-85 200x rear axle/brake hub/rotor-caliper too? Do I have to fab up a bracket for the caliper ? Any machining to the carrier or anything else? How complicated is this? Can anyone help me?:wondering

[Vealmonkey]

The main question you need to answer is, what does it take to mount the disc to the rear axle? You have to see if a 200x disc hub would fit on your 185s axle, if it does, you are in like Flynn. If it doesn't, then you need to figure out how to adapt the 200x disc hub to the 185s hub. It may be a bolt on affair or you may have to machine your 185s hub down and the inside of the 200x disc hub so they can be welded together. That is what they do on the atc70 axles to get the disc to fit. Then once you get the hub to fit, then you have to put your 200x rear caliper over the disc where it would normally fit and reverse engineer from there. You have to engineer from the disc hub outwards. Making some kind of mount to mount the caliper shouldn't be too bad. Then it's a matter of mounting the rear master cylinder and then making your rear brake pedal to work your rear master cylinder. It wouldn't be impossible, it's just alot of work to make it look nice and factory clean and to work right. You could actually take the factory 200x master cylinder mount and cut it off from a trashed 200x frame as well as the master cylinder mount and weld those to the 185s frame. Best left to be welded by someone with a mig or tig welder and who is very experienced so you don't melt through the frame or make a bunch of crappy welds. Then you just need to see if the factory hose from reservoir to master cylinder fits or if you need something longer. Then you need to figure out the rear brake hose, which is pretty easy to fab up with some Harley braided rear brake hose bits. Then you just have to fab your pedal to actuate the rear master cylinder plunger. Hope this guides you into the right direction. And if you used 1981 atc250r front end assembly and changed out the stems, you could have a suspension front end with a disc brake as well and keep your wide front tire and still have matching 3x100 bolt pattern. So it's all what you want to put into your project and what you want it to do.

[3wheelrider]

Vealmonkey,-thanks for your informative reply. Thats gives me a very clear picture of whats involved & how to go about it. Great tips too......... Sadly,-this is sounds like its gonna be a long term project for me in my $-situation. The machine work/welding is something I didnt account for. Well,- gonna have to gather some 200x brake parts when I can afford it. And go from there.- little by little....

[Vealmonkey]

You could probably do things a little more primatively and cheaply if you wanted, buy sometimes the final product suffers doing things like that and since it's your braking system, then you might want to be extra fussy about it. But that's totally your decision. Luckily, the 200x parts are fairly cheap. And if you have a buddy with a mig welder or tig welder, then that would be a great help. But those steps are what basically had to be done to put disc brakes on the front end rear of my suspension 70. My rear master cylinder is actually mounted to a small plate that is bolted to the right side outer clutch case. A custom mount for the brake fluid reservoir and the 200x rear disc hub was welded to a machined atc70 rear brake drum center section. So it's very doable and has been done by others. I don't have my camera or I would show you pics of the brake systems on my suspension 70. My buddy blue27 has done a really excellent job on my suspension 70. He did the same basic mods to his suspension 70, but changed some things slightly from his.

[3wheelrider]

Yeah- Im sure it wont be show quality work like you do (this is a mudbeater anyway -tho a nice one).- I do want it to look descent tho- (I am somewhat picky).. . Also, I want it right the 1st time & dont want future problems either. Sadly, progress will be slow. Thanks again for the tips & ideas.-greatly appreciated...

[Vealmonkey]

I'm not the master fabber here at all. Alot of the things I have done, a little of it is my handiwork, but 90% is done by other people who are truely way more talented than me. Blue27 does the majority of my fabbing work. He has the equipment and the knowledge and is a super handy and super nice guy to know. I'm having some work done at HRE as well, also a great and talented guy. I'll be getting some amazing work from SWIGIN soon. I've also bought bits and pieces from lots of fine members on here, everything from nuts and bolts to frames and complete engines. So, I definitley cannot take total credit for any of my rides. I've bought repro fender braces and engine skid plates and all kinds of pieces that board members on here sell as well. My trikes are more of a group effort! LOL No exaggeration on that at all. And of course I have to acknowledge all the board members that have helped give me a hand wrenching at times, the great gazoo, Louis Mielke, 86 trizinger, blue27, bandito90, SWIGIN, Jasonatc250r, rassagmc all people who have helped and some I have helped with their trikes. Erectordale for the Tigers. Tammy Mosher for a couple of my seats. And several others who I've bought parts off of from here as well, it's quite a long list actually. Thanks everyone. I hope to get many more fine parts and such from everyone to help keep my machines going for quite a long time.