i just purchased some discs and calipers of a late model silvia 1981 S10
last night i removed the standard drums and took out both axels my dad will get the bearings pressed off tomorrow then i will instal the silvia backing plates and rebuild the diff at the same time if anyone has done thisconversion before any tips or help would be great

I've done it. I haven't finished but will drill new holes on the caliper mounts to turn them round a bit. The calipers are quite bulky and foul either the leaf springs or the chassis rails if mounted in either of two locations with the existing holes (standard or 180 deg rotated). I hope you understand what I mean

not exactly but what i bitch of a time ive had i brought the discs on tuesday they look huge i brought them home and then found that the caliper mounts wern't there so i went back an wed got the plates they just wouldnt fit so there is a guy in CHCH you might know hi his names Allen and hes got a yellow CA18DET powerd coupe that runs 13.1 anyway he has the same setup silvia discs and calipers well i went round there to see how he had done it he when i got there i found that there are two diffrent models of the S110 silvia a indipendant version and a solid diff version what a hassel so i have to take the calipers and discs back because they have a diffrent offset and i have to get a ute diff to go with itbecase i have to hold in the bearins in with the caliper mout and the bearing sizes are diffrent between the ute and the sedan or coupe .

caliper mounts holding the bearings in? I'm not sure what you mean there. The Z-powered Silvias had H165 live axle, FJ20s had R200. I had the Silvia diff in my coupe, as I seem dimlight has (nice flares!) but decided it was a little too wide. So I put the Silvia (200SX) brakes on a ute diff. Straight bolt in but requires removing bearings to change caliper mount over, which then requires new locking collars (which is what holds MY wheel bearings in) as they are impossible to remove without damaging (for me anyway). With the brakes sitting furthur in (narrower diff) my clearance problems started. Ideally I'd like to find a small cast alumium caliper that could do the job and use a hydraulic handbrake, but it isn't proving easy...

Thanks nzdatman, actually the credit for the flares looking so good goes to tensandtwenties, thank you John.
As for the Silvia (200SX in the states) there were two different setups on the live axle cars too. The kind I have uses the stamped steel caliper while the newer ('82-'83?) uses a cast caliper.
The one I have has the two pistons in one cylinder pushing away from one another. The inner pushes a pad while the outer pushes the stamped steel thing in the opposite direction pulling the outer pad in to the disc. Make sense? It is like the front calipers on a 1200, B-210, and, well pretty much all of the Datsuns but the Z-cars. The newer style has true dual pistons acting directly on the pads.
Which is better? I don't know. Intuition says the cast one but the other works fine too.
As always, feel free to slam me if I have screwed up any of my "facts."
Have a day.

Hey fella, Have you checked out the Willwoods that Tony Cardwell has? They do a neat little twin pot caliper originally used for karts. They also do a mechanical type caliper for handbrakes. What about checking out the rear calipers from a Fiat 124, 125 they have mechanical actuation for the handbrake and are CHEAP !!!!!!!

correct if im wrong but these "s12" silvia disks are "vented" and have "twin spot calipers"? does anybody know the diameter of the disk?

on another topic hydraulic handbrakes a good thing anyone, you know in case one of those nasty hairpins pops up

yeah my calipers are the pressed steel type, bulky and heavy. I have had a flick through the Cardwell catalogue- some very nice kit!, and I thought those twin pot willwoods are just what I need. I would like to replace my princess 4pots on he front with some willwoods also, better pad options, brand new reliability etc, but this would require fabricating a bracket to adapt to the willwood bolt pattern wouldn't it? I don't want to think about it too hard as I'm going to Europe for a few months and won't be able to throw any money at the datto for a while...

hydraulic handbrakes are thay legal for road use?

they are definately legal, but you might be required to keep stock one aswel, not sure