hi guys just got hold of a lil 1200 and am thinking of a brake upgrade. ive heard 120y,1600, 180b,200b, stanza struts all fit with minor mods. now which one is best. i still have drums and wanna use a 120y swaybar.

i wanna be able to upgrade my back brakes with the zed alloy ones (hopefully) and i was thinking of using 80's+ stanza struts. is this right?

its confusing because there are so many to choose from. i have a local u pull it near me so i have a wide choice

Lots fit and there are some nice upgrades around. Stanza are the most popular. they have the thick strut with all the a series gear like spring, control arm, caster rod etc. its pretty much a swap over. With The 1980+ model Stanza's they have bigger calipers (import model)this is they way to go. 120Y fit but the calipers are heaps small, Sunny too. Other nice upgrades are to use 180 or 200B these fit some GM calipers (like VL Turbo) and heaps more. Read up on the 1200 mods section it will tell you heaps about struts. Good luck in your upgrade.

i have a 1200 wagon which came standard with drums all round.
i put the disk brake struts off a coupe into it and it stops really well.
B110's are hardly heavy so the tiny ass brakes stil work effectively.
Obviously if you are doing engine conversions or just getting more power out of your a series etc then you are going to need better braking than 1200 coupe brakes and it seems that stanza brake upgrades are common in aussie.
Alternatively you can do a s13 brake conversion onto 1200 drum struts with some messing around (not to much tho).

Search the 1200 wiki and this site. im sure you will find heaps of info on the subject.

Stanza struts dont bolt in, they need stanza/sunny lower arms/balljoints/steeringarms and outer tie rods and radius rods. Same applys for all other datsun struts, BUT early 120y and 1200 struts are direct swaps.

I personally dont like stanza struts as they are very long, they bottom out all the time on the road without shortening them.

SO

If your perpared to shorten a strut then swapping spring perches shouldnt be a problem (damn sight easier if you ask me) so you may as well use something with larger brakes say 280zx or bluebird, these struts dont need shortening just use a 1200 spring perch and lower arms etc. as above.

Have a look at my stuff on the weekend when I give you the motor and parts matt!

BTW, the stanzas came out with two types of brakes, jap and girlock, and years dont effect this at all;

Jap assembled have jap brakes/tokico struts with H165 diff, hitachi dizzy/wiper motor etc.

Aus assembled have girlock brakes/armstrong struts with BW diff lucas dizzy/wipers motor etc.

i second that stanzas bottom out heaps, even on king spring lows....

get the 200b and get some one to weld your spring perches on to them... about 2 inchs shorter than stanza in the strut tube length already.

I've just fixed my bottoming out Stanza struts temporarily.

I pulled out my shock inserts and chopped the fitting lugs off the bottom and gained about 15mm. I then had to shorten the strut tube by the same length. Then cut off and re-attached the spring perches about 15mm higher.

It raised the car a little but I've gained more than an extra inch of travel. Now no more bottoming out

EDIT: this is using a king spring low and with a CA18 which adds a bit more weight on the front end.

hmm thats a different side to the story then. so does that mean all conversions except 1200/120Y bottom out?

on Matto1kUte's 1980 1200 ute the lower control arms bolt on to the Stanza struts, no - probs. its the early 1200 you need to swap the lower control arms. I have reciently fitted 200B struts with girlock calipers, and i had a set of caster rods modified to make them adjustable. Im giving these a go with rodeo 4 piston calpiers as my next upgrade with the CA18T (bolt on upgrade on 200B struts). i have seen 120Y and sunny calipers smoke heaps (hot) on worked engines when given a bit of a hard time.
All depends on the car and engine. any discs are always better than drums.

BigD his is a 70's 2-door sedan