Hydraulic Handbrake
DRIFT 31's Method[edit]
There is a brake line that runs from the master cylinder to the diff, then splits into two, one to each caliper. Disconnect it at the diff and all along the chassis at each mounting point until roughly behind the drivers seat, then using the right pipe cutter, cut off the threaded nut and DO NOT LOSE IT. Drill two holes just behind the left hand mount of the drivers side seat. Take the line and CAREFULLY bend it so that it doesn't kink or break, and put it through the holes as below.
Now, working inside the car, remove the centre console and drivers seat. Unbolt the standard handbrake, and move it over to the passenger side. If you look at the bolt holes in the chassis, you will notice that they are mirrored. This makes it easy to mount the standard cable handbrake onto the passenger side of the centre console. Make up two lengths of steel to make the mounts for the standard handbrake. You can either bolt or weld them onto the handbrake. Bolt the handbrake in.
Work out roughly where you want the handbrake to sit and make yourself up a bracket to bolt the hydraulic handbrake onto.
Weld it into place where you have previously worked out.
Bolt the handbrake onto your new mount.
The line you have brought into the cabin from the diff goes into the rear of the master cylinder(In this particular design. PLEASE NOTE: It may be different in other designs of master cylinder. Take note and check with the supplier if need be). Bend the line to shape and cut off any excess. Using a flaring tool, flare the pipe with the appropriate nut on it. Screw it into the master cylinder.
With a new length of pipe, flare one end with the appropriate nut and screw into the master cylinder. Bend the pipe to shape and feed it through the second hole that you have drilled in the floor. Run it back to the other high pressure lines running under the car, and back through all the mounts on the chassis.
Back at the diff, cut the pipe to length, and using the nut use saved from earlier, flare it and screw it back into the diff pipe.
Inside the cabin, I ran some corrugated split tubing along the length of pipes just to neaten it all up a little.
Bleed the brakes as per normal, starting furthest from the master cylinder to closest. i.e. rear passenger, rear driver, front passenger, front driver. Your new hydraulic handbrake should be fully functional. Test it out and check for any leaks or other.
This is the final product. I am sure you could try and trim the centre console to fit around both handbrakes if you could really be bothered. As you can see, I couldn't. Hope this helps everyone out.
Since doing this install, I have swapped to VB-VS Holden Commodore Calipers. They are the same style/design as the Nissan R31 unit, but they do not have a built in handbrake mechanism. They bolt directly onto the R31 diff and use the same pads, though I recommend using the correct Commodore pads.
The reason for changing to these calipers is that my R31 units seized up, for one reason or another the internal handbrake was jamming. I was in a rush to get ready for an event and this was the quick and easy option. In the near future I plan on running twin calipers on the back, one caliper will be the Commodore unit for the handbrake, the other will be the stock R31 unit(or something larger with an internal handbrake) for regular braking.
Dodgy Dave’s Method[edit]
A family friend of mine gave me a hydraulic handbrake that he was going to put in his rally car back when I first bought the 31 so I pulled it out of the garage and to my surprise, it was a full kit produced by Heritage Engineering, the same one used by DRIFT 31 in the Wiki article.
It came with everything I needed to make it super easy like some short lengths of braided line and a 5/8th master cylinder made for R31Rs
First step was to figure out where I wanted it and how to mount it. The trans tunnel is nice and beefy but the tailshaft runs pretty close to it so I decided on some nutserts that Dad had in the garage. It seems sturdy enough but if it turns out to be an issue, I'll work something else out.
Next step was to get under the car and unpick the line as described in the wiki. As I said before, the room in the trans tunnel is pretty tight and with it all in front of me I thought of a way to do it that, in my opinion anyway, is much easier than described in the wiki. Instead of unpicking the line all the way up to the midpoint of the car I simply disconnected it from the diff, undid two brackets, bent it to the back of the driver's side rear footwell and ran it through a hole into the cabin made as close to the tunnel as possible.
Anyway, in the cabin the line proved to be the perfect length, easily reaching within the length of the braided line. Here you can see it plugged off by some random VW part that Dad pulled out of the garage to help as with pretty much everything done on this car.
This is the point where you would whip out the flaring tool like in the wiki but since I didn't have one, I headed to the local brake shop (Brabond Brakes, good blokes) and got a new 900mm long hard line made up to go from the master cylinder back to the diff.
I also got this little fella so I could leave the fitting on the original brake line and just screw it into the braided line.
Like so
I plumbed it all up, being sure to keep the lines as close to the tunnel as possible so that rear passengers wouldn't kick them, and then put carpet and back seat back in.
A quick hit with the vacuum bleeder and a couple of foot bleeds of the rear brakes and it is mint, locking easily.
I'm really happy with how it's turned out. Not only did we knock this over in half a day but it works heaps better than I was expecting when I remembered some sort of hydro sitting in the garage.
And to top it all off, underneath the carpet I found crazy stashes of cash that added up to just shy of $15
Score!
Contributors[edit]
DRIFT 31, Dodgy Dave