Hiya Rob,
Welcome aboard. I'm no technical wizzard, (not called Manky for nothing!), but I'll help where I can.
Yes, of course you can discify your axle, (technical term!Â
). I wrote an article for 100% Biker magazine on that very subject a year or so ago. Go to their website:
www.100-biker.co.uk & buy back issue number 44. Page 72. A series of photos, couple of pages of text & a diagram of the only part you'll need to make. The drawing is labelled as full size but was only really meant as a rough guide so check the hole centres against your axle before drilling. The large centre hole needs to be a millimetre or so smaller diameter.
Basically, chuck away the existing drum set-up, including the back plate, make up a steel plate as per the diagram, bolt it to the axle tube & bolt a VW Golf caliper & carrying bracket to it. Then fit a Vauxhall Nova disc in place of the drum. This requires two minutes on a lathe to open out the centre hole which locates on a shoulder on the hub. Alternatively, do as I did & remove the hub to machine down the shoulder cos it's a softer steel than the disc & once it's done you can replace the disc if it ever wears out with another standard sized one.
It has to be said that the braking efficiency won't be hugely improved compared to the drum set-up, but on my own Reliant trike I think that was down to the light weight of the vehicle -not enough traction for really good braking. If you're going for looks though, the disc set-up is far simpler & prettier. I know of at least a dozen trikes running this conversion now following the article so it must work O.K!
I haven't got a scanner so can't reproduce it here but will organise someone else to if you need it. I'm told there were actually two issue 44s of that magazinne due to a slip up in the editing, so if you order one stipulate you want the one with the disc article!
Hope you're gonna hang around for a while now you've found us? Should be fully up & running in a week or so.
