The information they gave me was to find brake calipers that fit a Honda Civic 1996-2000 and the calipers would mount onto the 1983 Honda Civic knuckle.
I found this at a local Pick 'n Pull: A 4-door 2000 Honda Civic LX, KA 5MT and I took the brake calipers and rusty ol' rotors as well.
After removing the 1983 Civic calipers, I successfully mounted these 2000 Civic calipers and rotors to be used on my 1972 Honda N600 (with modernized brakes), what a thought! And the 1983 Civic wheels still fit around the calipers.
Here are some pictures:
UPDATE June 2021:
This summer has allowed me to spend more time with driving the n600.
Since doing this upgrade and bypassing the booster, I had always been interested in the possibility of returning to using the original booster with mod. The reason for this is because, while the brakes did work, they weren't really what I had hoped they'd be. Now, looking back at the post and even viewing these pictures, I've learned a lot, paid a lot, and yes, even enjoyed the critical think a lot.
So, to get the obvious out of the way... yes, in the above pictures... and how come no one pointed this our... the calipers were indeed installed upside down, with the bleeder nut on the bottom. <-- simple, no duh mistake that I made in my noob status... live and learn... lesson learned. The reason I made this mistake is because I went with the R & L that are stamped on the calipers themselves and how they indeed came off of the Civic. What I failed to recall was how I had swapped and modified the knuckles from the '83 Civic. Because of this knuckle reversal, the calipers also needed to be swapped in order to fill the piston chamber with fluid so I wouldn't have to pump them so much to get them to fill, engage, and ultimately stop the car.
And, yes, that problem just described was the problem that lead me down the path to 1) get the original Master Cylinder rebuilt... chaching $$$, and the booster to get rebuilt, CHACHING!!$$!!!. I was lucky enough to have Rick Morris supply the rebuild kit for the cylinder and Apple Hydraulics for the booster rebuild. Very excited with the possibility of having superior braking power, I reinstalled the newly rebuilt parts, only to find the same problem... lots of pumping to get the brakes to engage.
After continuing to brainstorm, problem solve, and troubleshoot, my brother was able to help me understand that the bleeder nut needed to be installed on top. In the meantime, I was also convinced that maybe the upgraded calipers--from the 2000 civic--needed to have the master cylinder from the same vehicle. So, I purchased a new one, modified it to fit (similar to previous post). Still the problem persisted.
After driving it around more and more, pumping and having my hand close to the emergency brake, I noticed there was some "play" in the time when I pushed the brake to when it actually engaged with the master cylinder. Upon further inspection, this was being caused by the original brake pedal push rod was not long enough, and so I'd have to push the brake pedal down about 2 inches before the brakes would begin to engage. So, found an adjustable brake push rod, installed it. I needed to enlarge the mounting hole on the brake pedal, just drilled it through with a slightly larger bit.
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