How To: Camaro Rear Disc Brake Swap to G-body Axle

[Flyers9928]

Its directed at older 60 and 70's cars, but with some work it could be adapted to a g-body. An you probably don't need an adapter for the metric line as mentioned in the article, but I have not preformed this swap and that is a complete guess. The only problem I see is the parking brake, but it looks like your working to figure that out.

 

[ssn696]

The '88-'97 calipers described in your article have an integral parking brake, similar on concept to the Caddy/Riviera brakes. What I like about the '98-'02 brakes is the separate 'mini-drum' style parking brake. I grabbed two sets (one for each car) since I know they will go the way of the Blazer spindles and disappear from the yards.

 

[Flyers9928]

Its that rear the same width as a g-body rear?

 

[ssn696]

Its that rear the same width as a g-body rear?

64-1/2" - about 7" wider than the G-body.

 

[ssn696]

from the research I did on the parking brakes drum vs integral the main complaint with the integral is they freeze up which was caused by infrequent use of the parking brake. I have a stick in my car and the F body handbrake so I use it whenever I park so I'm not worried about it sticking. If you don't use the parking brake regularly I would go with the drum style parking brake

I'd like to see a picture of the handbrake setup. Is there one among your 13K posts?

 

[ssn696]

I don't have any pictures of it and I'd have to remove the carpet to get some. I'm not much of a camera guy. It's not that complicated, I cut into the channel going over the hump and welded a plate for the handbrake assembly to sit on and get bolted it to it. It was hard to get a measurement as to how high it should sit to match the console so tack and see how it fir till it was right. Then it was just to drill the hole for the cable and manufacture the part where the cable meets the two cables to the rear. For that I just copied the measurements on the part that the F body used. It gets welded to the top of the tunnel.

Thanks for the quick response, and for locating the key photo on how you did this from underneath - heroic. What does the handle look like from above?

 

[L.A.X-RATED]

U Pull and Pay. They have a couple more there, but this was the only G80 when I was shopping.

cool.yeah i have 6 of these(ls1 f&r)set-ups done on my monte's,blazer zq8's on my 87 elco,and 4 more (ls1 set-ups)at my sandblasters,for my 4 other gbodys heres a set-up i got done last night,for a recently aquired aero SS,ls1 stock 12" in the rear,and c5/c6 13" front(dont mine the mint black dash,i picked it up along wth a complete black interior for 100.00 for my 97 cv poliCE interCEptor) easy peasy,lol ive got these disc set-ups down to a scienCE!

 

[oldtinsmith]

Very good thread!

 

[ssn696]

Latest update: replacing torn parking brake boots. Dorman 924-243 $8 at Autozone, but a special order. Also available at Amazon for $6.

 

[ssn696]

Next problems to solve:

1. Metric tubing ends - as long as I use the Camaro hoses and tubes, the only problem is joining the Malibu center hose (SAE) to the metric tube ends. The tube ends at the caliper hoses have a 'bubble' flare. Solution is probably going to be cutting the center flares off, swapping SAE nuts, and re-flaring the tube ends. Have to shorten anyway because the Malibu axle is narrower.
2. Tube/hose brackets - mounts to the lower control arm boxes - have to decide what mods to make and where to mount.
3. Parking brake cables - the lower control arm boxes on the Malibu are closer to the backing plates - there isn't enough room to slip them over the parking brake arms and flip them 180 degrees unless I take the backing plates off and install them first. Make replaing them later a headache, since I'd have to open the differential to take the axles out to get the plates off...
4. Caliper abutments - there is about 1/16" clearance from the outboard side and the outboard edge of the rotor face; there is about 1/4" clearance from the inboard side to the inboard face of the rotor. A little math suggests I split the difference and make 3/32" shims to put between the axle flange and backing plate, moving them outboard to match. That's between 12 and 13 sheetmetal gauges. 14 is more common (but thinner), so that's probably what I'll end up making them from.

Oh, and though I have to swap the left and right backing plates to mount the calipers on the rear of the axle so they don't hit the frame, the calipers themselves need to be in their OEM positions so the bleeders end up on top.

The last one is a material science problem - it's an interstitial defect in the chicken nugget lattice structure. Don't want to leave one nugget in the freezer bag.