In my search for a 9-bolt, I've found a Disc to disc rear from an '86 Bird. It'll bolt right in correct?

It's obviously got the older style brakes. If I can find the parts from a 1LE car or any car with the Aluminum Calipers and 11.655" rotors, will it be a direct swap?

Also, he wants $250 for everything, sound good? Don't know the ratio quite yet, he said 3.27 or 3.45. Thanks!

-Rippin

 

Another idea is to get an LS1 rear end with 3.42s, thats what I did and my rear discs are as big as my front discs

 

How much are they usually? And I know the wheel spacers are almost $300.

-Rippin

 

Anybody? DJP? GreatJ?

-Rippin

 

Dude, don't even waste your money on the '86 brakes...you're wasting time and money as the calipers are probably locked up and will need a rebuild to work right, let alone having to switch a lot of parts over to the 9 bolt.

Buy a set of '93-97 brakes from these guys and then get a set of 9 bolt backing plates, which I have available. Then all you should need is brake lines.

http://www.tacreationsusa.com/suspensi.htm

Or just with a 4th gen rear.

Ed

 

Ed,
Thanks for your help. Still a couple questions:

-So you're saying just get the rear w/o brakes at all, then the LT1 brakes, backing plates and lines?

-I know on TGO there's a tech article for upgrading to LS1 brakes, so could I go LS1 instead of '93-'97?

-Rippin

EDIT: I just found this in the For Sale section- http://web.camaross.com/forums/showt...5&pagenumber=1 $50 seems pretty cheap, think I should go ahead and get it? Thanks again!

 

The '89+ brakes will swap right over IF you get the parts off a 9-bolt. The 10-bolt brakes can be made to work but it takes bracket fabbing. IMHO you're better off going to the LS1 style brakes (I'll be doing that swap this winter or next spring on all 4 wheels.)

$250 is pretty good for a complete rear, assuming it's in good shape. Definitely find out the ratio for sure before you get it because most of the 9-bolts were 2.77 which is no better than what you have.

Also the 9-bolt will go right into the car, and the only other part you need to change is the brake proportioning valve. And really it's pointless to do that if you plan on upgrading the rear brakes later anyway (you'll want to go to an adjustable valve when you do that.) The disc/drum prop valve will work, just not quite as well.

As I see it, there are 2 good reasons not to go with a 4th gen rear: it's still a 10-bolt so you aren't gaining any strength, and it's wider which means you have to get new wheels (or look like a moron with your stock wheels sticking out 2" past the fender.) JMHO

 

Thanks J. I'm definitely going 9-bolt. Like Ed said the LT1 brakes will work, but will the LS1 brakes work as well? I think I think I'm going to get the brakes from that guy for $50 even if they are from an LT1 car. Sounds like a deal.

-Rippin

 

$50 is a real good deal.

The LS1 brakes should bolt up the same way the LT1 brakes do. After all, you're just putting 10-bolt brakes on a 9-bolt rear either way you do it. I think the LS1 brakes require fabbing a bracket for the ebrake cables though....I haven't read up on it lately since I don't have the money to start the project yet.

 

LT1/LS1 brakes are really personal preference. I like the LS1s but the LT1s seem to be easier to deal with: You'd have to do more mods the LS1s to get them to fit on the rear and then you have to figure out the e-brake cable thing. It'd been done and there's many threads about it over on TGO. The LT1s are pretty straight forward. As you know the LS1s also have the internal drum brake stuff...

If you want to go to 4th gen wheels sometime, get a 4th gen rear. I know it's a 10 bolt but then you won't have to use spacers on the rear and used front spacers go for around $100-150 used.

J and I have different opinions here. The 4th gen rear won't make your wheels stick out 2" beyond the wheelwell. Those rears only push the tires out even with the fender lips, and it doesn't look that bad. Also, changing out the master and prop valve will depend on which year car you have. If you have a'89 on up, your master will be the same for all cars. If it's older than that, you might have to change it out. The prop valve depends on which car you have and what brakes it had stock. The M/C and prop valve part numbers are listed here and you should be able to just check the applicable years to see if you will have to change or not. I posted them on page 3 of this thread:

http://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/show...0&pagenumber=3


Good luck!

Ed

 

i say BUY the 9 bolt then SELL me the gears and upgrade to some 3.75's (or whatever they are for 9bolts, i myself have 2.77's

 

The stock rims do not look terrible with a 4th gen rear, they line up with the fender flares, but it was still too much for my tastes. The one nice thing about the 4th gen rear aside from the scary brakes was that I needed new tires, so I scored some 10 spoke SS rims and the car looks about 10 times better now. You'll need spacers for the front though.

 

OK so the 2" past the fender was a bit of an exaggeration. What it comes down to is they sit farther out and I don't like the look, and going to 4th gen wheels is expensive because of the spacers.

Also either type of 4th gen brakes is a significant upgrade over the "maybe they work and maybe not" iron caliper rear discs. At that price I'd just go with the LT1 brakes and be done with it.