Front Brakes upgrade.

[1CleanT]

Just ordered these

Well I have decided to go with the Big Mac's Mark Willams rear disc setup and front as well.. Might as well I already have the all the rear end from them:smile: Just don't ask how much they cost:frown:

 

[V6UnderPressure]

My daily driver is an 86 MonteCarlo. I put the Hotchkis (part# 515 1101) upper Tubular control arms on it. These control arms accept the larger GM ball joints. This allows you to use the Impala spindles and dust shields, then you ditch the 10" rotor and upgrade to the 12 inch camaro 1LE rotors and calipers. Instead of using the #154 brake pads you wind up running #52 pads which were used on ¾ ton vans, ¾ ton trucks, impalas, ETC. The difference is incredible.

Things needed:
Hotckis control arms
Larger implala upper ball joints
Spindles calipers and rotor assembly off of an 81-88 Impala. I think chevy Astro van will work to.


On my wifes Buick I installed the Wilwood front brake kit. This brake kit is more focused on leight weight drag racing as the pads are much smaller than the ones used on my MontecCarlo. However it has a four piston calipers and should stop reasonably better than the stock set up. The caliper pistons do not have dust seals which discourages me from using them on a daily driver.

The install of the Wilwood kit is fairly simple. You drill and tap the holes which hold the dust shieds onto the spindles out larger. Then a bracket is mounted onto the spindles. The four piston calipers are mounted to these brackets.

Here is a finished picture of the install.

Hey Sam, does it matter if the impala had a police package or not? I keep reading that you have to have a specific spindle for the 12" brakes because some came with 11" brakes??? Also, did you use the ball joint that came with the hotchkis a-arm? Or did you have to upgrade that to the larger one?

 

[turbofish38]

Hey Sam, does it matter if the impala had a police package or not? I keep reading that you have to have a specific spindle for the 12" brakes because some came with 11" brakes??? Also, did you use the ball joint that came with the hotchkis a-arm? Or did you have to upgrade that to the larger one?

If you can't find a 9C1 Cop Car than just find a station wagon. 12" brakes were standard on them. Any 77-95.5 B-Body wagon will work. Watch out on the 95 and 96 years. Those use bigger ball joints.

 

[Sam Colalillo]

Scott,

Spindles were purchased from "Left Hander Chassis inc" phone number: 815 389 9999

LH part number 00122546
Rh part number 0122547

Calipers are wagnor part numbers:
CR98670
CR98671

Brake rotors are:
BD61967

Oil seals:
CRS19753

Bearings:
BR6
BR3

I am using these upper ball joints:
Moog part number K5208

Hope this info helps you out

 

[charlief1]

Good info. subscribed.

 

[V6UnderPressure]

Scott,

Spindles were purchased from "Left Hander Chassis inc" phone number: 815 389 9999

LH part number 00122546
Rh part number 0122547

Calipers are wagnor part numbers:
CR98670
CR98671

Brake rotors are:
BD61967

Oil seals:
CRS19753

Bearings:
BR6
BR3

I am using these upper ball joints:
Moog part number K5208

Hope this info helps you out

So all in all, the only other thing needed is the hotchkis or other comparable a-arms? In your first post, you said you went with 1le rotors and calipers. But here you say wagon calipers. So then did you go with 1le rotors and then the wagon calipers? How is bump steer by the way?

 

[Sam Colalillo]

So all in all, the only other thing needed is the hotchkis or other comparable a-arms? In your first post, you said you went with 1le rotors and calipers. But here you say wagon calipers. So then did you go with 1le rotors and then the wagon calipers? How is bump steer by the way?

Scott,
I did everything according to an old article in Car Craft called 1G from A G body. They refered to it as the 1LE upgrade.

I have 245/ 50 r16 on this car. I notice the bump steer lock lock when in parking lots. The car handles extremely well at high speed getting on and off off ramps. You will notice the difference. I have Koni adjustable shocks at all corners on this car also.

Hope I have not confused you.

 

[jdpolzin]

So all in all, the only other thing needed is the hotchkis or other comparable a-arms? In your first post, you said you went with 1le rotors and calipers. But here you say wagon calipers. So then did you go with 1le rotors and then the wagon calipers? How is bump steer by the way?

Why not just use the stock arms???

 

[V6UnderPressure]

Well, I decided to do the LS1 brake swap using modified stock spindles and brackets. It seems this is the cheapest way to go with a 12" rotor/caliper setup. Will let everyone know how it goes.

 

[TKGN1]

I think you made a good choice with the LS swap. Its not really that hard to do and the performance is 10X that of the stockers!
Throw the LS rears on and the braking is unbelievable.
You might have already seen these but might help:
http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/brakes-suspensions-tires-wheels/172762-ls1-brake-mod.html
http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/br...wheels/206369-ls1-f-body-rear-brake-swap.html

 

[WhiteTtype989]

Is 300 for two complete spindles fair they are s10 blazer 2wd from 2002 with 50 k mi. on em oem .I found em ad a local boneyard. Does bolting these on mess with the alignment specs at all camber ?? I need an adapter to bolt to the brake like correct me if im wrogn i tried searching and couldnt find the part #

 

[WhiteTtype989]

Is 300 for two complete spindles fair they are s10 blazer 2wd from 2002 with 50 k mi. on em oem .I found em at a local boneyard. Does bolting these on mess with the alignment specs at all camber ?? I need an adapter to bolt the line from the s10 caliper to the gn brake line , correct me if im wrong i tried searching and couldnt find the part # . In other posts some were saying you dont gain much by doing this swap , is it heavier then the stock setup anyone who has done this have any suggestions .

Thanks in advance

 

[corsair231]

I just remember 1990 for all my transplant parts: F Body 1LE 12" rotors, B Body spindles, master cylinder, calipers, and pads, F Body V8 radiator (don't have it yet but one day), and Ford Crown Victoria for my rear 11" drum brakes.

Info on the Crown Vic 11" drums please. Is this on the stock housing or on a
9" conversion? How hard of a swap is it? I searched and came up empty about it.
Thanks.

 

[V6UnderPressure]

I found the article that Sam was talking about and I have actually changed my mind and decided to go this route. Going to hit the junkyard this weekend for the B-Body spindles. Here is the article on the buildup.

Big-Brake Upgrade For GM A/G-Bodies- Car Craft Magazine

 

[V6UnderPressure]

Does anyone know if it matters what spindle you get from a b-body? I have heard that some b-bodies have 11" rotors as well. I will be putting a new set of 1LE 12" rotors on anyways. But do I have to get spindles that had 12" rotors before in order to run those? I would wonder if the 11" would have a smaller dust shield?

 

[charlief1]

There are some with 11 and some with 12" rotors. As Eric said, just stay away from the 95-96 ones. They use an entirly different ball joint.

 

[Sam Colalillo]

I found the article that Sam was talking about and I have actually changed my mind and decided to go this route. Going to hit the junkyard this weekend for the B-Body spindles. Here is the article on the buildup.

Big-Brake Upgrade For GM A/G-Bodies- Car Craft Magazine

There is another article where they pulled .98 Lateral G on a road course from a Cutlass which has this conversion done to it. This article was back in the early 90’s I think HotRod also did one on a MonteCarlo SS which had a built 355 in it.

 

[charlief1]

If you need the upper control arms Spohn performance has them on Evil-bay for just under 300 right now.

 

[ijames]

Info on the Crown Vic 11" drums please. Is this on the stock housing or on a
9" conversion? How hard of a swap is it? I searched and came up empty about it.
Thanks.

Sorry, just noticed your question. I had Ford ends from Moser welded on the ends of the axle tubes, instead of using bolt on c clip eliminators. You need axles to match but they are the same price as the the c clip eliminator axles, and having them drilled for the 5 on 4.75 G body lug pattern is also no extra charge. Then you use whatever Ford rear brakes you want. Moser has the 11" drum kit (drums and loaded backing plates ready to install) for $300, or there are some disc options starting in the $500's. Again no extra charge for the lug pattern. That gets me the big Ford axle bearings instead of the wimpy c clip ones, it's NHRA legal, and millions of Fords don't have oil leaks . For shoes, wheel cylinders, and hardware the '90 Crown Vic is easy to remember, and if I ever need drums I will either get them from Moser again or get Crown Vic drums and drill the second lug pattern myself.

If you just want c clip eliminators and don't do many street miles it is overkill. In my case I wanted to upgrade to bigger axles anyway so I was already going to be buying 30 spline axles and 30 spline Eaton posi and master install kit (all bearings and seals), so the only extra expense was the Ford ends (about $150) and the labor for the welding. You need to take it to a shop that has the jigs for narrowing rears and the expertise to set up ring and pinions. The only "dumb" thing about mine was that I should have bought a cheap non-posi rear instead of doing all this to my perfectly good posi rear - selling that would have paid for most of the parts . All I reused was the housing and ring and pinion, sigh. All told you will spend about 3/4 of what a mail-order 12-bolt will cost. Oh, the one thing I was uncertain about was the emergency brake, but believe it or not the GM cable hooked right on the Ford actuator and I didn't even have to adjust the cable.

There is a similar deal using 11" A body brakes from the '70's and maybe Pontiac? axles, but no one sells that as a kit (I think Bowling Green Customs used to last decade) and I didn't want to have to scrounge up all those parts with no guidance. The Ford stuff is sold by every street rod and hot rod supply house so availability is great.

 

[turbofish38]

There is another article where they pulled .98 Lateral G on a road course from a Cutlass which has this conversion done to it.

I wouldn't put much faith in those numbers. Strapping on a set of slicks will achieve the same results. Strapping on a set of sticky DOT tires will achieve the same results. Using one of those old G-Tech meters will achieve the same results. Doing the tests on concrete as compared to old asphalt will net the same results. Using a skid pad that is supposed to be 300 feet in diameter when it is really 250' will net the same results. Moral of the story. Lateral G forces do nothing......except sell magazines.

I've always said it's the driver and not the car. Buckle me up in a 35 year old Vega with bald bias plys and I'll beat a 16 YO old girl in a brand new C6...every time.:tongue: Which is the other moral to the story. After you build the suspension learn how to use it effectively.