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rear disc conversion ... interchange alert


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So. when does it take all ************ day to do a rear disc brake swap? ($10 to anyone who can figure out what that ***'ed out word is :P )

 

When the backing plates don't fit over the rear knuckles! The middle of the knuckles was too narrow.

I had to go to the HW store and get some grinding bits.

Drilled a bunch of smaller holes 1/4"-ish apart all the way around, grabbed the tabs with the vise grips and wiggled them off. good thing that middle section is just aluminum! Then I ground it down and rounded the rest of the way. Not cosmetically perfect but it went on OK.

 

Anyone know what's up with this? I got these rear backing plates from a guy I know, no fault of his, but I don't know what they came from. Maybe a 2WD? did any 2WDs come with rear discs?

 

If anyone knows what cars have these smaller, not-quite-as-universal rear backing plates, it might be nice to make a note in the swap article in the USRM so we don't choose that car to pull our rear backing plates from.. unless that's what they're going on as well :D

BTW the botl holes lined up fine, the inner diameter was too small though.

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Caleb, you're saying that the backing plates I had were 2WD?

30 minutes.. yeah, it all went really smoothly except for the whole NOT FITTING thing. Don't worry, I made sure there was beer on hand as well. Ahhh Newcastle, how do I love thee? let me count the ways.. one two three four five six! :drunk:

 

Did you all know that an 8" (mayb 9") adj. crescent wrench's handle works great as a rotating-the-piston-back-in tool for rear calipers? I have the multi-cube thingy for the fronts but the rears are the hollow cylinder type of piston. I haven't sprung for the pro style retractor kit yet. Maybe :santa:'s listening? hint hint

Thankfully, the front calipers had almost-new pads in them so I didn't have to deal with the multi cube too much to retract them again. I hate that thing, it's probably designed to slip off every 5 turns :madder:

 

Oh, and halfway through the process, the old Black and Decker drill I borrowed from Dad broke.. the set screw that holds the .. uhh.. drill bit grabby part, to the output shaft was gone so it popped off the drill halfway through. had to call Dad and make him deliver another drill (he used to own a HW store / shop so he has a few laying around :D ) .. delays delays delays! DAMN YOU MURPHY, YOU AND YOUR INSUFFERABLE LAW!

 

Kaz.. not even close :D

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I'll call him tomorrow. If I have time I'll go look at the dealer's parts book too. The only thing I can think of would be that they're 2WD. I even test fitted them inside the wheels as they were obviously off the car for all this, and they cleared OK.

 

Maybe a non-turbo GL10? :cornfuzz:

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i put rear discs on mine, the only fitment issue was a little rust needed to be brushed off.

 

the 2wd backing plate being smaller sounds like the problem. because the 4wd rear knuckle hosed the bearings, thus being larger than the 2wd rear knuclke that has a spinlde insteead.

 

aside from that i know you can use the caliper and rotor(after swapping hubs) from a 2wd.

 

the rotors on the trashagon came off a 2wd gl-10(you know, one of the 2wd blue with blue interior gl-10's that jim keeps coming up with):temper:

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