84-87 12" Corvette Brake Swap... (Page 1/28)
Jncomutt JUN 09, 09:43 PM
Ok well ALL the information to do this brake swap is out on the internet somewhere. Bubbajoe has a good majority of the information on his website, but there is ALOT lacking. All of this other lacking material can be found elsewhere, but I'm going to try to compile it all in this one simple thread....


FRONT
Standard Duty..
84-87 Corvette
Left -- 10181205
Right -- 10181206



REAR
Left -- 10112652
Right -- 10112652 (same part fits left and right)


Rotors
Front -- 88 Corvette Fronts WITHOUT heavy duty brakes
Rear -- 88 Corvette Rears WITHOUT heavy duty brakes

Master Cylinder
77 to 82 Corvette


Calipers
Front -- 1984-1987 Corvette


Rear -- 1988 to 1996 Corvette



Lug Studs
Dorman Part # : 610-323
Advance Auto Parts # 98501 (Pik - a - Nut brand)

Banjo Bolts
Front - 10x1.0mm
Rear - 10x1.0mm

Mounting Bolts
(8) 12M 1.75 x 30mm Hex Head Cap Screws (fronts)
(8) 12M 1.75 x 20mm Hex Head Cap Screws (rear)

Brake Lines
Any replacement lines have been said to work
Lines used here were summit part#: "RUS 692110"

[This message has been edited by Jncomutt (edited 02-20-2015).]

Jncomutt JUN 09, 09:51 PM
Here are the parts after some cleaning and painting...


The front rotors have to be machine down into just the hubs. We brought our old rotors to a machine shop and they cut them down for us in an afternoon and charged $60 for the pair.

All four rotors need to be redrilled for the 5x100 pattern. Although we did this using a front hub as guide, I wouldn't do it again. It is worth the few bucks to pay a machine shop to do it. Our holes fit and they work fine, but for the amount of time and aggravation, its better off to pay someone. If you have a drill press, and/or, more time than money, then can be achieved using a front hub. Simply knock the old studs out, press on the ring created from Bubba's instructions, and position the hub inside the rotor bore. You can then line the corvette lug holes up with the webbing on the hub, and drill the new holes using the hub as a guide. If you're going to paint the rotor centers, I'd recommend doing so after the drilling, ours got a few scuffs here and there that needed to be touched up.

I've designed a marking jig to fit on the Corvette rotor if you wish to mark and drill the rotors yourself.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4166383

The rears went fairly straight forward after modifying a few things that bubbajoe Doesn't mention... After removing the wheel, these are the old brakes (Grand Am Swap):


Disassemble the rear caliper / brake line as you normally would. Pull off the rotor and do whatever you want with the old junk. We also chose to upgrade to the SS hoses as well, so we discarded the rubber during diassembly.

You can try your luck with bolts that fit for the rear, but according to this write up, you're going to use the same bolts as the front. You have to Drill the rear spindles and tap them to the same thread as the front. Using the appropriate drill bit, open the hole and use a 12M 1.75 Tap to make new threads.

There is a small 'ear' on the front edge of the spindle that has to be ground down or cut off. It will be obvious when you try to put the rotor on where you have to make this cut.

Place the ring created from Bubba's drawings onto the hub and install the rotor. Using two or so lug nuts, tighten the rotor against the hub. We found that with the larger taper inside our rotors, the supplied drawing ring didn't work. While the ID and OD were perfect, it was too thin to be usable. We had to make a trip back to our machine shop and have him make us new rings that were twice as thick.


Our next step was to bolt the corvette caliper adapter to the mounting bracket machined from bubba's drawings. We had to slightly work the bracket a bit to get everything to line up, so you may have to as well.

You can now position the preassembled assembly onto the spindle. You will need to check for clearances. When we put ours together, we found that the outer edge of the caliper adapter was rubbing against the rotor. We fixed this by installing washers between the spindle and the mounting bracket. We used blue locktite, and tightened everything down once we were satisfied with fitment.


You can now assemble the caliper as you normally would this type of caliper. The sliders get pushed into the caliper adapter already installed, and then the pads are placed on the caliper adapter. You then position the caliper over the pads, tighten it into place using the screws provided into the already installed slider pins. Reinstall the brake line (in this case new DOT SS by russel from summitracing.com), and you're finished with the backs...

[This message has been edited by Jncomutt (edited 02-16-2020).]

Jncomutt JUN 09, 10:23 PM
After removing the tire, here are the old front brakes:

Remove the caliper as you normally would, disconnect the brake line and put the old stuff somewhere. Pry the dust cover off the hub, remove the cotter pin, release the nut, and pull off the old hub. While you have the front hubs off, its a good idea to buy new inner and outer wheel bearings, as wel as new seals. Pack em up with grease, and put em in the new rotor.

You need to grind the spindle down so that the mounting bracket can sit flush. After thats done, you'll also need to drill out the threads in the spindle so that the bolts can slide through. We chose to also remove the dust shield and cut it down so only the center protective piece was left. You must also cut this to clear the bracket.

You're now ready to install the new hub. With the longer studs pressed in, put the hub on the spindle, put the new outer bearings in, seat them, put the nut on and tap the dust cap into place.

Tap the rings made from Bubba's drawings onto the new hub. You can now install the rotor, and tighen it into place using two or so lug nuts.

You have to drill the threads out of the caliper adapters, and then bolt the adapter to the mounting bracket. Test fit the adapter over the rotor (you have to install it on the front and rotate it into place as Bubba describes). Again, we had issues with the outer edge of the rotor rubbing the caliper adapter so using the same washers as the rear, we spaced the adapter out just enough so everything fit to our liking. We used blue loctite again and snugged it all up.

Assemble the front calipers as you normally would and tighen the brake hose into place.

Onto the Master cylinder...

[This message has been edited by Jncomutt (edited 06-12-2005).]

Jncomutt JUN 09, 10:40 PM
First you gotta bench bleed the new MC. Follow the instructions that come with the new one and you'll be all set. There are 2 brake lines that come out of the MC which need to be removed and 2 nuts holding it in place to the booster. Pull the old MC off, put the new one in place and tighten it to the booster.

(yea yea, its not cleaned out yet)

Now you will find that the brake lines don't match up to the new MC. The 'thin' line could be used on the front if you needed to. Local parts stores didn't stock the larger hose which uses two different sized fittings so we had to make our own. We rented a flare tool, bough some brake tubing, and reused the old fittings from the stock line. We cut and bent it into shape using a tubing bender and tightened it down. Doesn't leak, worked great.

Next step is to bleed the brakes as you normally would and you're all set! Don't forget to break in the new pads as called for by the manufacturer.
Good luck, and happy stopping!

Jncomutt JUN 09, 10:42 PM
Before and After...



[This message has been edited by Jncomutt (edited 06-12-2005).]

VISCERAL JUN 10, 12:02 AM
I haven't done the rear setup yet because of the brake cable issue, please elaborate with extra pix please. Thank you
dguy JUN 10, 10:00 AM

quote
Originally posted by Jncomutt:

Ok well ALL the information to do this brake swap is out on the internet somewhere. Bubbajoe has a good majority of the information on his website, but there is ALOT lacking. All of this other lacking material can be found elsewhere, but I'm going to try to compile it all in this one simple thread....


Thanks for taking the time & effort to put the scatter together into something comprehensive!

FieroMikeTDC JUN 11, 10:43 PM
Just to clearify, are all four rotors vented or just the front ones with the rears solid? Never looked/touched a vette before. Great writeup.
Jncomutt JUN 11, 11:57 PM
All 4 of the rotors are vented stock. The rotors we used were also slotted and cross drilled and cost a slight bit more. You can get a good number of parts from www.rockauto.com at great a price
Russ544 JUN 12, 12:33 AM
Where did you locate the caliper adaptors? Didn't I hear that they were no longer avail from GM?