CELEBRATING 20 YEARS!

Well after ordering the parts to fix my crate motor, next on the to-do list is improving the braking. I was thinking budget-minded with oversized front calipers, new pads and possibly new rotors. (about 2 years ago i installed new shoes, rotors and pads, but wasnt thrilled with stock delco braking) But reading this months car craft makes these drum to disc conversions seem alot less scary, and who wouldnt want to get rid of those ugly rusting drums. Driving nothing but my monte since i started driving around 4 years ago makes me an expert in how not to overcook the rotors and knowing how to stop without killing anyone on my daily commute to the camden/Philadelphia area. The drivers around here love to slam on their brakes for a squirrel, police officer, accident on the opposite side of the highway, etc. And its given me quite a scare. But im thinking to myself "if i was in my moms 08 grand prix, i would have put myself through the windshield with her brakes and wouldnt have to be praying that my brakes would stop me intime."

So i will be searching some yards for the calipers, brackets, buying new lines, pads, rotors and my dad said he's found a way to use the parking brake on the fbody caliper. Anything i should keep a lookout for when pulling the parts? Or anything when doing the conversion we should lookout for? I know theres probably a write up but the CC article seems pretty straightforward, just wondering if they missed anything.

Go to my CD site. I did this swap.

ok lookin good, i saw you used the ls1 rear disc as opposed to the lt1/1LE rear disc, i know the ls1 is a bit bigger and has a seperate parking brak which has its advantages. Is it any more difficult than the older 97 and below brakes? And i know you have big wheels on it but will they clear 15 inch rims? Also is moving the shock mount and mounting the calipers in that position necessary? Trying to make this a true bolt-in procedure and avoid fabrication.

The rears may clear 15 wheels. My fronts will not.

If the caliper was at the 3 oclock position the shock would not have been moved inward. It barely was in the way at 9 oclock.

I just read the CC article, it's assuming you have a 4 bolt flange rear end which no g-body got. You're going to be cutting and drilling the flange; after that it's a bolt-in. I haven't tried to do the e-brake on mine yet.

hmm ok like i thought its not as easy as CC thought. I saw some bolt in brake kits on summit for the 7.5, but some say they dont work with the g body and some dont specify, probably due to the flange.

I too installed the LS1 rear brakes. One of the top 3 must-do upgrades to a gbody in my books.
-As stated above if you clock the rotors in the stock fbody location ( 3oclock ) then you don't need to re-locate the shocks.
-My 15 Alum rims ( in my sig ) clear the rotors but my 15" stock 85 steel wheels won't
-As you know the parking brake will take some fab work ( I have not done that yet )
-Some recommend changing out the MC for a disk/disk unit ( something else I have not done )

It's really very little fab-work to get these set up. Follow the links below and do some research.

http://www.poltergeist.us/page/elky/brakes/f-body/ls1brakes.htm
this one will have a link to the 3rd gen article

Good luck !

Anyone got pics of how you connected the E brake cables? And the bracket to hold them, and routing to the pedal?
Thanks,
Scot

3 o clock on which side? I think a lot of this might have to do with the shocks you're using - there was no way mine were going to clear once the banjo bolt was installed, and I didn't see any way to clock them at all. Do you have a picture of yours installed? I even switched sides for the backing plates, but nothing I could do would clear the shocks.

Here's my passenger side, with a relocation bracket I made (it's T shaped and goes up the control arm) and where I welded the brake hose tab:





I gutted mine based on a directions I found for a Baer kit online. Haven't driven the car, so I don't know how well it works yet.

aisg, that link was pretty helpful on showing a good parts list. Im still leaning towards a kit for the sake of no headaches "tamraz parts" seems like a pretty good business when i looked them up. They sell stuff on ebay, which is where i first found them and im always skeptical about buying new, expensive products from ebay vendors. But they seem to have a good rating, lifetime warranty, tech support, etc. And for 450 bucks you get everything new.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/GM-78-88-A-G-82-...=item5ae40f777b

Have you guys used this company before?

This is a pic of the inside rear drivers wheel. The calipers can be mounted forwards of the rear axle. You can also see how little clearance there is with the 15" wheel

I take it you mean you gutted your PV, and not the MC?

A good page to check out is http://www.thirdgen.org/ls1reardisc and the monte-list page(unfinished) http://www.monte-list.com/tech/reardiskbrakes.shtml

The two issues with installing the LS1 brakes on a A/G is as shown, either the rear shocks are in the way, or the sway bar mounting bolts are in the way. The latter seems to be hit or miss. IMO the factory rear sway bar is just a snap oversteer device anyway.

As for wheels, not all GM 15" wheels will clear the rear calipers.
The large raised bridge will come in contact with the center section of some wheels, or if the hoop has a large radius up to the center section(83-87 15" Olds SSIII). I tried two different 15" GM steel wheels. One cleared fine but the others center section would catch. Some '70s 15x7/15x6 Pontiac Rallyes cleared, but watch the weld bead at the hoop to center section. I had one rim that had a sloppy weld blob and it would just graze the caliper bridge.

Sorry, I misread the original comment. You are correct, I modified the stock proportioning valve. I'm going to be running the stock master cylinder and upgraded to the booster to the larger b-body dual diaphragm.



I wish I could remember why I couldn't install them towards the front of the car, but I know I had problems when I tried.

The two issues that seem to be the problem.
Sway bar bolts with the nut facing out and the bolt shank coming into contact with the caliper. This can be rectified by simply flipping the bold to have the nut on the inside of the RLCA. Or removing the sway bar.
The second was the banjo bolt head/banjo hose end or the bleeder screw comes into contact with the frame rail. But I thought this was only an issue on slammed(modified rear bumpstop) cars.