When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I planned on doing my rear brakes over winter break, but had a much better idea pop into my head: If I replace my drums with replacement parts, I'll still have drum brakes. BUT if I replaced my whole rear end with one from a v8, I'll have disc brakes! So the searching began...
Local boneyards never worked out, craigslist - nope, eBay with Hawks Third Gen - there we go! Ordered it right around Black Friday had it shipped to my brother's business where I loaded it up and stored it in the barn for a while.
Come winter break and I started pulling out the old one
Of course with a 20 year old car, you get 20 year old rust. Brake line fittings tend to rust to the brake line and twist the whole line in half. Lucky for me the guys at Napa had some brake line available and I bent the new line pretty close to the old one, and it managed to fit in all the factory brake line holdings, with some persuasion of course
Getting ready to slid the ol 10 bolt in
It ended up being more work than I expected for sure, but she works! My old rear had 175k on it, open diff and 3.23's. New one came out of a 02 Trans Am 3 ch. with 58k miles on it. 2.73's and a Torsen, plus rear disc brakes! I also swapped out my rear tubular poly/poly LCAs for stock ones with Moog bushings at the same time. Bled the brakes with ATE Typ 200 and she stops surprisingly about the same as my old setup I guess those drums weren't all that bad.
Still have quite a few quirks to work out though. I couldn't open the front passenger bleeder, so that still has old fluid in it... Doesn't help that I have LT front brakes and LS rear brakes now. Speedo reads a little low, might use that to get out of a ticket hehe. ABS Inop light is on, doesn't bother me as long as it works! And it makes a very harsh noise when making a hard right at higher speeds, probably a bearing but oh well lol. I'll fix these all in time. I left a two wheel burnout at the end of my street but I forgot to take a picture to show off
I didn't change anything else other than the brake line itself. Part of the brake line was still on the new rear end and it was a 3/16in line, while my old brake line I pulled out was a 1/4in line. I figured since the disc brake rear end used 3/16in brake line, I should use 3/16in as well because of the bigger rear brakes, it'll "bias" a little less if I use the smaller diameter line for the rear. I don't know if it really matters much, maybe a little bit.
I did a brake test after I installed the new rear end and it moved my sun visors toward the windshield with no ABS kicking in or tire squealing, my drums would do the same thing too tho. My drums locked up my rear tires a few times before, but that was before I had any suspension upgrades. GMPartsDirect gives the same number for a v6 and v8 master cylinder, so I might be okay. I'll figure out everything when I actually push my car this summer during the next season of autocross, then I'll make adjustments as needed
I know a way to fix drum brakes AND make more power with a lot less work...buy a Z28
That would be too easy
Besides, how many 3.4 liters have you seen do this!
I'm slowly turning my car into an LS1... Has upgraded suspension, LS1 driveshaft, LS1 rear end, my brother's friend has an extra LS1 k member that he was gonna throw away so I'm just gonna take it (already getting ready for next summer.) 3.4 liter sleeper right here, spank stock v8's all day
Hey I'm all for tinkering and working on cars, but turning a V6 into a V8 seems like way too much work especially when you can find Z28's really cheap.
Just got home,all is well. Thanks for the rear end. Hope you put the 'salad shooters' to good use.
You got the suspension good,now you need good tires.
No problem! Glad it's getting put to good use rather than sitting around taking up space, hope it works out good for you. You're right though, I need tires and I'll be set
12-28-2015, 10:58 AM
How I fixed my drum brakes 
I guess those drums weren't all that bad.
