I have a chance to pick up a 85 Ta rear end with disk brakes. I have read somewhere don’t know if it is true that there were disk brakes that were equipped on the third gen that were put on the earlier years that were worse then drums them self and was wondering if this was one of them. 85 is the first year of the 7 and 5/8's ring gear correct?

Thanks for your help.

 

My 1985 has the Delco Moraine iron discs and, while I don't know if they are worse than drums, they are definitely not as good as the PBRs.

 

Before I swapped to PBR's, I had the iron version with the rebuild kit. Do a search and you should find the part number of the kit. Afterward I used the e-brake often and never experienced any problems. If I'm not mistake, my 85 IROC has the smaller ring gear.

JamesC

 

88 and new has the 7 5/8 ring gear. 88 up calipers are better but about the same as the 87 older calipers that are up dated.

 

I thought all the 10 bolts were 7 5/8".

 

The older had 7.5 ring gears. 78-87 El caminos Malibus and Monte carlos had the same crappy rear.

 

my rear brakes hardly ever worked, they were junk , i had them fixed and they worked for half the summer and then when i took it out of storage after winter they didnt work anymore . They are crappy , it sucks how you have to adjust them with the parking brake.

 

An 85 rear with rear discs has a good chance of having a 7.75 ring gear or what is known around these boards as a 9 bolt.

 

thats what mine had and they sucked , those brakes were horrible.