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Along with a few other projects I'm juggling with at the moment I finally finished a rear conversion bracket setup for true C5 brakes with a working e-brake and it uses the stock C5/C6 backing plates, and best of all it's totally bolt on to BOTH 9 and 10 bolt rears. I'll also have an update to the drum rear swap as well but wanted to post this today. This is what the conversion plate set looks like: (3) conversion plates/brackets per side, necessary mounting bolts, dust seal, brake cable mouting brackets, and caliper spacers and bolts. More to come, have a great 4th of July weekend!
Re: C5 rear disc brake install with working e-brake
Just used the stock C5/C6 backing plate along with a stock C5/C6 rear disc setup. Install is below. Most of you will note that I used a 10 bolt 2nd gen leaf spring axle but this is no issue, same flange and GM offset on our 10 bolts:
Here goes.
Start by pulling off all the brake parts. Make SURE you clean the housing flange and get all the rust and deposits off of it so the brackets will sit flat:
Here's the only real issue on the bracket install: the inner tubing to flange weld. If you have any weld spurs or odd marks you'll need to grind them smooth so that the inner bracket will sit flush as well. Remove excess rust and debris here too:
Bolt the inner and outer brackets to the flange as shown:
Ed
Last edited by ebmiller88; 07-05-2009 at 11:34 PM.
Re: C5 rear disc brake install with working e-brake
You'll notice that the C5 backing plate has a much larger hole in it than the 10 bolt backing plate would so I made some "dust shields" to keep everything clean once it's bolted up:
I made the brackets out of 5/8" thick steel but there will be some difference in offsets due to tolerances, in my application I still needed a spacer washer behind the plate between the bracket to get the abutment located where I wanted it:
Re: C5 rear disc brake install with working e-brake
Slide the axle in, insert C clip and center pin:
Bolt the rotor on with a couple lug nuts to keep it tight and install the caliper and abutment bracket using the spacers and you're done:
This setup used a C6 Z51 rotor and abutment but anything from stock C5 to C6 ZO6 brakes can work with it. Install disc rear brake lines and the hydraulics are set. This will obviously need a custom brake cable set and once I get the LS1 cables done (I know, I know...) I'll move onto these. I'm doing a rearend swap in my own car so that's what has pushed this.
Ed
Last edited by ebmiller88; 07-05-2009 at 11:40 PM.
Re: C5 rear disc brake install with working e-brake
Hey Ed, just a thought. I see you set the calipers to the rear of the axle. With the e-brake similar to the LS1, would it be possible to set them to the front and use the LS1 brackets for the lines and cables? Using all 4th gen brackets (including the center one in the transmission tunnel) and e-brake handle, I was able to use the stock 4th gen cables on my LS1 brakes, but I had to have my flex lines custom made because they were too long for the 3rd gen axle and couldn't make the bend required.
Re: C5 rear disc brake install with working e-brake
Originally Posted by Al Hasse
Hey Ed, just a thought. I see you set the calipers to the rear of the axle. With the e-brake similar to the LS1, would it be possible to set them to the front and use the LS1 brackets for the lines and cables? Using all 4th gen brackets (including the center one in the transmission tunnel) and e-brake handle, I was able to use the stock 4th gen cables on my LS1 brakes, but I had to have my flex lines custom made because they were too long for the 3rd gen axle and couldn't make the bend required.
Hi Al...I assume you mean the U-shaped cable bracket mounted to the rear LCA mount? I haven't tried that yet as the car is still on stands since I haven't finished my repairs yet but that's the plan, at least something similar to it. The C5 rear backing plate will interchange in this concept so you can pull the cable from the front or rear depending on how you wanted to do it but I can't assure you that the cable lengths will be the same. Also, the inner bracket can be installed either to the front or rear as well so you can put the calipers on either side you desire and front mounted should clear the LCAs with ease. I still have some work to do but I'm crunching to get stuff out the door so my own stuff must get delayed.
Re: C5 rear disc brake install with working e-brake
Those are the ones I was referring to. Now that you've explained it a bit, I can see how it could work. I have no issues at all with the LS1 cables and the C5 lever appears to be in the same location. That's why I thought the LS1 brackets on the control arms would work, though a flex line may have to be custom made if using a 3rd gen axle.
Re: C5 rear disc brake install with working e-brake
EB u r too much of the iissshhh!! I cant wait til you get a kit together, Im in now. These are compatible for the 9inch, correct?
You said 9 inch so I'll go with that.
It will depend on which axle flanges and bearings are on the 9 inch housing. If they're big Ford and/or C-clip eliminators then no. If they're a standard GM pattern set up for stock 10 bolt or 9 bolt discs then they will work.
Re: C5 rear disc brake install with working e-brake
Originally Posted by 86copchaser76
yeah its the stock BW 9 inch. Sorry, Im not as familiar with the rear end as I am with everything else on the car right now. So I should be good?
Do you mean stock BW 9-bolt? 9 inch is generally taken to mean Ford 9 inch, which is why Ed answered your question the way he did. The Borg-Warner 9-bolt is 7.75 inch.
If in fact you are referring the the 9-bolt then the short answer is yes, Ed's kit works for that.
Re: C5 rear disc brake install with working e-brake
Originally Posted by 87350IROC
So how much will the kit be with everything to make the e-brake work? I don't see it on your site yet.
As a person with a 87 9-bolt...the Delco-Moraine iron calipers....This sounds like exactly what I've been wanting!
Price? "Catalog" info/website link? The timing (for me) sucks though...Might cause me to put other plans on hold, to do a C5/Z06 brake upgrade first.
EDIT:I found the conversion kit.... http://www.flynbye.com/catalog/i77.html. What else (obviously calipers & rotors) would be needed to complete the conversion?
I'm ready to order TODAY, if I know what else to start gathering up!
Re: C5 rear disc brake install with working e-brake
I have just the bracket set or the full blown rear setup if you want to go that way. The stock C5 rear discs will fit a 17" wheel, anything larger may be pushing it.
Re: C5 rear disc brake install with working e-brake
Originally Posted by ebmiller88
I have just the bracket set or the full blown rear setup if you want to go that way. The stock C5 rear discs will fit a 17" wheel, anything larger may be pushing it.
Ed
I want to order NOW, but your catalog parts descriptions are so vague on some things....I don't know what to order.
Yeah..."Call me" Well, I can't.....A$$hole in a F-350 decided my car was in his way. No more voice for me.
I'll probably just never order anything. I've asked you via PM & email & through your site before, but a lack of response means I've never ordered anything from you.
Re: C5 rear disc brake install with working e-brake
Originally Posted by 87350IROC
Ed,
If you can make this work with Wilwood Dynalite or FSL calipers instead of the vette calipers, I'll buy immediately.
John
You read my mind, it's on the list but I'll need to make a bracket adjustment and the innermost flange bracket will go away. That was another reason to install the C5 backing plate and not the LS1. There's no abutment mounting lugs to work around. I'll get to it sometime but I can make no timing promises.
Re: C5 rear disc brake install with working e-brake
Originally Posted by 89ROC-Z
Whats the benefits of this set up over the ls1 rear brake upgrade?
Performance wise? Honestly not much. What this style does is give you at least 3 options for C5/C6 rotor size and two caliper choices which the LS1s cannot not do: Stock C5/C6, Z51 C6, C6 ZO6 4 piston rears.
As stated above, by using this backing plate and an appropriate bracket it will also allow using a Wilwood FSL/Superlite caliper and still have a working e-brake and keep some kind of a budget.
Re: C5 rear disc brake install with working e-brake
That sounds great Ed. Sounds like you plan to go with the FSL instead of the Dynalite caliper? That sounds like a good plan, they are a lot bigger (bling) and probably don't cost much more. And best of all they will match the front Wilwood setup I just ordered from you .
No worries about the time line Ed. Just keep in mind you have a buyer from me right away.
Re: C5 rear disc brake install with working e-brake
Originally Posted by ebmiller88
Happy 4th of July to you all.
Along with a few other projects I'm juggling with at the moment I finally finished a rear conversion bracket setup for true C5 brakes with a working e-brake and it uses the stock C5/C6 backing plates, and best of all it's totally bolt on to BOTH 9 and 10 bolt rears. I'll also have an update to the drum rear swap as well but wanted to post this today. This is what the conversion plate set looks like: (3) conversion plates/brackets per side, necessary mounting bolts, dust seal, brake cable mouting brackets, and caliper spacers and bolts. More to come, have a great 4th of July weekend!
Re: C5 rear disc brake install with working e-brake
Ed is shown as not having logged into TGO for about 12-1/2 years, and he hasn't replied to this thread in about 14-1/2 years, but maybe he lurks, covers his tracks or is here now under a pseudonym. "They say" his correspondence isn't the best, but he does seem to fill orders in reasonable time.
But I don't see these conversions currently listed on his website. The links to them posted throughout this thread still work, but that might be because the internet knows where we are, what we're doing, where we've been, what we've done, and it never forgets. But if you can reach him, I'd imagine he can probably still make them.
Another issue is the C5/C6 backing plates were discontinued years ago, and the last of the new ones disappeared about 4 years ago; probably mine lol. So even with the conversion parts, people would still have to locate backing plates, possibly off of junkyard cars, which won't be easy because dead Corvettes don't usually spend their afterlives among the common folk. But there are listings for used backing plates on ebay. Clean 'em up, paint 'em, put new shoes on 'em.
OR, without intending any harm by hijacking a near-15-year-old dead thread, there's Big Brake Upgrade, where Scott offers his version of the C5/C6 rear conversion, which is what I have. They're listed as "out of stock," but I think that's because he'd make them to order. But just the conversion parts, not the actual C5/C6 backing plates, which, again, you'd probably have to find used, then send them to him to modify for our axles.
The advantages of this conversion over the LS1 conversion are mentioned by Ed in this thread, but I mention them in mine too. Basically, it's that they work with a variety of rotor sizes and caliper types, which is not the case with LS1 brakes. And in my thread, I show mock-ups of the different sizes and calipers.
All said, there are newer, "better" rear brake conversions out there now, and if you browse BBU's website you'll see them. I specifically wanted C6 Z06 brakes, so Scott created the conversion for me. But the C6 generation ended 11 years ago, and C5/C6 brakes have become obsolete.
Re: C5 rear disc brake install with working e-brake
I contacted a few different people when I upgraded my brakes and ended up going w Tobin setups from Kore3. He was super helpful and his stuff was spot on. The guys at BBU were cool as well. Kore3 had a nasty front end kit for my car and that's what swayed me. They machine some pretty stuff!
07-04-2009, 12:18 PM
