i'v got a 92 rs 305 tbi all stock except for suspension upgrades.
is the 1le brake upgrade from spohn $850 worth it? or due to the stock drum rear not worth it? should or could the rear axel be swapped with a z28 rear end to get to a disk brake rear set up? would this be easy?

yeah, i got a few questions here but i would like to beef up the braking and need some direction.


thanks for any help
john

 

Any brake upgrade you choose is worth it. These cars are so damn heavy and the brakes, when working good, are "just adequate". I highly recommend the 1LE kit form SPohn. I would have purchased it myself but he didn't have it available when I started my upgrade. So yes, it's worth it. I have good brakes on my '91 RS and it does stop well, but not like my Iroc.

Now, you have the 305TBI with the 2.73 open rear. I have a '91 RS, same thing here. What I would do in your position, would be to pick yourself up a 3.23 or 3.42 disc rear so you can A: Have a better gear ratio for the weaker 305 engine, and B: Get disc brakes at the same time. Look for a '90-92 disc rear in this case to get the "1LE" PBR rear brakes.

You can mod the drum rear, but here you could kill 2 birds with 1 stone. You ask if the brake swap is easy. It doesn't look too hard and I will be doing it on a 3.42 rear this spring, just to try it. But if you look you can find a rear that will have both of these.

Oh yeah, the Spohn kit only does the front so you would have to do the rear brakes yourself, or just keep your drums. Again, changing rears would do this for you.

HTH...Ed

 

well i don't know about the front, in the process of deciding between 1LE or baer at the moment. but the rear later style (89-up) discs DO make a significant difference over drums. My IROC 4wheel discs brakes better than my lighter v6 with drums. well when the front brakes weren't shot as they are now

however one thing to consider: the front brakes handle most of the braking... i think like 70%. So my recomendation would be to do both.