I recently got my hands on a 9 bolt rear with disc brakes after I blew the gears of my 10 bolt drums. I will be doing the swap soon but just wanted some feedback and clarification before I begin:

I will need new pads and rotors as this thing has been sitting for a while. Summit only sells rear discs for fourth gens. I'm confused as to wheather these will fit on a 9 bolt or not, I get mixed signals depending on the website.

If the fourth gen rotors do fit, would it work with my 15 inch z28 rims?

Other than the brakes everything else should be interchangable ie. e-brake cables, mounting brackets, shocks and yoke.

Will my proportioning valve work fine from the drum to disc or will i need to order one?

 

There are two braking systems on 9-bolts. One has 10.5" rotors and iron calipers; the other has 11.7" rotors and alum calipers. Which system to you have?

JamesC

 

the discs are 10.5s. Do you know of any websites that sell brakes to fit the 9 bolt. Any chance they make oversized kits?

 

You can swap to 11.7" rotors and single piston alum calipers (PBR's) with the correct 9-bolt backing plates as seen below--or bigger if you wish:

http://www.flynbye.com/catalog/i31.html

If you go bigger, there's the combination valve and parking brake cables to consider.

JamesC

 

The front pads will work on the rear on the ones if you have the cast iron calipers. I thnk the part # is D154.

 

Should I get the 10.5 rotors and pads and just clean up the old calipers, or just invest in the 11.7 kits with calpiers and all. I honestly was hoping not to pay that much. I'm in canada so shipping is going to be the killer. Is it worth it for the $1000 upgrade?

 

Depends, I guess. Most members would probably recommend upgrading the fronts first as that's where most of the braking power occurs. You might consider new rotors, (calipers if necessary), pads, and lines front and rear. The old style system gets a periodic bashing on TGO, but my experience with them was fine.

JamesC

 

I am going to stick with the 10.5s for now i ordered pads and rotors for it, the pads will fit but the cross drilled rotors i ordered from summit look to be for my front with the wheel bearings built into the brakes rather than a hub assembly, I assume thats what it is. I will just keep them for when i need to new front rotors but id like to know the part number for the rear rotors

 

It's more practical to buy brakes from a local parts store. The Raybestos part #'s for replacement rotors are:

front: 5064
rear: 5066

You can also get these in drilled/slotted from Raybestos, but you need to specify left and right. Add suffix "PL" or "PR" to the part #'s above.

 

Well I got most of the parts I needed for the brakes. Calipers pistons were seized, which was kind of expected so I ordered new ones. Now I'm sandblasting the rear at the moment. I know its backwards that I am upgrading the rear before the front. But since I'll already have the rear dropped I just decided to upgrade the suspension, New control arms, panhard bar, sway bar, torque arm, shocks, lowering coils. I would have like to start front back, but that's the way she goes. Any recommended parts that you guys have experience with? I really wanna stiffen up the suspension and have a nice tight ride and get the power to the wheels.