Me and my dad took a drive to get a posi rear end for my 88' camaro today. It was an original disk brake setup, but they were taken off. He also said it was an austrailian rear axle (if anyone knows the difference can you let me know) off a Pontiac Firebird formula. Either or, I was wondering if I could take the drums of my original rear axle and put them on this and make it work? Any help is appreciated thanks.

Ben

 

Sure; all you'll need to do, is come up with drum backing plates off of a 9-bolt.

Good luck with that.

 

Would it be easier to go back to the disk setup?

 

If you can find a set-up of the disk to buy? Then sure. A lot easier than adapting drum brakes on.

Good luck finding a set though. Should be several 10-bolt setups from the guys that adapting 98+ brakes onto their 10-bolts.

But instead of hunting & doing all the OE brake stuff though, unless you are trying to restore something, I would do a 98+ (commonly referred to as LS1 brakes although the V6 cars got the same brakes after 98) brake swap. It is not as simple as a swap for 9-bolts, but it still can be done.

 

Is there any strength issues between the 9 and 10 bolt setups?

 

Oh, and if I was to go back to the disk setup (the axle currently has neither), would something like this work?

http://www.hawksthirdgenparts.com/pr...rsion-Kit.html

Thanks

 

The 9-bolts are a bit stronger rear ends but harder to get parts for when/if you brake something.

What is your intended purpose for the car that cause a question about the strength?

 

Actually, just a daily driver/occasional drag car (not consistant, just a grudge night or two). Just wondering about the differences. Idk, we drove up to the place with the initial plan that we just bring it home and put the drums on from my stock camaro axle if there were no problems, but I guess there is one. Im kind of short on money aswell, so any suggestion of where to go from here would be helpful.

 

Fix that problem first. Can't do nothin for you until you take care of that.

Then come back and we'll talk.

I know of no clean easy way to put LS1 brakes on a 9-bolt. Sounds good on the Internet; doesn't look so good in hardware.

This is the kind of thing where it's ALOT smarter to ask these questions BEFORE you lay out your green, not AFTER.

 

For just a Daily Driver on treaded tires? Grab a set of stock brakes (the discs), bolt them on & go.

Unless you have plans to do clutch dumps at 5k+ & run slicks? I wouldn't worry about breakage with a 9-bolt much.

Slicks are the #1 cause of rear end failures.

 

The disk/drum housing ends are different. The drum backing plate has a 4 bolt mount. The caliper mount has a 2 or 3 bolt mount. Can you put drums on a disk differential? Probably but it's not a direct bolt on swap.

The 9 bolt and 10 bolt ends are also different. The 9 bolt axle retainer holds the axle in place just like a ford 9" does. The 10 bolt diff uses c-clips on the ends of the axle so the retainer is designed differently.

You should find out from Hawks if that kit is for a 9 or 10 bolt and if it's for a diff that originally had disk or drum brakes. You wouldn't want to order it only to find out it won't fit.

 

Well, I got the axle for free, so no biggie if it dont work out as planned.

 

Thanks everyone for the helpful information. Ill discuss the situation with my dad. Ill probably end up trying the stock ones before buying newer if I can get my hands on them. I guess the drums are most likely out of the picture, but I have more research to do before I get rid of them completely. Might just have to stay with the stock axle. Either or , thanks for the help.

 

Drums are a nice compact design but disks have much better stopping power and reduce weight. I ran 11 x 2-1/4" ford drums on my car for many years because it was the easiest way to have brakes on the Ford 9". I eventually swapped over to a disk brake system. The car stops much easier plus it shaved around 16 pounds of unsprung weight off the car. This winter I'll be redesigning my rear caliper brackets to make a dual caliper system which will probably add most of that weight back on.

How big of a disk brake system you want to use depends on the size of the rims. A 15" rim is limited to about an 11-12" rotor to leave enough room above the rotor for the caliper. It depends exactly on the size of the caliper being used. The GMC Jimmy rotors I use are 11.61" in diameter and they fit fine inside my 15" rims. See the sticky in the brake forum on installing disk brakes on any differential