I went to a junkyard today and found some iroc sway bars, an iroc drum brake rear, and aluminum drums on it. I'm running four rear iroc wheels for reasons i won't mention and the aluminum brake drums would at least even out the wheel width of the front and rear of my car but I'd need new studs to accomodate them. Would it be worth it to pick up this stuff? Would there be a handling difference with these sway bars? Are aluminum drum brakes very rare?

 

The IROC sways are worth grabbing, they are larger diameter than the stock RS pieces. Even if you don't need them someone else will buy them from you.

As far as the IROC rear it may be a nine bolt Borg Warner which is a bit stronger than the GM 10 bolt, though parts to build them are appearantly more pricey than the GM units. However, weather it's a 10 bolt or a 9 bolt (look under the suspension and drivertrain board, I'm sure someone has tips as to how to tell them apart by outside appearance) It's far more likey to have a posi than the original rears in our V6 cars. However, a lot of the IROCs and V8 cars came with pretty tall highway gears in them which would be a bit much for out 6's.

As far as the drum breaks go I couldn't help ya, not familiar with the differences and I hadn't heard of aluminum drums on a thirdgen car.

Eric

 

i have aluminum drums on mine. they came of an iroc also. i think all irocs that had rear drum brakes had the aluminum. my 85 iroc had aluminums also. they are worth free horsepower. i think they 5 lbs lighter.

 

can you tell by holding them if they are alumonum or not?
also how can you tell by outward aperence if a differential is posi or not.

 

Three ways to find an aluminum drum, (A) they won't be rusty, (B) a magnet won't stick to 'em, (C) they're usually a white-ish color. I passed up a set b/c I thought the guy did something "weird" with the car... when I found out that aluminum drums WERE a factory thing, I went back- and they were gone from the yard. They're pretty rare... they rank up there with the ovehead console, the factory audio-tape-holder-in-the-console (missed that one too, dammit!! Again, I thought it was something the previous owner bought at a store), and the factory subwoofer.

I was also told that it's hard as hell to find aluminum drums from the aftermarket parts houses (like pep boys / autozone / etc), so if you can grab them for cheap, go for it!

Sway bar, yes, get them!!!

The rear; well, depends on what year the IROC is. 82-83 (I don't think GM had the IROC name yet, did they?) will be SAE threaded lines, 84-up is metric, so you'd need to convert the lines. 84-88 will NEED the GM rear disc recall kit to work, I detailed all that info here: https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...threadid=78725 Note that Apeiron found out that you do NOT need the master cyl, just the prop valve- that'll save you a ton of headaches. I only wish I knew that in the beginning...

89-92 rear discs are the PBR aluminum calipers; they're the hot ticket, the best rear disc setup the 3rd gens got. You'd still need the prop valve. They used only one master cylinder for ALL 89-92 cars, the same m/c for the 82-88 rear drums, so if that IROC is an 89-92, it has the same m/c as you do now.

If you grab the rear, ask the dude for EVERYTHING... including the rear e-brake cables. Note that on my swap, I replaced everything, including the e-brake cables, with new stuff. My total bill for the 3.73/posi/disc axle swap was well voer $600... and just thing- $200 for 3.73's, $99 for http://www.slponline.com posi, and $200 for install- and I would've been set with a great axle. Right now the 3.73/posi/disc is in the backyard with a blown posi ('84 axles got crap posi's, really the "Eaton Gov-Lock"). Man I miss that axle.

Just warning you that yeah it would be simple to bolt the axle on and hope for the best, but to do it right will cost you some bucks.

Oh and one more thing, try to find out the gearset in the IROC. If the car has it's original RPO sheet in the console, it might list the axle code. If not, you'll need the number stamped on the "front-facing-side" of the passenger side axle tube; they're hard to see (might need a wire brush and wet paper towel), and you'll have to cross-reference them against the Haynes 82-92 Camaro/Firebird manual and hope to find a match. 3.73 gearset ended in 1985.

[edit] Oh and there's no way to tell from outward appearance (other than HOPING the axle tube # is in the Haynes book, and HOPING that nobody changed the gears/posi in the axle) what the axle has; the only real way is to pull the diff cover off and look at what's inside. TIP for junkyard work; bring an old antifreeze container with you (or find one in the yard). Lay it down on it's side; cut out one side with a blade knife. Put the cap on it. Now you've got a perfectly-sized "drainpan" to drain the rear axle into. Trust me, you don't want that stuff draining onto the junkyard floor for two reasons- First is, some "clean" yards will get REALLY pissed off, Second is, that stuff smells so gdamned bad that you do NOT want to be laying in it. (Yuck..gag...etc) You should pull the cover off anyway! What if the car's in the junkyard because the gearset is trashed?

 

Well, despite the weather, it was a great day. I got the two sway bars from the iroc and I got the two aluminum drums after realizing the Ebrake was on, lol.

Besides that, I found a v6 with a complete 5-speed setup. Total cost will probably be around $100. i know I should replace the clutch and throwout bearing obviously but what else should I not bother taking from the yard? If the flywheel is ok should I take it? Thanks for all the help thusfar guys.

 

I'd say take everything you can get from the car... unless they want to charge you an extra $50 for that old throwout bearing, etc. Throw the bearing out when you get home. The old parts are good for holding up to a "new" part to make sure the guy at the parts store gave you the right one.

 

ok, sounds good but whats this I hear about a vehicle speed sensor on 5 speeds? my speedo runs off a cable, not a VSS, is this going to be a problem????

 

VSS came on the 90-92.