[dk_250]

I know there are already some threads on the topic, but im going to do the swap in the next week. I got the hardware in today, cleaned everything up and painted the calipers. Ill see if i can get install pics when I start, I need to get the rotors machined and buy some rubber boots for the parking brake lever. Here are some pics...

thats it for now...

 

[MUCHADO]

is it just gonna be pretty much bolt-on... like use same brake lines and everything??

 

[994.3sportside]

Where did you get the stuff from? I'm doing as posi swap soon, but I'm looking for some rear discs so I can do it while I have my axles pulled.

 

[dk_250]

Its supposed to be close to a direct bolt-on. With the exception of a few washers behind the backing plate so the caliper has room to move, and rigging up some brake lines.

I bought the parts off ebay, buy it now from fparts. There is also another seller joemama2 that has an ebay store, but theirs was an auction that went for alot more than i paid for. Both are salvage yards I believe that deal with Fbodies.

 

[dk_250]

Okay, yesterday I machined my rotors at school for free So today after work I rushed to get parts, ran to the dealer and got diff gasket and 80w-90. Then to the fastener shop to get a missing caliper bolt. Then to kragen and got brake fluid and pads...they didnt have any good pads I liked to off to pepboys, bought some more brake fluid (the stuff at kragen was crap) some more axle lube ($4 a bottle compaired to $8 at the dealer, im taking the bottles I got from the dealer back) and some brake pads. I got raybestos pads, $35 I think. Then I rushed home for the install.....

 

[dk_250]

I got some pics but skipped some steps so this wont be perfect, but I thought it may help others who want to do this. First off I jacked up the truck and placed jackstands on the axle, removed the wheels and drums, and took off the 4 bolts holding the swaybar to the axle. That lets the swaybar hang down to remove the differential cover, removed that and let the oil out. Here is what you get.

What you want to do here first is remove an 8mm bolt about where the yellow arrow is, its in there sideways with the head pointing toward the passenger side. I used a 3/8 drive air ratchet with a 6 inch extention to remove this. Otherwise you need to find some way to hold the ring from spinning.

That bolt releases a cylinder thats perpendicular to the axle, and just slides down from the center of the diff, green arrow. This enables you to push the axles inward and reveal the C clips, where the blue arrows are (I think either both or just the right side is removed in this pic.)

 

[dk_250]

You will need a magnet and a small screwdriver to remove the clips. spin the clips around until the opening is away from you, then grab ahold of them with the magnet

Blue = C clips
Green = cylinder (dunno what its called)
Yellow = 8mm bolt, holds in the cylinder by going through the orange hole.

 

[dk_250]

After removing these parts you can remove the axles by sliding them out carefully. Make sure not to snag them on the axle seals. This is what the ends of the axles look like when you remove them (red arrow) and the c clip over the axle (blue arrow).

 

[dk_250]

Here is your drum backing plate, I removed the springs in the order shown. Make sure you have safety glasses on for this cause a spring in the eye wouldnt be too great. The top springs you just pull away and unhook them, the ones labeled 4 you have to push and twist them to remove them. The rest basically falls apart when you have those off.

Youll still have to remove the parking brake, basically you just grab the lever and push against the spring, thall remove the end and be able to pull it off. After everything is removed Itll look like this...

This next pic is of the other side, so dont get confused on the placing of the parking brake hole. The parking brake cable should be removed by pushing in some barbs around the fitting and sliding it through the hole marked by the green arrow. Next remove the brake line going into the wheel cylinder on the back of the plate. Make sure to use a flare nut wrench so you dont strip the fitting. Remove the 4 bolts marked with yellow to take off the drum backing plate. I used an impact gun with a wrench on the backside (there are nuts back there), they had some thread sealer on there and would be difficult otherwise.

 

[dk_250]

Once those bolts are removed you can pull off your backing plate, heres what you get...

To put the new disc brake backing plate you need a thick washer (or I used 2 small ones) around each hole. The new backing plate does not sit flush because there is a small raised portion around the center, and needs washers to sit flush against it...the ideal solution would be a full shim around the entire area to get full contact, that might come later though. Install the new backing plate...

I installed them backwards with the left on right and right on left so the calipers were toward the rear of the truck. I thought this made more sence for when I get the parking brake installed because the lever can be pulled toward the front of the truck, instead of backwards if I installed L on left and R on right.

Another thing to mention is you need longer bolts to bolt the new backing plate on, its thicker than the old one and the washers make it worse. The camaro bolts will work because they are longer than the stock ones, these are pink in the photo. I also used loc-tite on them.

Somewhere around here I rigged up the used camaro brake lines to the T fitting, ghetto rigged it for now and hand bent the lines (hope they work). Later I will make new lines. You cant use your old lines because the flare from your line going into the wheel cylinder is different than the one you need going into the rubber line of the new caliper (thread is the same though). Options are to make custom cables, or the ghetto way and just bent the camaro lines.

This is all I have for tonight, im tired and didnt finish cause im beat. What you dont see is install of axles, diff cover, swaybar (which kicked my ass cause i was tired, Is very hard installing this tired and upside down, my neck is killing me.) I have the left side rotor and caliper/pads installed on the left side but no pic, I will finish tomorrow with more pics.....

 

[roadlet_411]

[email protected]$% YOU C-CLIP!!!! Sorry, had to get that out... My last rear-end ate one... Baaaaad...

PIC hopefully it works...

 

[scott750]

Awesome How-to and the pics are very nice! Thanks for posting this. From the other threads I've seen, this looks very similar to installing the Blazer rear discs on the trucks. I believe they are also LS1 style.

 

[dk_250]

This morning I filled the diff with fluid, there is a fill plug on the passenger side of the differential. Youll need a 3/8 drive extention to get the plug off. Fill until fluid overflows out the hole and put the plug back on.
I dont have a pic of the axle install I did last night, but its just the reverse of how you took it off. After your axles are in you can put on your rotors, and a couple lug nuts to hold it straight. Next I installed my calipers and made sure they were able to slide freely, earlier I took apart the slides and lubed them up, you dont want them to bind or youll get excessive pad-wear.
Here is a pic of my ghetto rigged brake line, also you can see my parking brake cable i zip-tied to the passenger side cable to keep it out of the way.

rotor and caliper installed...

and the final product (on the opposite side)

At this moment im stuck, everything is ready to go but I need someone else to help me bleed the brake lines, because I dont have a vacuum bleeder. Ive got 4 hours for someone to get off work or come home so I get to class on time :rant:
To make this swap complete and perfect a full contact shim behind the backing plate would be ideal, new brake lines to contour the axle, a bracket to hold the hardline to rubber line on the caliper (i have the camaro ones, possibly weld part to the axle), and parking brake lines with bracket to be rigged up.

 

[Biggun]

Are you done with the install?? How did the parking brake work out?? Did you need an adapter from the camaro lines to the s-10 hard line??

 

[843sdimeon22s]

What machine work did you do to the rotors? did you just have them turned or did you have to do something else to them? thanks in advance

 

[dk_250]

Biggun, im done with the install, but still havnt worked out the parking brake. I havnt had enough time to really look into it. Im using the camaro lines right now and they screw into the original block comming down to the diff. To make it look nicer you would need to re-flare the caliper side of each hardline to match the rubber hose.

843sdimeon22s, "turning" is slang for machining rotors. So I just did that, they were actually really nice and at the original thickness, I only had to take off .003 from each side, and i think .005 off one that was a bit uneven. I still have plenty to spare for machining later.

 

[scott750]

Does anyone know what the difference is between the LS1 and Blazer rear disc brakes? I thought the Blazers were LS1 based? I know the Blazers you can use either the 4x4 parking brake cables or 4 door balzer parking brake cables for a more direct bolt on application. Anyway, installation looks really good. I've been seriously thinking of doing either ls1 or blazer discs, but might do blazers since I don't have the tools or resources at hand to fabricate stuff.

 

[91sdime]

Does anyone know what the difference is between the LS1 and Blazer rear disc brakes? I thought the Blazers were LS1 based? I know the Blazers you can use either the 4x4 parking brake cables or 4 door balzer parking brake cables for a more direct bolt on application. Anyway, installation looks really good. I've been seriously thinking of doing either ls1 or blazer discs, but might do blazers since I don't have the tools or resources at hand to fabricate stuff.

I did a complete rearend swap out of a 2001 2wd blazer that has disc brakes, and they look identical to what the above pictures show. It took all of an hour and a half to complete the swap, and even my small 14" stock rims cleared the calipers. The cost for the 3.42 posi rear with disc brakes cost me $200 and it bolted right up and I used my stock brake line tee on the rear. The e-brake cable would have went right up to my stock setup with no problems, but I didnt hook it up as I never use the e-brake anyway. This is on a 92 reg cab s10 btw.