Rookie question about drums...

[PilotSmack89]

Hi everyone,

So my brakes shake like hell everytime I put pressure on them while moving, turns out, the front rotors have rust on them, and are at the minimum depth, so i cant have them re-machined. Damn.

However, I got a real nice set of Brembo rotors (front and back) for reallly cheap, cept that my rears are drums

Question: Is there any convenient way to convert the rears to discs, or is there anyone out there who wants rear Brembo discs?

[mitmaks]

get parts from GS, search and you will find how to archives

[MapaX5]

here you go...

"Rear Disc Brakes:

It would be possible to swap to the disc brake from a GS in place of the drums on RS. You will need the complete rear spindle assembly, wheel bearing assembly, rear calipers, rotors, flexible brake lines and park brake cable. In addition you will also need the bigger bore master brake cylinder and front because four wheel disc brakes requires more fluid pressure and volume to operate rear calipers than it does to operate drum brakes. Unless you are racing on a tight circuit course where you are on the brakes often there is little advantage to swapping to discs. The disc brake assembly add a lot of additional unsprung weight and do require much more maintenance as the park brake actuator level has a tendency to stick in the engaged position. "
Personally, i've done this swap on my '01 Eclipse GS and '91 MX-6 and the ease of maintenance overcomes any issues you might have. plus, don't forget you could have leaking cylinders on drum brakes and you'll only find out when the brakes go...(my boss had that happen, not cool, he was ok though).
oh, and THEY LOOK SO MUCH BETTER!.

[MapaX5]

also, there are more advantages to disc brakes. the guy who posted that was wrong. disc brakes are LIGHTER than drum brakes, which reduces rotational mass, thus improving your accel/decel times/distance. hence most manufacturers went from drum/drum-to disc/drum-to disc all around. easier to maintain, better looking, less mass, less time at the repair shops.
personally, if you just wanna do that because you have those discs sitting at home, it's too much of a hassle. you're looking to spend bout $300 on the swap parts, plus time. and if you don't know how to do it properly, you could kill yourself.
just ship them to me. i'm gonna do my swap after i'm done turboing my miata.

[Ryan]

Just go to the scrap yard and pick up the whole GS rear subframe. get new bushings and everything, and just bolt it on. Thats probably the easiest way. I was going to do this before I wrote off my BP mx3 and picked up a GS.

Then you get a rear tie bar, too

happy modding.

One more small side note, watch out when bleeding brakes. That s--- HURTS THE EYES!

[PilotSmack89]

haha thanks for the input guys!

[Mx3Kid16]

yeah brake fluid in the eyeball hurts. put a hose over the fitting if you have one.

[wytbishop]

I'm going to be a little bit anal on this one. To say that "disc brakes are LIGHTER than drum brakes" is a very generalized statement. A 9.88" rotor like the stock GS rear may be as light as the stock RS drum, but I would not say lighter. In general though, I would say that that is about as small as a rotor gets and for the most part a rotor is going to be heavier than the drum it replaces. In addition to that is the fact that the mass is rotating and rotors are inherently larger in diameter than drums...meaning that the rotating mass is always going to be farther from the center of rotation than with a drum brake. So even if a disc was slightly lighter than the drum it replaced, the mass moment of inertia is greater and any weight savings you may have made is more than lost.

All of this is meaningless though because discs work better than drums. Greater swept area, greater mechanical advantage, far greater upgradeability. They're just better. But don't go making claims that are not supported by facts.