Losing Battle

Sucks to be you.

i hate it when that happens

atomicalex,

Now you are beginning to sound like a grassroots racer like a lot of us. There is nothing worse during a race (or even on the highway for that matter) than telling yourself, “OK, now I have the biggest, baddest brakes that be had and I can stop like an F-1 race car.” But then looking in your rear-view mirror and asking yourself, “But can that guy behind me stop as fast?” No brakes are any good if the guy behing can’t keep from hitting you. LOL.

Gary – I’m an old hand at brakes. The stuff I will be using is all good – took three sets of calipers to find a pair that was suitable for rebuild! Fortunately, this is a standard upgrade. So much so that VW made it standard in the early 90s for this chassis. Maybe by monday I’ll have made some progress.

Katherine,

I hear similar frustrations from others in similar situations. Since this is a brake concern, for obvious reasons, as a professional my first concern is that there are some things a novice should not be doing if you have any doubt that you are not capable of getting it perfect the first time.

However IF you are responsible enough to get it right the important thing to ONLY BUY FROM SOMEONE REPUTABLE. After explaining what you need, a reputable wrecking yard should be able to guarantee that the entire kit he will sell you is in good working order. Of course this goes without saying that you will want new brakes pads, etc.

Typically, when converting a car over to disc brakes it is a good idea to replace the calipers and hoses with new or rebuilt and only use the needed hardware and brackets/spindles, etc. Using old worn out parts from a wrecking yard is what usually gets you in trouble. There is nothing wrong with buying used parts from a wrecking yard but brake calipers are not one of them especially considering they are the single most important item on your car. No matter what happens to your car you do not want any brake failures.

Last but not least… so many times I hear of customers who “try and save” but in doing so, many times the end result (cost) is more than had they just paid to do it with new parts in the first place.

GTwildfire,

GTwildfire, all the Camaro/Firebird rearends from 93 to 97 are interchanble and are perfect bolt-ins. There is NO WELDING of mods needed at all. This swap will in no way reduce or improve performance unless you change gear ratios.

GTwildfire, all the Camero/Firebird rearends from 93 to 97 are interchanble.

disc is good for the light back end, it should DECREASE performance into a performer…if you know the car after driving enough, inspiration to weld the rear into a few changes can be done? that generation I see in the picture has the hollow tube, many possibilities, cutting and grinding goes with it.Good old steel…

Sounds alot like the turmoil I’m facing with the stock brakes on my Fiero (which still don’t work). At this point, I probably should have just went with the bigger, vented brake upgrade…..

I’m trying to find out whether the rear axle and disc brakes from a ‘97 Firebird with a 3800 engine will be interchangeble with the rear on my 3.4 litre firebird.
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if so, should be a cheap upgrade.
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…sound familiar?