So yeah. The time has come. I can't deal with the drum brakes anymore. I have a 2006LT (4x100) and know of a local LSJ non Brembo car being parted out. Entire rear beam is intact, complete with brakes. Already researching a 4x100 rotor that will fit, so what I am wondering is has anyone else tried this yet? Is there anything else I need to grab?

Thought process is to get the beam and brakes off the SS, swap rotors, swap hubs (to 4x100) and then change the entire beam assembly out in the car......

 

As long as the rotor dimensions are the same, there is no reason it wouldn't work

 

Yeah. I just emailed r1 with the rotor dimensions to see if they have anything that size in a 4x 100


Thought is get the non Brembo rears on, get it working for road racing with 4 wheel disk, maybe next year buy larger track wheels and go Brembos all around, haha. I know theres a 4 x 100 rotor for the Brembos out there.

 

I would like this info too. post up what you find...mines in the not so near future tho.

 

Will do. If I can find a rotor that works for the 4 lug guys, I will def spread the news, know a bunch of guys that have that one thing thats holding them from doing it

 

Are you asking about the entire swap in general? Or more specific to the discs themselves? I've done this swap twice(both already 5x110 cars) and would be more than willing to give you any advice on the swap, if that's what you're looking for.

 

please give info....as I would like to know also, although, we are discussing about 4 lug set ups tho.

 

HHRFrenchy, yes I would. Please, any and all advice i will gladly take.


R1 Concepts will drill me SS rotors in 4 x 100.

 

Gonna get the rear beam and proportioning valve out of the LSJ in the next week or so. Going to also pick up some new 4x100 rear hubs and get R1 to drill me rotors. so hopefully will have the ball rolling on this soon.

 

there is a saturn i believe it is that has 4x100 rear disc brakes i know a few people have used the rotors off those.

i forgot what model is was

 

In for rotor options, as I may need to do that swap on a different car in the future. Would prefer to buy a rotor that's already set up right if it's out there.

 

I believe it's the Saturn SC-2 that had rear disc 4x100 pattern

 

It's actually a pretty easy/straight forward swap. A few key points:
You will need the hard brake lines going from the caliper to the flex line, as they are different from drum to disc.
You will need the disc e-brake cables, those are also different.
Where it bolts to the car, there is a metal plate on each side that has the actual swing joint(for lack of a better term). You need to remove the whole plate, not the bolt going through that plate and the axle. One of those will come out fine, but the other is blocked by(I think) the gas tank, and won't come out.
Other than that, pretty easy. Let me know if you have any other questions, and I'll do my best to answer them.

 

Cool. I got the entire rear beam assembly- hard lines, e brake cables, all of it. Waiting on my 4 x100 rotors to get here so i can put it together before putting it in the car. Very excited.

 

Nice. If you need any help in the process, hit me up.

 

I'm gonna be doing this as well, possibly this weekend. Ill try and get pics and post em up

 

ive converted a few LT to SS rear beams, end of the day they all went 5 lug to be easier and also you need the ebrake cables and lines

 

I am already 5 lug so thats not an issue, i dunno if the axle and brakes I found include the lines...

 

So my SS axle doesn't include the brake lines or ebrake lines. Does anyone know part numbers for them?

 

This was stupidly easy. Had I been more motivated, Coulda had it done on Saturday.

Swapped subframes, swapped ABS valves (that was a bitch, just for getting the lines to start) New hubs, rotors, etc. Got 4x100 and its friggin awesome. Gonna swap the fronts to LSJ soon as well.

Agita, the hard lines you will most likely have to make (M10x 1.00 thread) and im not sure on the SS e brake cables. You will need to pull the carpet up to get the old ones out.... wiggling them out and in to the car took some patience.

 

I didn't have to pull the carpet to swap cables. they feed through a tube. just pulled the old out and pushed the new in.

The hard brake lines you'll have to make. I just sold a second set I made. They aren't too hard to bend. pick up one of those cheapie hand benders from the parts store and use your old lines as templates for the bend angles. you'll have 3 bends to make and obviously you're last bit of brake line wont be formed the same as the drum brake lines but the first 3 should be the same. your new line will just go straight up to the line bracket instead of bending in and connecting to the drum brake backing plate. The hard part will be getting good flares on the ends. I was lucky to use the flare machines a work but doing jobs like that is frowned on. I had to sneak them out of there It's too bad GM doesn't sell replacements for these.




Id recommend buying coated lines. The ones I used are coated with whats called Nygal. Its a plastic coating to help prevent corrosion. I think the parts stores carry various lengths of coated tubing. you may be able to have them flare the second end once you get the tubing cut to the proper length. I think i cut mine at 14" but it's hard to remember now.

 

i made my rear hardlines out of 12" preflares sections. Im pondering getting a one piece stainless braided line made tho to run all the way from the car to the caliper...... because racecar... haha

 

Did you use any alignment pins when you installed the replacement rear beam? I didn't. I just eyeballed it. I think I'm a little off though. I took it in to have it aligned afterwards. They had to add a small shim to one side to bring everything into spec. I told them I replaced the rear beam and that there are only six bolts to loosen if they need to make adjustments for side to side/ front to back. They didn't seem interested in that information. The replacement t prodcedure mentions using 12mm alignment pins to line up the beam. I didn't have those though. I assumed Firestone would and would utilize them. I may just try to find some somewhere and make sure everything is golden then take it back for another alignment. I bought a lifetime alignment a few years ago so, it's no big deal. The only thing I'm concerned with is uneven pad/caliper wear on the side with the shim

 

Oops. Double post removed.

 

What rotors did you end up using? And got any pics of them installed? I always wanted to do the swap but I'm always hesitant since going 5 lug would require more parts and new wheels