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I like brakes like I like tits, The bigger the better!.
My lemans came with 4 wheel power drum brakes. Yuck,
at least their power! My friend Dr. 350 says drum brakes work just fine, but he is a cheap bastard
who likes to go fast and could really care less about stopping. I myself like nothing better than stopping
on a dime when I see some sleazy broad hitchiking on the side of the road. So I NEED BIG brakes. I found it to be
really friggin complicated and spent many hours on the internet trying to figure out what combinations
to use. To help out anybody interested I figured I would list here how I am doing it. There are several
pages to this section since it involves a lot of parts and crap.
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This is the heart of the system
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The thing on the left is a Global West Tubular Upper control arm
while the filty old thing on the right is my stock control arm. Running this new control Arm allows me to
use tall GM B-Body Spindles. Big deal you say? well it kinda is. Running this spindle allows me to
use a combination of GM brake parts that enable me to run 12" disc brakes. Up until recently I thought
I was gonna be king shit with 12" discs, but i recently found out that Baer Racing makes a 14" disc rotor and
caliper set for this spindle so I guess I am still just a looser after all! There are other reasons in addition
to larger brakes to go with this setup. They include improved suspension geometry and handling. I am not
going to go into all that mumbo jumbo, suffice to say after you do this, you have to align the car by
DIFFERENT specs than factory. Get these specs from global west or hotchkis.
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| Global West 68-72 Abody Control Arm Alignment Specs. |
| Street Applications |
| Drivers Side | Passenger Side |
| Caster | 2 Deg. Positive | 2.5 Deg. Positive |
| Camber | 0-30 Min. Negative | 0-30 Min. Negative |
| Toe | 1/32 | 1/32 |
| HP Street |
| Drivers Side | Passenger Side |
| Caster | 3 Deg. Positive | 3.5 Deg. Positive |
| Camber | 0-30 Min. Negative | 0-30 Min. Negative |
| Toe | 1/32 | 1/32 |
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I bought the full upper arm conversion kit from Global West a few years back. For my year
it was kit number CNR-12-13D.
It cost about $800 but was about $650 when I bought it years ago so it aint cheap, but what the hell, I would just spend it on
strippers anyway.
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This is one of the the stock lower control arms for my car.
I sent them into Global West
to get my Del-Alum bushings pressed in since I have oval bushings.
They charged me 100 bucks plus shipping to modify my control arms to accept the
Del-Alum bushings, press in a new ball joint (provided by me) and powder coat them.
Thats a damn good deal when the only place by me that will press control arm bushings RAPES me
for $20 a bushing!
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This is one of the the B-body spindles I pulled out of the boneyard. I am using an 84 Chevy Caprice
station wagon with 12" disc brakes as a donor car. I chose that donor car because
Steve Chin Sez
"Careful getting spindles! The B-bodies used both 11" and 12" disc brakes
(a fact the magazines and "experts" seem to ignore). Measure the rotors
before you attempt to remove anything. From my observations, the station
wagons seem to all have 12" rotors, where the 2-door and 4-door models
seem to have a split population of 11" and 12" rotors (with the 11" jobs
being more common). GM made a design change in either 1980 or 1981 that
netted a stronger spindle with less weight. I look for '82-'85 wagons for
the lighter spindles."
NOTE: There are 2 types of 12-inch disc brake spindles. One version uses a
small outer bearing measuring .750. The second type uses a larger outer bearing
measuring .850. Use the large diameter outer bearing spindle.
I POR-15'd this baby pretty good along
with the splash shields I also pulled off of it. Both the spindles and shields had an
incredible amount dirt and grease buildup on them. I sand blasted the shields and it took me forever,
be very carefull if you sandblast the spindles, make sure you cover the actual spindle with tape to
keep it from pitting. With parts like these I find its best to get a bunch of them, soak em in Castrol
Super Purple Cleaner and bring them to a do-it yourself pressure car wash bay to clean em up as good
as you can. Be sure to keep that spindle oiled until you install it so no rust starts on it.
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This is a brand new ILE-1 Camaro 12" rotor, it has the right bolt pattern but the wrong bolt sizes
(12mm studs instead of the 7/16"). You should go to a shop that will press out the 12mm studs and drill
out the holes and press in 7/16" studs. Or you can cheat death and just use the 12mm studs. In fact
when I bought my lemans, the passenger side front drum had 12mm studs in it (god only knows how that happened).
Just go to your favorite (I.E. cheapest) auto parts store and order 12-inch rotors for a
1988-1992 1LE Camaro/Firebird GM part # GM 18016035. Be sure to order inner and outer bearings as well
as the grease seals for both sides for those rotors (Don't order bearings and grease seals for the B-body as they may not fit).
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Parts 1 Parts 2 Assembly 1 Assembly 2
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