L-Body lightweight rear brakes

[Reeves]

I'm looking for some lightweight rear brakes for my OMNI. I currently have the stock drum brakes. I lightened the rear drums a ton by machining them down at work, but I would rather have rear disc.

Has anyone found a setup that isn't too hard to convert to fit the rear of a L? I was thumbing through some Summit and JEG'S catalogs and they have some pretty sweet Wilwood setups and such. I could put a new bolt pattern in the rotors pretty easily.

What about the hub? It's made onto the drum of an L. Could I steal a hub from a G body or such that had discs? Are G body style rear discs any lighter already?

Looking for suggestions and ideas. I don't need the rear E-brake....I'll use a line lock.

Thanks,

[ShelGame]

I swapped from the stock rear disks on my Daytona to the L-Body drums specifically to save weight (~8lbs per side !!!). The stock rear disks on the Daytona have a cast caliper bracket and an integral drum brake for parking, so they're very heavy. I suppose you could save a little by deleteing the parking brake mechanism/shoes/etc. But, I think they'd still be heavier than the stock L-Body drums. Did a TD ever come with aluminum drums?

Interestingly enough, the base 1st gen Neon uses the same 200mm rear drum as the L-Bodies.

[Turbodave]

The GLH uses a 220mm drum, so a 200mm drum of a base omni or neon would be easy to swap over and a little lighter.

As far as discs go, the 87-88 Shelby Z used setup that didn't have the drum in the rotor, and might be a little lighter than the later disc setups.

I think this might be a good case for crossdrilling the rotors also to reduce some weight.

[WickedShelby88]

Now does the shelby charger 86 model have the 220 drums and how much of an improvement would you see with 89 style solid disc upgrade.

[20w/ashelby]

I've been wanting to mention this and this seems like a decent place. I have a SC and a 05 Neon. I have SC rotors on the front on the neon because they were considerably cheaper. Now I wonder if this would work in reverse for SC brake options? Could I potentially run a neon front brake setup?

[Reeves]

I think I have a 88 G-body setup laying around somewhere....at least parts of it.

[Turbodave]

I think I have a 88 G-body setup laying around somewhere....at least parts of it.

I you can't find it I just brought home an 88 Shelby Z parts car on Sunday.


However, I think the lightest weight is going to be the small base model omni drums. Also with the drums you can adjust them so there is no drag from the shoes. With discs, there is always a little drag from the pads, while it's probably not enough to make a big difference, every little bit helps.

[ShelGame]

^ That's the other reason I went with the drums - no drag.

Of course, I haven't got the line-loc to hold the car yet, either...

[Reeves]

If it's a parts car, lets check it out. We can remove the rear brake set up and weigh it. I will weigh the rear brakes of a Shelby Charger.

I would still like to find out if we can make a Wilwood drag race setup fit. I bet they are really light (going by the pictures).