5 lug, disc brakes 1985 L body...

[Skligmund]

So what will it take for me to convert my 4 lug wheel and brake setup to a 5 lug, 4 corner disc brake setup in my Turismo? Is this a project of rare parts and loads of time, or is this something I can do without rebuilding the whole car. I plan on doing a suspension restoration (change all bushings, new struts ect) soon, but I'm liking the idea of getting the 5 lug pattern, and while I'm at it, convert to disc brakes on the rear.

Discuss.

[minigts]

Well not having done it yet myself, I don't see the rear brakes being a huge problem. Others who have done it before will note things like the e-brake as concerns, but just about any 5x100 rear disc car (I assume all the donor FWDs that have rear disc are the same) will work. It looks like it's just a matter of unbolting the rear hubs and bolting on the 5 lug ones. There are more specific details others may have, but I don't think it's a HUGE ordeal to go though. I'm going to document what I do, so maybe that will help.....eventually when I do it.

Not sure about the front ones though, although I can't imagine there being a huge difference, especially if the donor car is an L body or minivan brakes.

[black86glhs]

Just get new front Hub/Bearing combo for an L-body. Someone posted a while back that some other cars with rear drums, the hubs will work on an L-body. Sorry I can't find it right now. The front rotors are easy, just ask for the 10.25" rotors(5 lug). I haven't done the Caravan upgrade on the front, but it looks like just rotors, caliper brackets, calipers, and master cylinder from a 85-86?? Caravan. I may have the years on the van wrong.

[turbovanman²]

The rear, anything bolts up, you can even reuse your existing spindles. I always forget about the e-bake but I think it will work with some slight cable tweaking. Get the solid 10 inch rear setup, the 11 inch is overkill.

Fronts, either use the 11 inch 89 and older setup or just use 89/90 Minivan calipers and pads, stock 10 inch rotors and 24mm m/c. I believe to use the 11 inch setup, you have to machine the top of the spindle down to fit the strut.

[Skligmund]

Thanks for all the info guys, this really helps!

[cordes]

What's an e-brake? Seriously though, I thought that the rear disks with the drum style e-brake is the style that will work with no mods.

I have 11" vented disks on the rear and 10" minivan brakes on the front, and it can get a little crazy when wet in a panic stop, but when driving aggressively I really like the combination. Once you get used to the fact that the rear is going to want to jump in front of you it is not a problem anyway.

[2.2turboscotty]

i am trying to remember when i did the Scamp but i used SC front spindles, calipers, rotors. i had a donor car to use so i did put used spindles on but ordered everything else new for a SC. i was not concerned with going the big brakes route because the Scamp is totally gutted and doesn't weigh much. i will tell you i did find the ball joints are bigger where they go into the spindle so you will need to change to the bigger SC size BJ. like Simon said the back just bolts on and you can get universal cables or get them for a rear disc car and reroute them. this was a very easy swap and IMO well worth it because you have so many more choices for wheels and there seem to be a lot more stock 5 lug wheels around.

[tryingbe]

What's an e-brake? Seriously though, I thought that the rear disks with the drum style e-brake is the style that will work with no mods.

That is correct.

[Force Fed Mopar]

What's an e-brake? Seriously though, I thought that the rear disks with the drum style e-brake is the style that will work with no mods.

That is correct.

Yeap, hooked right up on my GLHS. Here is the FAQ I wrote on it:

http://boostedmopar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2846

To get your 5-lug on the front, you can swap the 4-lug hubs for the 5-lug in your existing spindles, or just get complete spindles off a turbo L-body. The spindles are all the same for the L-bodies, but you can swap a spindle w/ hand tools, whereas you need a press to swap hubs out.

[minigts]

Just get new front Hub/Bearing combo for an L-body. Someone posted a while back that some other cars with rear drums, the hubs will work on an L-body. Sorry I can't find it right now. The front rotors are easy, just ask for the 10.25" rotors(5 lug). I haven't done the Caravan upgrade on the front, but it looks like just rotors, caliper brackets, calipers, and master cylinder from a 85-86?? Caravan. I may have the years on the van wrong.

Yeah I wouldn't get the L body front knuckles if you can help it. If you need to replace the bearings, you have to take the entire hub/knuckle to get it pressed in and out. If you get the 89 and up, the hubs are pressed onto the hub and that is bolted to the knuckle with four bolts. You still have to remove the shafts (obviously), but you don't necessarily need to get the car aligned after-wards. I haven't installed my 11" front brakes yet, but that is the style I have and like I said, I will document the procedure. And the rear, ditto on what others have said. I thought the e-brake was no big deal, but couldn't remember. Now I just need to make this happen.

[spoolinhard]

I have everything that you would need to do this swap. Shoot me a PM if you are interested.
-Kaleb

[black86glhs]

In other words you want to use Daytona spindles and have the strut mount thinned to fit the L, correct?

[Force Fed Mopar]

No, Daytona knuckles are different, the camber will be way off. Not that it can't be done, it's just more aggravation. I think they may be fine if you use the struts, but then you have to change the top hat (strut mount)...

[minigts]

In other words you want to use Daytona spindles and have the strut mount thinned to fit the L, correct?

That is my plan with mine. I did measure the area where the strut will mount against the ones I have currently and I can't tell a difference to be quite honest. I'm sure there is because everyone says so, but I measured 15/16" for each (not sure if that's the EXACT number), so we'll see. I'm not messing up my alignement until I know for a fact I'm doing the swap though.

[black86glhs]

No, Daytona knuckles are different, the camber will be way off. Not that it can't be done, it's just more aggravation. I think they may be fine if you use the struts, but then you have to change the top hat (strut mount)...

I may have the wrong spindles, but the what I saw was thin them at the strut mount and grind a radius on the upper rear of the same area. That gets you past the alignment issue.

[minigts]

No, Daytona knuckles are different, the camber will be way off. Not that it can't be done, it's just more aggravation. I think they may be fine if you use the struts, but then you have to change the top hat (strut mount)...

Well I forgot to mention too that I have a coil-over setup with camber plates, so the difference for me won't be noticed. BOTH I highly recommend.

[rosie]

Doing the front vented disc upgrade is easy. just pop off the knuckle and put the new one on. Putting caravan brakes are another story. The way camber is set on the L bodie is a sloted strut, how it is done on the 11" is on the bottom of the strut (or visa versa, I forgot) But what I had to do was take some meat off of the new knuckle that it fits inside the strut... With out hammering. Then plug the top hole. (weld a slug) then set up your camber (this part really needs pictures) but mark it (it's where you're going to have the new hole machined) MACHINE the hole (if you drill it it most likely walk the hole with a slight curve.) the same size as the stock bottom hole . Then sleeve the bottom down to the stock bolt size. now you can still do your alignment.

Now there's one caveot. I have no idea where I got the spindle/knuckle. It was one year specific that you could just swapp the knuckles over (11" with no adaptor for the caliper 89?) but there was definatly two. one that would fit and one that wouldn't. One of them was so tall I couldn't even get it in there.

But it works and you can see my rotors through my 15"crabs(shelby z crabs thank you Just didn't happen over night and the only reason I did it was because I had a bad stock wheel bearing and couldn't get a replacement. Might as well upgrade!!

[black86glhs]

Skligmund...read this.
http://www.dempseybowling.com/shelby/slhpkgs.htm

[Force Fed Mopar]

Like I said, more aggravation Simpler to just upgrade the front calipers to minivan units and bolt on the non-vented rears, as I did. And in an L-body, that is all you need for anything less than a full track car, or a serious mountain car. Even with cheap brake pads and fluid, mine would stop hard enough to slosh the oil forward in the pan and lose oil pressure. It did 10 mins of downhill on the Tail of the Dragon before starting to fade and boil the Auto Zone fluid. With some EBC or Hawk pads and SVT fluid I have no doubt I coulda went start to finish w/ no fade.

[black86glhs]

I see what you are missing. I said earlier that upgrading with the minivan stuff for the front was the way to go(no knuckle, just brake stuff). Minigts and I were talking about him using non L-body knuckle to get rid of the press in style bearing. I have seen pictures of guys modifying the Daytona knuckles to work on the L-body struts. It really isn't that hard to modify. I didn't have any info on the rear brakes. I have found that the 10.25" fronts and 220mm rears are plenty when in good working order. I'm not racing it either.