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| THE C5 CONVERSION PAGE | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This is the C5 conversion page; where i will show how to adapt C5 Corvette Brakes to 70-81/Second generation F bodies using your stock spindles. You will need; C5 calipers, C5 caliper brackets, also known as "abutments", C5 13" rotors, Either stock third gen/82-92 rotors machined down to just a hub, or a set of aftermarket aluminum hubs, stock second gen spindles, conversion caliper mounting brackets, longer wheel studs, a set of bearings consisting of; second gen outer wheel bearings, and third gen inner wheel bearings, and a set of C5 brake hose or custom hoses. I got my my calipers/rotors from Discbrakesrus.com. They came powedercoated and fully loaded including; pads shims, and banjo bolts for the hoses. the rotors are also crossdrilled, expect to pay about $600. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| CLICK HERE FOR PART NUMBERS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Terms; Second gen F body; 1970-1981 Firebirds/Camaros Third Gen F body; 1982-1992 Firebird/Camaro Hubs; A spinning hub that slips onto your spindle that is used to mount a "hat rotor" and also has wheel studs pressed into it Hat Rotor; a newer style rotor that is only a rotor it is not intergrated with the hub like older styles rotors, it mounts inbetween your hub and wheel |
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| These are two different hubs that you can use, the one on the left is an aftermarket hub that is made out of aluminum, the hub on the right is a third gen F body rotor with the rotor/brake pad surface part machined off with a brake lathe, the aluminum hub is much lighter than the third gen steel one. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| CLICK HERE TO GO TO HOME PAGE | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HUBS: We must address the use of Hubs. Because the C5 brakes use a "hat" rotor we must use a hub to mount the brakes on our cars. There are three choices; The first one would be using your stock rotor and have the "rotor" surface; the part thatt the brake pads make contact with, cut off using a brake lathe at a machine shop. The problem with this, is that when you mount the C5 13" Hat Rotor the thickness of the moutning surface of the C5 rotor will make your wheels stick out that much further. After doing some research i have found through a guy on the internet named 72SSABODY that you can use a Third Gen F body rotor as a hub (after having the rotor surface cut off) because it mounts the wheel inboard more than the second gen rotor/hub. When you add the C5 rotor onto this third gen hub it spaces your wheel in the exact same place as stock! The last option would be using an aftermarket luminum hub made to the same specs as the third gen hub which reduces unsprung weight. Now the one problem that was found using the third gen spec hub is that it woulnd't mount on a second gen F body Spindle!! After doing some playing around with bearings I found that the third gen inner wheel bearing mounts on the second gen spindle just fine, but the third gen outer wheel bearing wouldn't fit on the spindle! By chance i tried the second gen outer wheel bearing in the third gen hub and it fit! So to make the third gen hub work on the second gen spindle you need a set of third gen inner wheel bearings and a set of second gen outer bearings and it all works together just fine. On a side note they both use the same seal. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| BRACKETS; The next issue is How you are going to moutn the C5 Calipers onto your spindle. The first step ist to cut off the stock caliper moutning "Ears".and then drill and tap 2 of the 3 dust shield moutning bolts to accept 1/2 x 13 bolts. Looking at the pictures these are the two outer bolts on the gold bracket. When cutting off the ears you must also consider clearance issues; the 2 biggest clearance issues would be the back of the caliper and the 2 heads of the bolts that go through the back of the bracket and into the caliper abundment (black piece in the caliper picture. I used allen head bolts to help clear the spindle. You can see in the upper right hand pictue the part of the spindle i had to clearance to help the bolt clear the spindle (After they were powdercoated!!!!) To cut the stock caliper mounting "ears" off the spindle i used an angle grind with a cut off wheel, but you could probably also use a sawzall. The bracket i am using to moutn the calipers( gold piece in pictures) Is 5/8" thick and is made out of steel It needed to be 5/8" thick to correctly moutn the caliper over the rotor correctly when using the third gen hubs. You can make your own or buy some online. I might have some for sale soon. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The bolts that moutn go into the caliper abundment are coarse thread 14MM bolts about 1 1/2" long. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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