i was just wondering how hard it is to do the complete swap and what all will i need... i need to do a complete rear right change it got screwed up and the break compartment is all mangled so i wanted to just do the disc break swap.. any help would be appreciated thanks

 

someone had the complete swap in for sale for 150. the swap, i think, is pretty easy. i guess the hardest part is running the ebrake lines?

 

if anyone knows who has the swap let me know i would like to get it

 

Rear Disc Swap

Parts
*You may not need everything but it's good to have!
90-93 Integra Rear Trailing Arms (with everything attached Rotor, Caliper, Ebrake Cables...)
or
90-91 CRX Rear Trailing Arms (with same...)
You can use either trailing arm but for CRX you need CRX ebrake cables and for Civic you need Integra ebrake cables (might as well get whole CRX trailing arm + cables for CRX, and whole Integra trailing arm + cables for Civic)
90-93 Integra "4040" Brake Proportioning Valve (Prop Valve), HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!
New Rotors or resurface old ones (I used new Brembo Blanks)
Reman. Calipers (if your old ones are in bad condition)
Stainless Steel Braided Brake Lines (recommended... I used Goodridges)
New Brake Fluid (I used Castrol GTLMA DOT4)
Brake Pads (I use OEM Honda/Nissin pads)

Tools
*You may not need everything but it's good to have!
1/4 and 3/8 Sockets (14mm and 17mm especially) and Wrenches
1/2 Breaker Bar (for getting tough bolts off)
Flare Nut Wrench aka Line Wrench (especially 10mm for the brake lines)
Box End Wrenches
Open End Wrenches
MAPP Gas Torch
Lithium Grease Gun
Jack (the bigger the better, I use a 3ton Craftsman) + stands (4 will be good)
Dremel with Gyros Super Tensile Cutting Discs
Rubber Hammer
PB Blaster
Metal Bristled Brush aka Battery Terminal Brush
Power Drill with good bits (I used Craftman 18v with Dewalt bits)
Torque Wrench (in FT-LBS)
Pliars (Needle Nose, but regular would work to)
Pry Bar
Mity-Vac
Gear Rachet (works great for loosening ebrake cables)

Instructions

Prepping the Trailing Arms
When I did this I went all out. I rebuilt the whole trailing arm and replaced all the important parts of it. When I recieved my trailing arms they were in nasty condition with a lot of rust. I started the process by removing the calipers/brake lines from the trailing arms and then removing the rotors. I sprayed the whole thing down with PB Blaster to eat off the rust and then scraped everything with the metal bristle brush to scrape off the rust and dirt especially around the wheel bearing. One problem is that the ebrake cable attachment is attached to the caliper and after almost 10 years or so of sitting it locks up badly (making it impossible to remove the caliper from the cables). The original design was of a bolt and pin design, the bolt goes between the cable fork and the caliper, and the pin makes sure it doesn't fall off.

Now if you don't have this problem at all you can skip this step (but I would still recommend taking off the bolt/pin and replacing it with what I did). Take the drill and drill out the bolt going from small bit to the largest needed to drill out the whole bolt. I also took the dremel with cutting disc and made cuts between the fork and caliper bracket so that they wouldn't touch as close and wouldn't rust together in the future. Once you have finally seperated the caliper from the ebrake cables you can either replace the calipers (if yours weren't in good condition like mine were, such as broken seals for the cylinder, you should buy a new remanufactured caliper) or use your old ones if they are in good shape. I purchased new reman. calipers from the local auto parts store, cost me $73/each, but very good quality and worth every penny. I then went to the hardware store and bought 2 appropriate sized bolts and nuts and 2 washers for each. I used them to connect the ebrake cables to the calipers. The nut goes in the tight space so you can put the bolt through the top. I used the washers to give the bottom enough clearance so during movement the bolt wouldn't hit anything.

Now with everything in good shape you can assemble everything back together. At this time you can bolt the brake lines to the mounts but don't attach them to the caliper yet. After this you should have everything in good shape and ready to install on the car.

Removing/Installing Trailing Arms
The actual removal and installation of everything is pretty straightforward and simple, it's just very time consuming and a lot of work. Prepare for downtime. If you need your car for anything important be prepared as there can always be unexpected delays.

First step is to remove your center console so you have access to you ebrake cables. Use a wrench and turn the nut until it comes completely off the long threaded post.


You can use a normal 12mm wrench to loosen the ebrake cables but a GearRachet works wonders...

With those cables release they are now free for you to pull out from below the car later on. Now comes the more difficult part. Jack up the car and support it with jackstands. You might want to jack it up on each side and use 4 stands that way you will have more room underneath to work on the car. With the car supported and the wheels off climb under the car to where you see the edge of the gas tank closest to the front of the car. Remove the heat shiled there (right above the exhaust), it is held on with 4 bolts. You may want to remove the exhaust to make it easier to work, I didn't have to however. With the heat shield removed you have now exposed the plate with a rubber grommet where the ebrake cables are going into. Now you might want to remove the 4 bolts that hold the cables to the chassis (2 for each cable). The left side cable's bolts are pretty easy to get to so undo those. Next you will want to do the other side. This is the hardest part of the whole thing. One of the bolts is about half way hidden behind the gas tank. So now you have a few options. If you are somehow able to bend the lip on the gas tank you could have good access to this bolt. However without a lift this is very hard. So while you are under the car you can't go that far. So what I did was use a dremel and dremel off the metal around the bolt. There is about a 1'' lip on the tank, so don't think you are cutting right into your tank or anything. Hack away the metal around the bolt until you are able to fit a wrench up there. Use the flare nut wrench if you can because you really don't want to chance stripping this bolt. So once you have cut enough off then remove the 2 bolts holding that cable. Now you can get out from under the car and move onto the Trailing Arms.

The trailing arm removal/installation is the easiest part since it's exposed and you don't have to crawl under anything. It's pretty self explanitory, there are 5 bolts holding on the trailing arm. One bolt at the Upper Control Arm to Trailing Arm (we'll call it TA), another at the Lower Control Arm to the TA, 2 bolts at the TA bushing, and one at the compensator arm to the TA. When removing the bolt from the compensator arm to the TA only undo the bolt that holds the Compensator Arm to the TA, not the bolt that holds the arm to the chassis because that controls the Toe for your alignment and unless you plan on getting an alignment then don't unbolt that. One other thing is while you are down there you might as well (if you already haven't) place some Grade 8 washers(very strong washers that won't compress) behind the Upper Control Arm Bushing and that will correct your camber (if your car is lowered and you have too much negative camber). The rule is 1 washer for every inch lowered. So one inch lowered = 1 washer. For cars lowered to the half you just round up so it would be 2 washers for a 1.5'' drop. I have a 1.5'' drop and I used 2 of them and my rear camber is now at less than 1 degree. This diagram will explain everything, you can click it to enlarge it...

If you are having trouble getting the bolts for the trailing arm off then here are a few tips for you. First you can use your MAAP Gas Torch to heat up he bolts. Hold the torch at the bolt head until you start to see the bushing near it smoke. However let it burn a little bit, yes I said let it burn, but not too much that it catches fire. The burning will separate the bushing from the bolt which it has froze on to. Now spray the whole thing down with PB Blaster and watch as lovely white smoke comes from the bolt. Once it has cooled enough that the PB Blaster doesn't evaporate right away put your 1/2 (or larger) breaker bar onto it and turn the correct direction. This should get the bolt off with ease. I did this to all my bolts and I had no problems at all, and my bushings are fine. With the trailing arm off you can undo the brake lines to the chassis. Use the 10mm Flare Nut wrench and remove the rubber line from the hard line. Now there is a clip which you pull out towards you and that will free the line from the bracket (leave the clip on until after you disconnect the line because it keeps the line from twisting when you try to take that nut off). Now brake fluid is going to drip down, you can place a pan under it or use a rag at the hard line or however you want to do it.

Now you can install your new Trailing Arms. Do it just the same as you did to remove it. I used my jack to jack it up under the trailing arm to align it with the rest of the suspension and a rubber hammer to bang everything into place. Now what I did to all my bolts was grease their threads up with lithium grease so they don't get stuck again incase I ever needed to remove them again, and if you used my nut and bolt method for the ebrake cables you can simply disconnect them from the caliper and trailing arms instead of going through all the trouble of going under the car incase you need to take the trailing arms off again for some reason (bushing replacement prehaps?). Make sure you torque those bolts down to spec (the torque specs are in the diagram).

With the Trailing Arms installed you can attach the new brake lines. Attach it at the caliper first and make sure it is positioned right and there is enough slack. Make sure to use new washers (all new hardware is supplied with SS lines). Now attach the new line to the hardline and make sure to put the clip back in to hold everything in place. I use a pry bar and rubber hammer to tap the clip back into place. If you bought SS lines you will want to replace the front lines now also. Once that is over the majority of the work is done.

The next step is to decide whether or not you want to install the prop valve. You don't need to do this but I highly recommend you do. I have first hand experience that without the prop valve you will not brake as well as you can with it. The prop valve is what sends the pressure to the front and back. With drum brakes less pressure is sent to the back so with your prop valve meant for drum brakes your rear brakes aren't going to work well and your pedal feel will suck. So if you still have plenty of time then you might as well install the prop valve now (since you have to bleed the brakes now anyway). So the prop valve is located on the right side of the engine on the fire wall. I say the prop valve sort of resembles a spider. It is hidden sort of under a bunch of wires for your engine harness. The prop valve is a bitch to take on and off. You will need to use the 10mm flare nut wrench to get the fittings off. They are exactly the same as the fittings for the hard line for your brake lines. However the lines to the prop valve aren't flexible as they are made of copper. They can be bent but you will need to bend and align them back to get them to screw in right. All I can say for this is remove everything in the way (strut bars, intake hoses, wires, etc...) and then remove the lines from the top outside to top inside and downward the same way, and install them just as you removed them. The less you have to bend them the easier it will be to install the new one.

After the prop valve is installed you can put everything back the way it was. Now is the time you bleed the brakes since you now will have a lot of air in it.

Instructions on how to bleed the brakes can be found here, How-To: Brake Bleeding

Once everything is bled you should be done. Put your wheels back on and lower the car back down. Take the car out for a slow test drive to make sure the brakes work.

Notes
I had a problem with my brake pedal periodically sinking to the floor. I was told it was supposedly air in the lines but I knew this couldn't be the case because the brakes worked fine most of the time. So after some research I found out the brake booster was powered by vacuum. So after inspecting my vacuum hoses I found that it had leaks in it. You can tell by pumping the brakes when the car is stopped, if you hear a whistling sound you know you have leaks. So I wrapped the line in duct tape as a quick fix and ordered new lines. And so far I haven't had any problems. So if you think you might have a similar problem then check that vacuum hose.

I ordered 2 new hoses from hondaautomotiveparts.com however one of the hoses they sent me was completely the wrong size. There were several options and I'm not sure how each of them was different. Each hose was expensive. If you know both correct hoses to order go for it. However since I didn't want to waste anymore money I went to the hardware store and bought a 12'' piece of air compressor hose (the orange one) and it works fine. I use ring clamps and the stock clamps for double the hold. So far it has worked out fine. So order the twisty hose OEM, but you can use any hose for the fairly straight one since it won't bend and cut off the vacuum supply, and it's a lot cheaper to, and does the job.

 

damn walter, nice write up!!!


thanks man.