Rear Disk Brake Swap -- PICTORIAL

[Tatohead]

Hello,

Swapping rear disk brakes into my 2nd Gen Camry is turning out to be a pretty straightforward bolt-on affair. However, everyone loves to look at pictures, right?

So, this all started when I was visiting my local junkyard last week and noticed that they had just brought in a 91 LE V6 in perfect condition. When I say perfect, I mean perfect. I have no idea why this car is here. Maybe an internal engine problem?

I came back a few days later with tools and someone had already taken the front clip and bumper




The good news: the brakes are still there!



I verified that both hubs spun very freerly and that the parking brake was rock solid. I then sprayed down every bolt, but, and hydraulic connection with PB Blaster. It really only had about 30 minutes to soak, but couldn't hurt, right?

The first things I removed were the caliper and rotor.




I started by disconnecting the hydraulic brake line. There are two coupled points, held in by clips, plus the caliper connection. One connection on the body and one on the strut. I chose to separate the line at the body connection.



The coupled connection on the strut is stuck in place even after the metal clip is removed. I simply bent the metal tab down to remove the brake line. I plan to simply bend it back when I reinstall. Ghetto, I know.




Now, to disconnect the trailing link. I actually did it last, but if doing again would do it first. It's a 17mm bolt. I brought a breaker bar because some of these required lots of oomph.




The long bolt that connects the control arm is a bugger. Really had to tap it to get it out after the nut was off. It was 19mm and will definitely need a breaker bar.



There are two bolts that connect the strut to the hub assembly. Both were 19mm, if I remember correctly. Once those last 2 are out, the entire assembly is free. It's only connected to the car via the parking brake cables.

The cables need to be swapped over with everything else. The cables route around the gas tank and then snake under the exhaust heat shield to a yoke just under the parking brake handle. 10mm bolts hold the cable in at points near the wheel well and onto the gas tank strap.






On the above picture, it's actually the lower nut you remove. Leave the top one and it's braket intact on the brake line.




Well, that's it for now. As I was getting this done, I forgot to get a picture of the yoke assembly. Each cable is held in like a throttle cable; you twist the cylindrical head of the cable as you slide it out sideways. You'll need to have the cables completely removed to get enough slack to do this.

I'll get a picture of this when I reassemble on my own Camry. Should be in a week or so. I also snagged the regulator, as everyone says that should be done as part of the swap.

I was charged $80 for the parts.

[Grego 92]

Dang! nice find!

You should take all kinds of spare parts off of that! look how clean it is! If you go back and don't need the electric antenna, I would pay for it even though it would be a gamble whether it worked or not.

[84Cressida]

Probably some bone head who owned it an didn't think it was worth anything. Sad.

[Doctor J]

Well on the junk yards I am getting the parts from they do not let you to take pictures, which is kind of odd as most cellphones are having the cameras

[atobe]

what kind of junkyards are you going to ? most yards i've been to don't even check what i'm bringing into the yard

[Tatohead]

OK! Finally a day to keep the project going.

First, here's a picture of the yoke that holds the parking brake cables. Strangely, there was no exhaust heat shield on my car like there was on the donor. Either my car is missing it's shield, or the 4-cyl doesn't have it???







The strut on my 90 Camry has a very different design for the hydraulic brake line. There was no tab to bend down, just a bracket with a hole in it.






THe brake line just came right out once the two ends were separated and the clip removed.

[Tatohead]

I removed all control arm and links and make a startling discovery. The long bolt that holds everything together was frozen solid. I mean FROZEN. I tried a sledge hamer and various air tools but NOTHING budged it.

Eventually, I went for the nuclear option and with the help of a friend, a sawzall was used to cut the head of the bolt off to remove the lower control arm.







Cutting off the bolt was a very time-consuming process and slightly damaged the control arm. I made the decision to not repeat the process on the other side if it was also frozen.

Instead, it would be easier to just go back to the junk yard and get the control arm off the donor vehicle and leave the control arm from my car with the hub assembly.

The problem is, to get to the bolt that removes the control arm, you have to remove the entire rear subframe. This is held on by 4 14mm bolts and actually came down pretty easily.

One side visible in this picture.



The full subframe removed with the passenger side hub still attatched.

[Tatohead]

As it turns out, the passenger side was just as frozen as the driver side, so I went with my plan to just remove the whole thing with the control arm still attached and replace the control arm.

Once the subframe was out, this was a snap. It's a 17mm bolt that connects the subframe to the lower control arm. You have to pop out the square plastic cover on the bottom of the subframe to access the nut and tab.

Once the new arm was on, the subframe fit nicely on the jack and went right up to it's location and the 4 bolts went right in. Easy!




With the subframe securely in place, the next step was to start to install the disk brake assembly. It went pretty easily. First, I threaded the parking brake cable through its intended path.

Then I installed the long bolt from the donor vehicle through the control arm and link.



With the nut loosely threaded on, the whole things just rotates up and attached to the strut. 2 heavy 19mm bolts connect it. The caliper and rotor were removed to make it lighter and easier to move around.

[Tatohead]

Sorry about the multiple posts. For some reason, when I make it too long with too many pictures, it's freezing up on me. So, I'm breaking this up into multiple posts of just a few pictures each.

After the strut, links, and control arm bolts were tightened and secured, it was time to address the hydraulic line. This turned out to be super-easy. The donor car's flexible brake line had two C-clips that needed to be removed. These clips don't hold anything together, they just act as a backing to the U-clips. A small flat screwdriver accomplished this easily.



Once the clips were off, the line fits through the bracket like a puzzle piece and the U-clip is tapped into place with a hammer. A snap!



With the hydraulic line tightened, I attached the parking brake cable at its various attach points.

The entire process was repeated on the other side.

Once it was all in place, we bled the system. And bled, and bled, and bled.

When I was pretty confident that all the air was out of the lines, it was time to put the wheel back on and clean up.

I have the base-level 14" wheels with small center caps, and there were no fitment issues over the disks.

Time for a cold coke!!

(My kids insisted on taking my picture, too)




Job done!

[Billiam]

Good work, man!

I'd love to have a gray V6 All-Trac in that body style. I always liked it's simple, clean lines.

[Tatohead]

TEST DRIVE:

The difference with the rear disk brakes was immediate and dramatic. Keep in mind my drum brakes were old and grinding.

Very, very happy with this change.

Once I test drove the car, I realized that I forgot to change the proportioning valve! I have it, but just forgot to switch it over. To tell you the truth, it's working so well now, I doubt I'll change it for the time being. There are some threads in the archive here that say swapping it is optional. We'll see.

The only downside to report is that the car seems to be just a tiny bit out of alignment now. I didn't expect any change in the rear suspension geometry, but the steering is about 3 degrees off from center while driving straight. Very strange.

I have the old drum assemblies and will put these in the 'free' section on Craigslist. Anyone reading this is welcome to them, but I have no interest in shipping the dumb things. They'll go in next week's garbage load if no takers.




OH WAIT!!! I almost forgot, I also grabbed one more mod from the donor vehicle. This mod will add AT LEAST 10-15 horsepower:



















Thanks for viewing. Hopefully this will be of benefit to someone out there.

[Doctor J]

Originally Posted by atobe

what kind of junkyards are you going to ? most yards i've been to don't even check what i'm bringing into the yard

Pick your part in Stanton and Ecology auto wrecking in Santa Fe Springs
thay carry the big sign No cameras inside yard

[white90dx]

Originally Posted by Billiam

Good work, man!

I'd love to have a gray V6 All-Trac in that body style. I always liked it's simple, clean lines.

There is no such thing as a V6 Alltrac... (well, unless you build it yourself)

-Charlie

[white90dx]

Couple of notes:

The V6 probably had a strut replacement in its past - that's why the brake line bracket was cut (easier to do that then open the brake line and bleed them if you are doing the work by yourself). The outer strut bodies have the same mounting points on the 4 and 6 cylinder cars.

I'm not sure why you removed the rear subframe to replace the lateral links? I have done a R+R of those with the subframe in place... (to put in polyurethane bushings)

A bad rear alignment can affect the apparent front alignment. With changing out the subframe, arms and hubs - you need a 4-wheel alignment to get everything back in line.

Check to see that your front brakes lock up first for safety. You might get slightly increase brake performance by swapping the proportioning valve, as the disk brakes probably require a higher operating pressure. What really matters though is safety - so like I said, make sure that your front brakes lock up first (do this in a safe area!!).

Overall, nice job!

-Charlie

[Tatohead]

Charlie,

Thanks for the feedback! I'm a novice and eager to learn anything.

I had to drop the subframe because the bolt would only thread out a very short distance and hit a cover or shield for the gas tank. Even with the cover pulled back, couldn't quite get enough room to remove that long bolt.

I will definitely put in the proportioning valve at some point to at least be "official". A full alignment will also be performed. As it is, it is not pulling L/R in the slightest, in either hands-off or under hard braking.