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Big-Brake Upgrade For GM A/G-Bodies
Swapping From The 10.5-inch Stockers To 12-Inchers
February, 2009
By Henry De Los Santos
Photography by Henry De Los Santos, Tony Nausieda
 |  |  With the Bu on jack...  With the Bu on jack stands, we first removed the cotter pin and nut from each outer tie rod end to separate it from the steering arm. Then we placed a floor jack underneath the lower A-arm, removed its cotter pin, and loosened the nut. |  Next, place the pickle fork...  Next, place the pickle fork between the ball joint and the tapered seat (do this to both the upper and lower ball joint) and give it a good whack with a hammer until the spring pressure snaps down on the castle nut. Finally, raise the floor jack just enough to release the spring pressure. Remove both nuts and the brake line, and you can now take out the spindle, caliper, and rotor as one assembly. |  The new Hotchkis upper control...  The new Hotchkis upper control arms are significantly different from the stock ones. Since were going to a taller spindle to house the huge 12-inch 1LE brakes, the new arm corrects the altered geometry to improve negative camber and increase caster for more stability. |  While we had the front suspension...  While we had the front suspension torn apart, it only made sense to replace the ratty springs with a set of Hotchkis performance coils. And we cant emphasize this enough: Put a safety chain around the spring. Use a jack and secure it to the lower A-arm. Remove the shock and gently lower the arm until its fully extended to get the spring out or use a coil compressor. For the rear springs, simply raise the rearend with a floor jack and loosen the shocks. Lower the jack and you should be able to remove the springs by hand. Then reverse the process. |  When putting on the new upper...  When putting on the new upper control arms, be sure to have the short leg towards the front of the car. Reinstall the original alignment shims in the same location, and torque the two nuts to 45 lb-ft. The Hotchkis arms have a cross-shaft that can be rotated for positive or negative camber adjustment. Out of the box, they come pre-assembled for maximum negative camber. If proper alignment cannot be obtained, rotate the cross-shaft 180 degrees to correct the situation. |  After 23 years of road duty,...  After 23 years of road duty, the tie rods, ball joints, idler arm, and centerlink were trashed. So we went ahead and replaced them after a visit to Kragen. Just be sure to measure the old tie rod lengths to get it somewhat close enough to drive to the alignment shop. |  We then pressed out the old...  We then pressed out the old lower A-arm ball joint and cleaned up the nasty looking things. |  After pressing in the new...  After pressing in the new lower A-arm ball joint and fogging the lower arm black, we carefully pushed the ball joint boot on by hand. |  We got the complete large...  We got the complete large spindle assembly at the yard off of an 84 Caprice Wagon for $30 including the dust shields! A quick cleanup and a few coats of Eastwoods Spray Gray aerosol paint made them look better than new. |  Before installing the new...  Before installing the new springs, we taped the top of the rubber perch to the springs (be sure to replace it or else itll sound like a mouse cruising down the street) so it wouldnt move around while we installed them. Then direct the end of the springs between the two drilled holes to get the correct ride height. Since the springs were quite a bit shorter than the factory units, we didnt need to use a spring compressor. Instead we used a block of wood to protect the lower A-arm and jacked up the springs into position and reinstalled the shocks. |  Next we installed our new...  Next we installed our new spindles. After the monster 1LE rotors were placed, we used a healthy dose of grease to pack the inner and outer bearings and torque the nut to 12 lb-ft while turning the rotor by hand to seat the bearings. We backed off the nut until it was just finger tight, and retightened it just enough to slide the cotter pin through the spindle. |  Once the calipers were seated,...  Once the calipers were seated, we used stock brake lines listed for the 84 Caprice Wagon to connect to the stock Malibu brake lines. The length was correctfor the first time we guessed right (it was an educated guess of course)! |  We didnt have to do...  We didnt have to do this, but again, since everything was torn apart we went ahead and replaced the poor excuse for a sway bar from the factory to the huge carbon-steel 1-1/4-inch Hotchkis Performance sway bar. The kit came with everything necessary for installation including the polyurethane bushings, endlinks, and all the hardware. |  It may not be the prettiest...  It may not be the prettiest thing on the road right now, but what starter project is? We just arent sure whats worseborrowing our Fire-Turds wheels to accommodate the larger 12-inch brakes or refusing to put all four wheels on the car. But like any proud parent; we think the Bu is beautiful. |
Our '78 Malibu was a less-than-stellar braking performer, so we decided to toss out the pathetic 10.5-inch discs and do the popular 12-inch conversion. All thats required are new calipers, rotors from an 88-92 1LE Camaro, and larger spindles out of some 78-90 GM fullsize cars such as the Caprice, Delta 88, Caddy, and Pontiac (typically wagons, heavy-duty towing packages, and police cars). You should also go with a set of aftermarket upper control arms like those from Hotchkis Performance or else youll end up with way too much camberthe Hotchkis units feature a tubular construction and come with the ball-joints already pressed in and ready to bolt-on. Although Hotchkis does offer a complete kit thats ready to be assembled, we wanted to see how hard or how easy it would be to sort out the individual pieces for ourselves. Finding the spindles was a cakewalk, and so was pulling the correct dust shield and calipers out of an 84 Caprice wagon. Unfortunately, the calipers looked as if they had seen better days, so rather than trying to salvage them we decided to purchase a refurbished set and gathered the rotors and miscellaneous parts at our local Kragen.
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CSK Auto Inc.
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Hotchkis Performance
12035 Burke St., Ste. 13
Santa Fe Springs
CA
90670
877/466-7655
www.hotchkisperformance.com
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Goodmark Industries Inc.
625-E Old Norcross Rd
Lawrenceville
GA
30045
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The Eastwood Co.
P.O. Box 296
580 Lancaster Ave.
Malvern
PA
19355-0296
(800) 345-1178
www.eastwoodco.com
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