I converted my daughters car to rear disc brakes. Actually, it was my wifes car years ago and now it is my daughters. Anyway, it has had the calipers on it for several years and now one of them is hanging up. I have been able to source a rebuild kit and I have found some complete XT calipers that are remaned. I am tempeted to get the remaned calipers, but I want to be sure that they will fit on the set up I have on the wagon at home. Are all of the backing plates drilled the same? The caliper I can get are loaded and come with new brackets from rock auto so, I guess, I just need to be sure they will mount on the existing backing plates.

 

Any help you guys can give me will be much appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Mike

i believe the XT is 5 lug, meaning that the calipers won't fit. Look up the "five lug swap", and I believe the xt calipers are an option for that, and that should answer some of your questions.

 

Maybe someone who has done the five lug swap will chime in.

 

Good luck!

i believe the XT is 5 lug, meaning that the calipers won't fit. Look up the "five lug swap", and I believe the xt calipers are an option for that, and that should answer some of your questions.

 

Maybe someone who has done the five lug swap will chime in.

 

Good luck!

 

ok so I'll chime in here. XT6, XT GL, and GL-10 calipers all bolt up the same. Doesn't matter if its a backing plate from any of those cars, the calipers bolt up the same. I have seen pads being slightly different which resulted in using the old brackets with new calipers and pads but since you're getting loaded calipers, no need to worry. Just unbolt the old and bolt up the new!

There you go! Thanks for the info, learned something new

yep, only 6-cyl XTs were 5-lug. But either way, the calipers are the same. When I did the 5-lug swap on my wagon, I kept the GL-10 calipers from the 4-lug disc setup.

 

 

The loaded calipers will bolt right up, and make the project quite a bit simpler. But reman'd calipers can be trouble. I bought one for the wagon (lifetime warranty), and I would have to replace it about once a year. IMO, youd be much better off rebuilding the caliper you have yourself, save yourself some money now, and some headache later.

it could just be rusty slide pins, dissasemble, clean, and lube with syl-glide. put some around the piston boot as well

Thanks for the info guys.

 

I got a chance to look at the brakes yesterdaya dn it turned out that the calipers are not sticking. The brackets are a bit rusty and the pads were jamming up against the rotor. That accounts for the burning smell and the heat she was feeling at the wheels. I cleaned off the scale and freed up the pads and all seems to be well again. I will probably get the rebuild kits anyway as they are getting scarce now.

 

Thanks for all of the help, You guys are great.

 

Mike

i probably have a couple sets of rear calipers if you want an extra to play with mike.

 

i'd look into getting new clips for the calipers, i've had them get corrossion or rust and cause the pad to hang up even on EJ vehicles.

How hard/easy is it to convert drums to calipers?

You need the backing plates and the calipers with brackets. The hose for the caliper to the main brake line at the wheel and of course, you will need the rotor. If you can find that stuff, the swap is very simple. Makes braking much more sure footed. I really like the disc over the drum.

So are there other models that people typically pull these from?

You can get them from a GL-10, RX and any turbo model. I looked it up on rock auto and there are several models that came with rear calipers.