So I've been pondering this idea for awhile but have never gotten around to seeing what it would take to do it. So for those of you who have thought of the same thing or have possibly done such a conversion, what did you have to do to get an EJ rear brake setup onto an EA82 car? I wanna end up upgrading my rear brakes when I upgrade my fronts again. This topic is also being discussed over on XT6.net right now but the farthest we've gotten is adapters. I want to be able to put rear rotors from an EJ directly onto my coupe.... Thoughts, opinions, suggestions? Any sort of collaboration is welcome!

well, the ebrake drum part makes things very complex.

 

just swapping to rear discs on an EJ series car requires swapping the whole knuckle, which is not easily possible on an EA car.

 

you could loose the drum mechanism.....but then you'll loose the ebrake.

 

 

I've been thinking about trying to make a caliper bracket (to replace the backing plate) to mount a 2-pot caliper with ebrake mechanism built in (Z-car maybe... ). I also plan to have my XT6 calipers cryo-treated.

Well since I have never had the back brakes torn down on an EJ before, from my knowledge, the drum mechanism should be mounted to the backing plate itself. Therefor, mount the backing plate, mount the rotor/hub and caliper. I need some pics to see if it is set up like that and to see if its possible to modify it to work.

as you can read on xt6.net the main problem is that the axle is too short, the wheel bearing of the EJ series car is smaller than the wheel bearing of the EA series car. just installing the shorter bearing won't work, because the outer DOJ (it's called that right?) runs against the trailing arm. I've been thinking abou this for waaay too long and can't find a solution...

 

friend of mine also found out that a VW golf IV has 5x100 stud pattern and almost the same disc but without the e-brake assembly, not sure this will fit, but he's trying :-p plan is to run front L2 calipers in the rear, big enough and e-brake.

you can go to modernmotorsports.com and check out the rear disc brake packages for the 70-78 Z cars for inspiration, and also visit http://www.hybridZ.org, go to the brake forum, and search through the stickies regarding rear brakes. should provide plenty of links and photos for inspiration; the project should be easily doable. anyone have a foto of the rear stub axles bare (ie without brake setup installed?)

this guy in AUS makes a kit.

http://www.crossbredperformance.com/BrakeKit.htm

i would love to see if i could buy just the backing plate, and get the rest from a doner car...

 

http://www.crossbredperformance.com/images/image009.jpg

 

-=Suberdave=-

www.suberdave.com

If you read carefully on the Crossbred site. You have to send them another set of backing plates as core. And the hubs are special machined parts to still use the ea axle.

 

And yes, the e-brake parts on the legacy do mount to the backing plate. So no loss of ebarke needed.

Well I'm thinking if someone in the area is getting rid of an EA82 4wd car, then to cut the trailing arm off of it. Then take the EA rear axle, EJ rear axle, EJ wheel bearings, and EJ brakes and see what kind of modifications would need to be done to the EA trailing arm. It's probably possible to do this but I cannot have my car down while I test stuff out on it. I bet it can be done, just figuring out what parts are needed and what needs to be modified to get everything to work right.

 

I think it can be done since the body of my car is an '87... The rest is from other years and models of Subarus...

I don't know the correct terminology but here goes,

 

the part of the EA trailing arm where the wheel bearing sits in, is too long/wide, if you try to mount the EJ rear brake, everything wil fit reasonably well, except for the axle, the piece of the axle that goes through the bearing and grabs into the disc-holder-thing (with the tooths on the inside) is too short

 

so for it to fit, you would need a longer axle (custom made?) or machine the trailing arm thinner, another option is just installing the complete rear suspension of a EJ car, but I don't know how hard that is

I don't think your gonna find anything better than crossbred's kit..

however I e-mail'd crossbred to enquire on the cost of JUST the adapter boss that allows both the centering and fitment of the ej backing plate to the ea trailing arm and the cost quoted is:

$375.00 AUD!! :eek:

 

right..well at least the ej rear disc fits like a condom on the xt6 hub..

 

Kaz

another option is just installing the complete rear suspension of a EJ car, but I don't know how hard that is

 

themixtoo has been working on grafting the complete drivelines from an Impreza to a BRAT. It's taken him a year or so to get the stuff together. Not even sure he's done.

Here is the thread about his build

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=34445

So what about adapting EJ rear calipers onto a set of XT6 backing plates?

 

I'm working on aquiring some EJ parts to see what needs to be done. I'm going to get my hands on some calipers, backing plates, hubs and rotors. Once I can get those parts, then I can start mixing my potion to get the right formula.

 

Anyone in the Seattle area with some parts they'd be willing to donate? Don't need to be in perfect shape but halfway useful would be nice;)