11/17/03 The front brakes are installed! Driving impressions to come -- currently fighting a non-related mechanical problem that's keeping me from driving my truck.
The installation of the B-body brake kit as delivered from Robert Adams is straightforward. Remove your existing spindles, calipers, rotors, and upper A-arm, and install the new parts. It's a bolt-on swap. Your existing brake hoses will work. You'll need to take it to an alignment shop if you can't do your own alignment.
I originally had Bilstein shocks and Belltech 2 inch drop spindles. The B-body brake swap using stock B-body spindles returns the truck to the original ride height. I installed Carrera coilovers so I could adjust my ride height with the stock height B-body spindles.
An excellent article on installing the Carrera coilovers is written by AVTekk on S-seriesform.com.
Since I installed both at the same time, I followed the Carrera instructions up to removing the springs. I then installed the B-body spindles and upper A-arms, and proceeded with the Carrera instructions.
Some pictures on the swap:
A picture of the tubular A-arms next to stock. The new arms are shorter to allow the B-body spindle to fit. The combination of tall spindle and shorter arm give a better camber curve for better handling.
A picture of the B-body spindles next to the Belltech S-series drop spindles. The B-body spindle is taller between the ball joints. Note the drop spindle's placement of the rotor compared the to the stock ride height of the B-body spindle.
A picture of the 12 inch rotors compared to the stock 10.5 inch rotors. Larger rotor diameter means more braking torque is available.
This top-down view shows the difference in thickness between the stock rotor hub and the F-body 1LE rotor. The 1LE rotor's thicker hub is responsible for moving each front wheel out almost 1/2 inch. With ZQ8 wheels and 245/50-16 tires, the edges of my tires stick out from under the stock aluminum wheel well trim. With wider fender flares or wheels with more offset, this wouldn't happen. For those with ZQ8 or other 3rd gen F-body wheels, the rear wheels from an F-body will fit the front when running the B-body swap, and shouldn't stick out any. Note that I have not yet found a big brake conversion that does not exhibit this issue.
A picture of the B-body calipers and their 2 15/16" pistons, next to the stock 2 3/8" caliper's pistons. This is the other half of the braking torque equation -- bigger piston surface area means more normal force, and more braking torque.
Eye candy for gearheads! This is a picture of the Carrera coilovers, tubular upper A-arms, B-body spindles, and 1LE rotors installed. Too bad it's hidden behind the wheel ;) Yes, I know -- I have some cleaning and painting to do on the wheelwells and frame.
Here are some pictures of one side of the kit, as Robert sent it to me:
The stock front brakes on an '82-'97 S-10 are 10.5" vented rotors, with single piston calipers. This sounds okay, but plenty of S-10 owners have complained about the brakes not having enough power. I felt that the stock front brakes are marginal at best, and went looking for a better solution.
B-body cars (1977-1990) were optionally available with 12" front brakes. These brakes improve braking torque in two ways. The rotor has a larger diameter than the S-10's 10.5" disc, so the moment arm is longer. The caliper also has a larger piston. Caliper piston area is directly related to the amount of clamping pressure it can generate, so the force applied to the rotor is larger for the same brake line pressure. The larger rotor is able to absorb and shed more heat, too, meaning reduced brake fade.
This conversion is usually advertised for G-body vehicles; 1982-1997 2WD S-series vehicles have almost the same front brakes and suspension as a G-body, so this kit will fit an S-series. The only differences between G-body and S-series front suspension is the centerlink is shorter on the S-series; and the front lower control arm bushing has a larger I.D. on the S-series. The sway bars are probably different, but I don't know for sure.
The B-body spindle must be used to use 12" B-body rotors and calipers. The spindle is taller than the S-10 spindle, which gives a better camber curve than stock. However, to use the taller spindle, shorter A-arms must be used. The stock A-arm cannot be shimmed enough to make it work; even if an alignment was possible, the camber curve would be way off. Hotchkiss, Global West, and UB Machine make arms for this application.
The B-body caliper has more volume than the stock S-10 caliper, so the B-body master cylinder should be used; its larger bore generates less line pressure (reducing brake torque a bit) but the increased volume keeps pedal travel short.
This conversion moves the front wheels out away from the truck about .400" due to the thicker rotor section. This is true of other aftermarket big brake kits such as Baer's kit, and those are built on stock S-10 spindles which don't give the improved handling benefits.
This conversion requires at least 15" wheels. B-body cars used 15" wheels with these rotors, but not all 15" wheel will fit.
The B-body 12" rotor has a 5x5" lug pattern. To get the 5x4.75" pattern used on S-10 trucks, the 1990 Camaro 1LE front rotor is used. This is the B-body rotor with the S-series lug pattern.
I bought my kit from Robert Adams ( http://gparts.freeyellow.com ) for $770 shipped to my house. I have bought parts from him before, and they are always excellent quality. Robert really knows his stuff. His kit is complete except for the detail stuff like brake fluid. The only missing hard part is the master cylinder, which isn't a big deal.
The upper A-arms in his kit are from UB Machine, a company that makes stock car parts. The arms have Delrin bushings in them ( very similar to Del-A-Lum ) and have grease fittings so the bushings can be greased. These bushings are far superior to rubber or poly. I would like to put Del-A-Lum bushings in the lower control arms to match, but they are only available for G-body cars; I'll have to find a solution for the front lower control arm if I do.
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