S10 Brake Upgrade - Documented

mean78malibu

Dragway Regular
Mar 15, 2008
998
0
16
Pittsburgh, PA and Philly Area
As promised, I documented swapping my 79+ belltech drop spindles to the S10 Blazer dual piston setup. Don't forget, you will need to align your car after doing this (mine was toed in .5" on both sides afterwards)

The first step was to compress the spring with a floor jack and remove the old spindle/hub assembly in one piece after disconnecting the brake line. Note that I have -AN flare brake line adapters which are not factory.
IMAG0173.jpg


One thing I had to do that most of you won't was installing my ARP wheel studs into the hubs. I just threw them in the drill press to enlarge the holes with a silver endeming bit, then i used an old 7/16 lug nut with some washers on the impact gun to seat the knurls.
IMAG0175.jpg


Next, I put the new spindle on (don't do the final torque of the balljoint nuts and insert cotter pins until the car is on the ground). I put some anti seize on the surface where the hub will go because it was pretty corroded when I diassembled everything for blasting & coating.
IMAG0178.jpg

IMAG0178.jpg


Next, I applied blue loctite to the hub bolts, and put them in from the back so I could hang the dust shield on.
IMAG0179.jpg


Next, the hub can go on. Note the orientation of the abs sensor to match the opening in the dust shield.
I torqued the bolts to 60 ft/lb (not sure what they should be but this seemed right for the bolt size :) )
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This is how I took care of the pesky ABS sensors (they are fairly interchangeable on GM cars too, so if you have another GM, keep them as spares!)
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Next, I freshened the brake caliper mounts with new bushings and dust boots along with some
Permatex high temp ceramic brake lube on everything. I got the parts off the shelf from Advance Auto parts.
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Now, The rotor can slide on and the caliper bracket can be bolted up from the back side.
IMAG0181.jpg


Install the new anti rattle clips on your new pads, and throw them in. I chose Thermoquiet Ceramic pads from Advance because they will probably last forever with the mileage this thing sees.
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Now I could compress the caliper pistons fully, and install them. There should be plenty of clearance between the caliper and new pads so it drops right on. One thing to note is that the caliper bolts may be tight due to the new bushings/boots that were installed in the brackets. This is normal, and I used a rubber mallet to seat the bushings further so I could get the thread started on the bolt/caliper.
IMAG0185.jpg


The banjo bolts are the same size on the old calipers as the S10 calipers. Now, I have stainless braided hoses and don't know what factory g-body hoses are like but they must be similar if mine work, so you should be able to re-use yours also. I have a strange manual master cylinder and these brakes work great and grab tight. I also used them with my line-loc, and they grab tight!

And that's all she wrote! I read these weigh about 4lbs heaver per side than the factory brakes. That's ok with me because the braking surface area is MUCH greater due to the size of the pads and the .5" larger rotors. I'll do the percentage increase calculations if I have time, but it's not hard to see by looking at them.
IMAG0187.jpg


My main reason for doing this swap was because I wanted to get rid of the drop spindles. This was my goal because I am now able do drop my coil over springs way down and regain my long lost front suspension travel. Instead of putting the money into just spindles, I figured I would do the whole swap and get better brakes at the same time. Plus, I think there is no need for drag racing only brakes since I want this car back on the street eventually.
 

t5montecarlo

MalibuRacing Junkie
Oct 21, 2007
4,632
31
48
Lederach, PA
garage-scene.com
Are those sealed hubs? Are they replaced as a unit rather than to periodically repack bearings and reset preload on the bearings?

Is there any difference in track width when using these spindles/hubs?
 

malibu795

Pro Stocker
Apr 17, 2005
1,496
4
38
spgfd ohio
Very nice
 

TURNA

MalibuRacing Junkie
Jul 6, 2003
6,028
1
38
Socialist NY
what size rims are you using with that setup?
 

mean78malibu

Dragway Regular
Thread starter
Mar 15, 2008
998
0
16
Pittsburgh, PA and Philly Area
The hubs are sealed units but I didn't think that would be an issue for me.I got a 90 day warranty on everything and dont think my use will wear them out.

Also, I am running 15'' wheels
 

mean78malibu

Dragway Regular
Thread starter
Mar 15, 2008
998
0
16
Pittsburgh, PA and Philly Area
j&amotorsports said:
cool setup, i noticed you has a rack setup do you have any pictures of it? thanks john

I posted up some pictures before, see if u can find them by searching my posts. Ill be changing it in the next few months so i can lower the car more, so ill update then.
 

bigbadbu

Pro Stocker
May 5, 2008
1,579
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East Hartford
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do you know if there is any difference in the 4wd spindles? i live in new england and 2wd blazers dont exist..
 

mean78malibu

Dragway Regular
Thread starter
Mar 15, 2008
998
0
16
Pittsburgh, PA and Philly Area
bigbadbu said:
do you know if there is any difference in the 4wd spindles? i live in new england and 2wd blazers dont exist..

Hey, when I was doing my research, I kept reading that you may be able to use the 4wd spindles but I never saw a straight answer. I think i looked up the ball joints and the 4wd ones may have had a different part #. They also might have a wider track width on the 4wd setup, but I'm not positive.
 

axisg

Frequent Racer
May 13, 2008
407
0
0
YYZ ( Toronto )
mean78malibu said:
bigbadbu said:
do you know if there is any difference in the 4wd spindles? i live in new england and 2wd blazers dont exist..

Hey, when I was doing my research, I kept reading that you may be able to use the 4wd spindles but I never saw a straight answer. I think i looked up the ball joints and the 4wd ones may have had a different part #. They also might have a wider track width on the 4wd setup, but I'm not positive.

is unfortunately the 4wd unit is wider and IIRC the ball joints are different as well. This can all be overcome but that kind of defeats the purpose of the simple driveway swap.

BTW I found mine by using car-part.com
quick search in New England found wayyy more than comes up close to me !
 

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