Rear disc swap.

[Trucidatio]

So, im going to be doing a rear disc swap on my car. '85 318i with rear drums. Im getting the rear trailing arms, rotors, calipers, and lines.

What i need to know is if anyone knows what else I will need to finish the swap.

Whether I need get a different brake booster/master cylinder, or parking brake cables.

All i know is that i am sick of having rear drums, and want some better braking. Any help would be greatly appreciated. And im picking up the trailing arm and such tomorrow night.

[Jean]

I did this on my 84, used complete arms from an 88 car. Get them with the e-brake cables attached and it will make the swap easier. No problems keeping the same booster/cylinder. I autocrossed the car for more than a full season and had no issues.

[Trucidatio]

how big of a pain would it be to put the e-brake cables on afterwards? I dont think i am going to be able to get them with it. how hard was it to do that swap?

[Jean]

Its not a hard swap, e-brake cables aren't too bad either if you have to add them on. Do you have a bentley manual? On the drivers side exhaust will be in the way and on the drivers side the fuel hose to the fuel tank is going to be in the way. You'll want to remove both, so drain the gas tank or make sure it's LOW on gas.

[Trucidatio]

damn, that sucks i just filled my gas tank up. Would it be able to be done without removing the line? and im guessing the is no chance the e-brake lines from my car will work with the new stuff.

[FredK]

If you drop the subframe, you can remove the trailing arms without removing either the exhaust or the gas tank feed line. This may be more trouble than it's worth, though, because the subframe bushing tops often break when the subframe is removed. If you undo the exhaust hangers and let the exhaust hang down you can snake the subframe out from underneath the car, if you want to replace the bushings.

If you want to just swap arms, it might just be easier to remove the gas line when you get low on gas, or pump the tank into a few 5 gallon jugs.

[gearheadE30]

Just so you know, be ready to spend a bit of time swapping ebrake cables. The ends are aluminum and have a tendency to corrode into their holes on the body side, and they are kind of a pain to reach.

[Trucidatio]

cool, thanks for the info guys, I think Im just going to hold off on doing the swap, and just gather the parts, and information, till it gets closer to summer.

[rkettner]

i swapped out my subframe on my garage floor on jackstands.

just be prepared to spend more time on it than you think you will have to.

replace bushings while everything is out of the car!