parts were acquired last week and the donor car is a '94 Opel vectra (the 2000cc version)... i got the brake setup and hand brake cables and metal brake lines just in case
my first concern was the bolt pattern compatability between my rear suspension member and the vectra components... i took an old lanos rear axle from my mechanic to do the comparison and the bolt patterns were concurrent... only difference was that the lanos axle got 4 studs but the vectra setup got threads... it is not a problem since since i got the studs with the vectra setup
the brake setup was fitted to the axel and we removed the rotors for inspection and cleanup as it was rusty.
the axle measurements are the same as the lanos axle and same goes for the bearings
the OEM metal brake line was long enough to be attached to the new caliper so their was no need for the lines i bought
the hand brake cable was the tricky part... the one from the opel was not a direct fit to the lanos as far as the link between the dual cables and the cable attached to the hand brake handle... lengths were almost the same so we were facing one of two options:
1- modify the opel vectra to fit the e brake handle
2- modify the lanos cables to fit the rear disks
i went with the second option as i wanted to keep my OEM setup intact... i also got a bracket from the vectra car that holds both the brake line and the e brake cable but it would have required welding this bracket to the rear suspension member and i was not willing to do so
instead i modified the bracket by cutting it in half and discarding the part holding the brake line and use the e brake part to hold the wire and attached it to the stud that was holding the OEM cable
i have also got a set of new pads as the ones that came with the parts were in bad shape and worn out
the e brake pads were calibrated and the calipers were bled and the setup was completely assembled and ready for testing
the test drive showed better response from the brake pedal... no change in brake power though... surly their is a bedding period for the new pads and system has to be bled after some kms so i am expected better brake performance when i put more kms on the car and bleed the calipers
the impressive part was the e brakes... i can now easily lock the rear wheels even if i have passengers in the rear seat... how could small pads put so much braking power?... i don't know and i don't care as long as it is working perfectly
it is worth mentioning that i didn't change my proportional valves yet... i did a quick parts comparison between different p valves from the 1.5 and 1.6 brake setup and found some confusing things so i will open a separate thread for that issue to find out what exactly i need to do
MMamdouh
