1991 Z28 High School Time Capsule +

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OutlawDrifter

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No big brakes? On that box, you'll know when the bearing is too tight. It'll suck coming off center, won't want to move anywhere without excessive force, and won't return to center in its own. It won't get stuck though, and you'll probably be disappointed when it's tight. How about a rag joint eliminator? Do they use the same as the 4th gen? If so, Unbalanced Engineering makes a piece for you. Supposedly they fit our trucks too.


LS1 98-02 brakes...bigger brakes. Going from a 10.5" rotor and single piston caliper to a 12" rotor and dual piston caliper, it will be a good upgrade, and will still fit under my stock 16" wheels. I don't autocross the car and I haven't been back to the dragstrip in years. Car is mostly just fun transportation and date night material now.

Rag joint has been gone for years, I used a clocked Astro shaft to replace the OE setup.

On the box issue, that sounds like what happens when you over tighten the set screw above the pitman arm, as that controls the return to center.
 

Supercharged111

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The bearing applies to the entire range of travel, not just the center. When I say it won't return to center I mean you'll give the wheel a full crank and it'll stay there.

LS1 brakes are plenty, stock is not. How do you end up doing the conversion?
 

OutlawDrifter

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LS1 brakes are plenty, stock is not. How do you end up doing the conversion?

Basically turn the stock rotor/hub assembly down to just a hub assembly, add longer wheels studs, and then trim the OEM caliper mounting ears off the spindle. Oversize 2 of the holes on the spindle and tap them, install new LS1 caliper bracket and assemble with new parts. I'll post pics as I knock it out. Hope to be done this weekend.
 

someotherguy

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Loving the thread and not sure how I missed it when you began. I've always felt like the 3rd gen F-bodies were a lot of bang for the buck, owned a couple, decades ago. '88 T/A "performance suspension package" (WS6 a year before they called them WS6), and an '89 RS for the (now-ex) wife. I swear the RS was a 350 TBI but I've had battles with internet nerds that swear they only came 305, so who knows. Too many years have passed since.

Not great pics as they were taken in film camera days and scanned on a really old scanner forever ago..

Quickie paint job with no decals added back on (which I actually thought was just fine) and I got a set of Classic's repro wheels in black, as my red originals were bent in several places from uh.. bad roads and driving a little too wild?

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When we got her RS from the used car lot it had goofy mix-match wheels (super wide slot mags in back, stock wheels up front) and some other crappy mods, but also an IROC hood which was nice. It needed a lot of love but was fairly solid. We went straight from the car lot to the tire shop and I had her pick out some new wheels/tires. This car replaced a Corolla SR5 or whatever they called the coupe, had got totalled by someone running a light in a work van, right before we left TX for ATL, we used some of the insurance money from that to get the RS.

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Richard
 

OutlawDrifter

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Loving the thread and not sure how I missed it when you began. I've always felt like the 3rd gen F-bodies were a lot of bang for the buck, owned a couple, decades ago. '88 T/A "performance suspension package" (WS6 a year before they called them WS6), and an '89 RS for the (now-ex) wife. I swear the RS was a 350 TBI but I've had battles with internet nerds that swear they only came 305, so who knows. Too many years have passed since.

Not great pics as they were taken in film camera days and scanned on a really old scanner forever ago..

Quickie paint job with no decals added back on (which I actually thought was just fine) and I got a set of Classic's repro wheels in black, as my red originals were bent in several places from uh.. bad roads and driving a little too wild?

You must be registered for see images attach


When we got her RS from the used car lot it had goofy mix-match wheels (super wide slot mags in back, stock wheels up front) and some other crappy mods, but also an IROC hood which was nice. It needed a lot of love but was fairly solid. We went straight from the car lot to the tire shop and I had her pick out some new wheels/tires. This car replaced a Corolla SR5 or whatever they called the coupe, had got totalled by someone running a light in a work van, right before we left TX for ATL, we used some of the insurance money from that to get the RS.

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Richard

Thanks for stopping in! They definitely handle very well for what they are. Biggest issue is 3rd gens are now becoming collectible, prices are going up...but on the flip side, more parts are becoming available.

I'd love to add a 1990 Formula to my stable also, but that will have to wait.
 

OutlawDrifter

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Saturday arrived, I was up early, had everything ready to go in the shop, turned the heat up to 62*, collectively gathered my thoughts and dove into the project.

Things were going really well until I arrived at the part where I swapped the A-Arms. Removing the old was easy, trying to get the spring back in with the new setup proved virtually impossible. I tried every combination of spring compressors, pry bars, etc. After fighting with the driver's side spring for around 4-5 hours with no joy, I decided since the bushings and ball joint were in good operable condition on the stock stamped LCA, I would just reinstall it...5 minutes later we were back in business.....or so I thought. Pulled one of the hubs out of the plastic and started packing grease in the bearings to assemble. Installed the inner bearing and seal and flipped the hub over for the outer bearing and, WTF...wrong bearing. I had ordered a SET 3(1LE hub) for the outer bearing and needed a Set 34(standard hub). Good lord, 100% my fault. At this point I was completely defeated, I did something I NEVER do, I got up, walked to the door and turned off the lights, didn't sweep, didn't pick up my tools, just left the mess in the dark.

After a shower, some pizza, and an adult beverage, I checked one of the local NAPAs. They of course had the correct bearings, I just had to wait until 11am Sunday to pick them up. Sunday morning arrived, I made my way out to the shop, picked up and sorted through the tools, did some sweeping, and prepared everything for round 2. At the end of the day, I had new LS1 12" rotor dual piston caliper brakes on both sides.

The actual brake upgrade side was done easily and could be accomplished in 2-3hrs taking your time. I still need to add in a turn stop as the OE unit has to be removed, check both sides for hose movement, bleed/flush the brake lines, and tighten up the driver's side LCA when I have weight back on the wheels.

The parts stash at the beginning of the project:

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OE Brakes - 10.5 rotor with a single piston caliper.

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Upgraded LS1 setup - 12" rotor with a dual piston caliper.

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Unmodified spindle:

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Modified spindle - OE caliper ears and turn stop trimmed off, two dust shield holes drilled out with a 13/32 drill bit and tapped to M12-1.75 threads.

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LS1 caliper bracket installed:

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Machined OE rotor/hub turned down to just a hub, installed with correct pre-load on the bearings:

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Completed passenger side:

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On a funny note, this dude has been riding around in the car since 2019 when I had it aligned. My alignment guy asked me to check the car the next day after I had brought it home, he figured it had fallen out on the road during the test drive, however. Well I did fall, but ended up laying near the spring on the LCA in a spot you can only see with the tire off and from a specific vantage point. We both got a good chuckle out of that one. I had spent about 10-15min looking for it in the engine bay and to see if it was still connected to the strut fasteners when he initially called.

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The end of the day I was rewarded with this sunset and some good food for the super bowl.

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OutlawDrifter

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Lookin' good!

Time to see if it'll put some teeth marks in the steering wheel, when you lay on the binders!

I see "GG" printed on a brake pad hiding behind that caliper, I bet they do.

Going to be a week or so until I find out. My road is a sloppy mess right now. Perks of living 1.5 miles off the paved road. I used upper end Akebono pads, hoping for a good result.
 

OutlawDrifter

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Brakes work great, requires a touch more take up in the pedal with 2 pistons vs 1 per side, but they come on nice and linear and bring the car to a halt...right now!

Bit the bullet and bought a new Borgeson steering gear. Comes with a 3 year warranty and was roughly the same money as pulling my stock box and having it rebuilt. Car drives as expected now with no slop. Need to run it in and reset the toe to straigten the steering weel, then its GTG.

Still have the front half of the exhaust to rework (not needed, but because I want to), and it needs a buff/polish job.
 
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