Has anybody perform or instaled rear disc brakes to 1980 or any other first gen Rx-7 with drum brakes???

I`m asking this because I cannot get the GSL case that has the rear disc brakes already so I havo to get any other car rear disc brakes to put in... Do you have any Idea for this????

I will wait for your reply to know what to do...

It does not matter if I have to weld oer do any mod in my car I need the discs because the car drum brakes are bad and work real bad...

 

I've done it several times. grab everything from the donor (except the brake booster). Otherwise, you will need to spend $$ on a new soft brake lines as the thread pitch is different before the SA and FB.

 

you need a doner car with disc brakes, try to avoid a gsl-se, they have a 3.90 or a 4.44 stock rear end with posi traction, its nice but if installed on a 12a without the adequate horsepower to turn the lower gears, it bogs the car down. also if yuo use a gsl-se you will alter your lug patterns. all you have to do is swap out the entire rear end as a single thing. the new brake lines for the disc brakes plug into the same spot as did the drum brakes. on the bottom of the car to the center of the rearend. there are no suprises or issues. check the junk yards and find your self a doner car. if you own a 12a look for a 81-83 gsl w/ 4wheel disc the entire swap takes 2 hours if the parts are in your garage already.

 

I have heard that there are adapters for the brake lines. Can anyone tell me where to get them?

 

No I dont-maybe someone can chime in for source. for me, its easier to just cut the end of the SA lines, remove and replace the fitting with FB then flare them. its not hard to do IF you practice.

 

I read somewhere a long while back that you could get adapters for this sort of thing from a hydraulic shop. What exactly that would be I can't say, although a Yahoo! Yellow Pages search of my area for "hydraulic" turned up Western Fluid Components in Kirkland, WA. The Related Searches area of the page listed "Hose Couplings & Fittings", so that sounds like a pretty likely place to start asking questions. I guess you'd need to search the forum to find out which pitch and diameter threads the SAs and FBs use, so you'd know what adapter to get.

 

Not to sound like and ***, but you're totally wrong. The gsl-se runs 4.1something. And all 12a cars run 3.90's. The 12a runs a lower gear. mazda made up for the higher rearend in the SE by running a lower 5th gear in the SE. Therefore make1-4 quicker gearing in the SE with a low 5th for crusing.

 

If you're thinking about a custom setup, it's not something that I would attempt myself. There just aren't any options out there for converting a drum rear axle housing to discs. You're stuck until you find a GSL housing and disc brakes to swap in. Be sure you get a rear end from an '81 or '82 though, else you'll need the driveshaft from the donor car as well.

As far as your current drum setup goes, what exactly is wrong with them?

 

actually, if can find someone to make a bracket, you can use the stock drum axle housing. I have done disc brake conversion on a RX-2 using 85-85 GSL rotors & brake calipers. but the bracket is in roughly $100. My RX-3 is heading the same way but Im just busy with other projects.

 

just do like wacky says and cut and reflare them, flaring tool is like $15. would save you alot of hassle looking for metric adapters.

 

Mazdatrix sells a stainless-steel brake hose Kit (for all four corners) that includes the proper adapting cable between the fine-pitch hose for SA (79-80) and FB fittings on the GSL axle...
Stu Aull
80 GS w/81 GSL rear axle/discs
Mazdatrix ss hose kit

 

I'm looking to convert the other way. Rear discs suck monkey butt if you like a handbrake that can hold the car still on anything other than flat ground.

 

This is the first time I've ever heard someone say this. Having driven cars with both types of brake, I can honestly say the disc is FAR better on a hill than the drum. And I live on a mountain.

 

On my '80 the handbrake could LOCK the rear wheels going down the road at 40mph.

On my GSL, stopped, you can grab the handbrake practically with both hands and still roll the car...

I've yet to see a disk handbrake setup that worked well. That's with new calipers, after one Cleveland winter (often well before that) they sieze up solid and you're on front brakes only...

Life with a GSL, for me, is a constant Chinese fire drill of cleaning the slides and freeing up the pistons. About every other month, or about three times as often as the lame design front calipers need to be gone through.

 

I changed them

 

I really had a lot of trouble with the rear drum breaks in my car, Why?? Because the rear discs from the 1980 Rx-7 are the baddest ones that Mazda made. They have a two nuts graduation for the frictions, so you get a lot of trouble to get them right.

I love the setup for the rear breaks... They work really good and my hand breack is working nice...

 

Yes, the 79-80 rear drums are a pain get adjusted, due to the twin eccentrics used. The 81-85 rear drums use a regular adjuster, and are much easier.
I have also seen it posted many times that the drums give better stopping power over the non-vented disk used on the GSL's.

 

I am going to get the rear mines vented. I will post pics of the mod and how I did it.