I have an 85 GS and wanted to swap out for the SE brakes. I need the front rotors and calipers, I assume. In the back, can I jsut take all the brake components and the axle shaft and jab that into my diff, or do I have to take the whole rear end? *Maybe its mixed into another thread, but I went page by page through the 1st gen archives and didn't see a write up/parts list.

 

Not sure on this, but I think they have the same axle width so yes, you could just use the diff and connect it to what you have.

Why are you going to grab the front rotors/calipers? You will end up with 4x114.3 front and 4x110 rear, just grab the diff and stay 110 or grab the front suspension, rear axle/brakes/diff/e-brake cable/ proportioning valve and go 4x114.3. My opinion is go with the latter so you can have more than 3 choices of wheels

 

4x114.3 is alot easier to find wheels for but then again honda is 4x100 so pretty much any universal 4-lug wheel will fit (granted the backspacing is correct)

 

If you swap the front over to the SE pattern, you will need a complete SE rearend to match the 114.3 bolt pattern in the front, along with the last section of e-brake cable for both sides. Since you have a 79, you will also need the brakeline adapters to go from coarse to fine thread to mate up the brake ines.

 

I have an 85 - aren't the SE's the ones that have the same bolt patern as everything else in the world? That's part of the reason I am wanting to swap to the SE - I have a set of nice black BBS mesh wheels I would like to use. Also, it wouldn't be bad to have 4 disk brakes.
So trochoid, even for an 85 GS I need the WHOLE rear axle, I cant jsut grab the axle shafts?

 

In the rear end you have to swap the complete rear end. Because the se rear shaft size is bigger and it wont fit your GS rear. Now another reason to swap is because the SE has a ratio 4.076 and is a limited slip rear. Also, is alot esier to just swap rear ends.

Juan

 

hmmm...ok, so I have to take the whole axle, the e-brake, AND the suspension? Or, can I use my suspension bits from my car?

 

Yes you can use the suspension parts from your GS. The sway bar will come off with the rear if you take it out from the ends but the reast of the bars will stay in place and are are the same on the GS. and yes you will also need the e-brake cable.

Juan

 

what about springs/shocks? Mine are still good and I'd liek to keep them

 

Yes you can use them with SE rear.

 

Let's make this simpler. Swap the front struts, as a unit, keeping your old springs and strut inserts. In the rear, you swap the entire rear end, adding the last brake cable on each side from the SE, keep your old springs and shocks.

You can swap over the SE master brake cylinder and proportioning valve too. This is also a good time to upgrade the 5 rubber brake lines to the stainless steel ones.

 

Axle housings are the same.

On the Front:

Calipers
Rotors
Caliper Bracket / Backing plate.

Remove caliper. Remove the front bearing nut, slide the rotor off. Remove the 4 bolts that hold the caliper bracket / backing plate. Reinstall on GS car in reverse order.

On the Rear:

Calipers
Rotors
Axles with backing plates still attached
Rear section of parking brake cables

Remove caliper. Remove rotor. Slide axles out. Reinstall in reverse order. If you want you can swap the chunk out and get the different gears.

If you do want to change the chunk it might be quicker and cleaner to swap the entire rear assembly but it is not mandatory.


The only difference in the rear end is in the axles. Different bolt pattern and different length from the bearing outward.

 

ok thanks!, someone yanked the SE rear before I could get out there today, but I am glad to have the info for when I get ahold of another... unless it is possible to do a 2nd gen swap - I read that the front is a pain since it's rack and pinnion, correct? (there are quite a few 2nd gens at the 'yard, but they jsut crushed 5 FB's, so I have 1 gutted SA22 left in the yard as the only 1st gen.)

 

If you arent really worried about the sturdier rear end or the gearing you could just drill ou the rear axles to 4x114.3.......its just a suggestion that might be easier and cheaper

 

dont listen to this guy... its not 4x100 its 4x110 only mazda used it its the earlyer years on only a few cars

 

Billy, she's starting out with a GS, which means drum brakes and those axle housings are different from the disc brake ones. That's why I said to change the entire rear end. It may be possible to swap the backing plates from the 4X110 drum axles to the 4X114.3 disc axles, I don't know, but why go through that effort to not have disc brakes?

 

If I were going to do this, Iwould atleast want to swap for the GSL axles so that I could have rear discs...but they have all been crushed at my local self-pull yard...that would be a pain to get it balanced as well(even a fraction off would distrub the rotation of the wheel)

trochoid, so if I had a GSL, I could jsut swap the shafts,but since i just have a GS is why you said I need the whole rear?

 

Correct. The drum brake axle housing has 4 bolts that hold the backing plate on. The disc housing has 3 bolts for the backing plate plus 2 larger ones for the caliper bracket.

 

Oops. Missed that. My apologies. I keep forgetting some of these things had drums. Evil, evil drum brakes.

Someone should make a kit to convert the drums to disk

-billy

 

so, to pop this back up from the dead, I have an 84 GSL, and an 85 GSL-SE

I want my 84-GSL LSD, but the 4x114.3 pattern.

The axles from my GSL-SE will directly fit into my GSL rear end, and it will basically just add some length from the GSL axles? (and the 114.3)

But I wont need any other parts?

 

You got it.

-billy