Here is a little update. After doing a tone of research and cruising a lot of Trans Am, Camaro & Gm related sites and talking with a lot of people I was able to finally figure out my rear disc brake issue.
The main issue was trying to find the correct parts. I was able to source the Trans Am rotors no problem from my local Bumper to bumper store. I then ordered in the rear Trans Am calipers from my local NAPA location which took a couple weeks(hard to find and source). Once those came in I was disappointed because they didn’t come with all the parking brake parts I needed which they said they did.
So those went back and I found a little hint on the speedway motors site that sells the emergency brake calipers. It also helped to read through the reviews and Q&A section. Jackpot!!!
http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Emerge...pers,1968.html
People were using the replacement calipers for the Trans AM/10bolt rear ends and it came with all the hardware. As you can see in the description they are 1979-1985 Cadillac Seville calipers. So I looked up 1980 Seville rear calipers on the Napa website and they had all the needed hardware. Then more research was required as well to make sure they would fit. This is before I found the chart below.
After taking the plunge and ordering in the calipers (which they had in stock) I got some rear TA brake pads and went to assemble everything. After getting everything assembled I fell into another problem. Well it wasn’t really a problem, but on the driver’s side the routing of the parking brake was going to be a problem because it pointed toward the rear of the truck and not the front like the passenger side. So, more research again was required or maybe I would need different calipers I thought.
So, I started looking up the drum to disc conversion kits and some of the kits are the same staggered setup and require different routing of the drivers side parking brake cable as mine would be. Towards the back then routed to the front. I didn’t really want it to be this way because I want to use the original in cab parking brake pedal and original linkage. So having them both pointing toward the front lines them both up to connect to the side bracket then connect to the exterior cross shaft perfectly.
And I also found this great chart someone made up of all the GM rear end caliper usage options. So hopefully this might help someone else out.
Then I came across a couple articles of guys who just rotated the bracket on the drivers side to make them both rear facing calipers. This would then rotate the parking brake in the proper direction which I wanted. This would also make it correct as shown in the chart for the 80 seville which are both rear facing calipers which I guess I kind of lucked out on.
So after removing the drivers side rear bracket and rotating it everything fit just fine. So I reattached the bracket and re-drilled two of the holes that didn’t line up from behind and it was all done. Also a nice thing was I didn’t need to pull the axel to do it either
Onto the pictures of the completed setup. Now I just need to run my brake lines and get my parking brake cables sourced.
Rear before everything
Rear After
Passenger Rear
