So I decided to do the rear disc swap from my 90 Si parts car to my 90 DX daily driver today. The Si had been hit in the rear and had some toe issues on the driver's side. I took both disc trailing arms off the Si and lined them up. They seemed to be exactly the same so I figured that whatever was bent was something other than the trailing arm. (LCA, compensator arm, etc)

Bolted it up to the DX today and it have noticable toe-out. even after sliding the toe compensator arm all the way in. So I'm guessing this Si trailing arm is bent somewhere.

My question: I know my DX drum trailing arms are good. From looking at the arms themselves, they seem to be the same, have holes for the brackets, screws etc for the disc setup.

Has anyone done this swap? Can I do it myself? I'm short on funds right now, otherwise i'd pick up another drivers side trailing arm.

Thanks in advance.
Adam

 

Yes, it can be done.

I believe you're going to need a set of Torx bits to do the swap.

That's what holds the assemblies together on the 94+ Integra trailing arms; I assume the other Honda arms use the same hardware.

There's a write-up about it here somewhere.

 

Thanks. I searched and found a couple people who did it but couldnt find any real info on how.

Anybody know where that writeup is?

 

It seems straightforward to me.

Remove the disc brake assembly, remove the drum assembly and swap.

 

Ok, I just want to make sure since I wont be able to have a lot of downtime.

 

Oh, I see.

So you're looking at more of a tool list/walk through. That makes sense.

I'm used to being able to deal with downtime since i have so many cars. I sometimes forget that others can't end up with too much downtime.

 

Adam;

I've looked around and asked about doing this and was unable to find anybody that has actually done it. That's not to say that it's not possible, but may just be a rumour.

It seems to me that you would have to swap out just about everything and that includes the bearing carrier. It looks to me that the caliper mounting bracket is part of the bearing carrier.

If you do it, take a bunch of photos!

Wes

 

it dont have the link, but it can be done. i remember reading about how hard it was to get the bolts out. the guy had to cut the torx bolts out.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Wes V &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Adam;

I've looked around and asked about doing this and was unable to find anybody that has actually done it. That's not to say that it's not possible, but may just be a rumour.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I know as an absolute fact (first hand witness) that it can be done from the 94+ Integra trailing arms.

To the best of my knowledge, the 90-93 arms are the same piece.

There's a write-up floating here on H-T somewhere. It had lots of pictures and was very detailed.

Too bad the search function is hard to use and that it limits you to a 3 digit 'word'..

 

**** man I just looked this up last night.

I found a guy who said take out the 4 Torx bolts and a big nut and the whole spindle drops out.

I was doing a search for Torx to find out the size of that bolt. It appears to be T-50.

I'll be doing the same thing to mine here in a day or two as long as the snow holds off.

 

When either of you guys do this (or both so I can see if the numbers match), PLEASE take measurements from the wheel surface to the arm it's self on both the drum unit and the disk brake unit. (when I say "wheel surface" I'm talking about the surface of the drum or rotor hat where the wheel would come in contact with it)

What I'm after is knowing if changing to disks increases the rear track width. It would be handy to know.

I believe (could be wrong) that just swapping the complete LS arms increases the track width by about 1/2" per side (total of 1" increase). This is what I did on my hatchback and the wheels stick out a little more than I'd like.

Wes V

 

Wes, I believe you are correct.

I don't know what it is that's different about the Integra arms vs. the Civic arms, but from what I can tell by LOOKING, they are identical.

Could it be that the actual disc brake swap/portion is what makes the extra width?

Has anybody measured the disc brake components vs. the drum components?

 

Although not relevant to what MrCRX is doing, i just got back from measuring 90 CRX SI hubs and 90 Integra hubs. They are NOT interchangable. The reason is that the bearing on the Integra is bigger in both inside diameter and outside diameter (it's just a bigger bearing).

There is also a 1/4" height difference between the two hubs. This would result in moving the wheel outward 1/4" on each side.

The only way that you could put the Integra hub on a CRX arm would be if you also swapped out the axle stub. Then you would also have to wonder how to move the caliper that 1/4" amount. It may be that the rotors have a different offset, as a result the caliper would sit in the same location.

All this has nothing to do with what Mr-CRX is doing due to the fact that he is swapping from a CRX Si to a hatchback. If he was going to get some of the parts from an Integra, then the problems start up.

By the way, I decided to get new hubs (a bad bearing sound) and decided to keep the Interga hubs due to the larger bearings. However I sure would like to move in the wheels that 1/4"!

Wes

 

Thanks everyone for the comments. I've run out of time here at home (came back from college for a few days), so I'm forced to put the drum arms back on for now so I can get back to San Diego!

But when I do get time to try this, I'll definitely do a write-up. Seems I'm not the only one interested in this.

Wes, do you just want the measurements from the arm (I'm not sure where you mean on the arm) to the wheel-mating-surface on CRX Si discs vs. CRX DX drums? I have those both off the car right now so I will measure that tonight before I put them back on. PM me if you want to explain it further

Adam

 

I did exactly what you are suggesting. It is the 4 T50 Torx bolts and the big nut in the center. Be prepared for the Torx bolts to be seized and get stripped. I ended up cutting the control arm to bits on the disc brake donor trailing arm to get at the heads of the Torx bolts with my angle grinder.

Hopefully you'll be luckier than me, and have those bolts come out withotu too much fuss.

 

Thanks Jaker. Good to know it can be done. Now, I just need the time, and that T50 torx bit!

 

Be careful with the T50, I accidently rounded one of the bolts trying to remove the drum assembly off my trailing arm as the DA arm I put on seems to be bent also. I am going to replace it (when I figure out how to remove it) with a standard bolt if possible.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dr_latino999 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I am going to replace it (when I figure out how to remove it) with a standard bolt if possible.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Use a drill bit and drill out the Torx bolt head. The seizing is in between the bolt head and the trailing arm. Once the head is gone, the threads will unscrew from the hub no problem.

I put it back together using bolts with the normal 6 sided heads. The threads are a normal metric pitch and diameter. I don't know it off the top of my head, but its the ones that use a 14mm socket/wrench.

 

Well its not a matter of it being seized persay, it is just that the damn T50 inside got stripped. What type of drill bit do you recommend to rip at it with?

 

All you really need is a new high speed steel (HSS) bit, some cutting fluid, and some patience. Don't try and go too fast, and use the cutting fluid liberally. Get a drill bit that is slightly larger in diameter that the threaded portion of the bolt, and take your time.

 

Would a regular 12 volt drill be up to the task of running this bit or will I need to think larger?

 

The problem with a 12 volt is it won't have enough torque. I wouldn't try this with anything less than a 1/2" good quality Dewalt, Makita, Milwaukee that runs off A/C.

The 12 volt will keep stalling out when the bit grabs a chunk of the bolt head, whereas the 120 volt ones will just grunt right through the tough spots.

 

You could use a battery powered drill motor, however when drilling into a high grade bolt you have to use a <U>carbide</U> tipped drill bit and plan on going slowly!

Use a lot of WD40 or cutting oil.

Drill a small "guide" hole and then a larger hole for a "easy-out" or stud extractor.

You want to drill only into the main shaft of the bolt and not into the threads! If you drill into the threads, you are also removing material from the item that the bolt is going into.

Wes.

 

I'm not suggesting that he drill intot he threads at all. Only that he drills off the head fo the bolt. The threads will come out relatively easily once the head is off the bolt. As I said, in this case, the seizure is between the head of the bolt and the inner surface of the trailing arm. He won't need an easy out.

 

[QUOTE=Wes V]
Although not relevant to what MrCRX is doing, i just got back from measuring 90 CRX SI hubs and 90 Integra hubs. They are NOT interchangable. The reason is that the bearing on the Integra is bigger in both inside diameter and outside diameter (it's just a bigger bearing).
There is also a 1/4" height difference between the two hubs. This would result in moving the wheel outward 1/4" on each side.

The only way that you could put the Integra hub on a CRX arm would be if you also swapped out the axle stub. Then you would also have to wonder how to move the caliper that 1/4" amount. It may be that the rotors have a different offset, as a result the caliper would sit in the same location.

All this has nothing to do with what Mr-CRX is doing due to the fact that he is swapping from a CRX Si to a hatchback. If he was going to get some of the parts from an Integra, then the problems start up.

By the way, I decided to get new hubs (a bad bearing sound) and decided to keep the Interga hubs due to the larger bearings. However I sure would like to move in the wheels that 1/4"!
[QUOTE]

I'm confused...
So the rear trailing arms are the same between the DA Integra and the ED Civic/CRX (regardless of disc or drum) but the rear spindle/axle stub and hub is different between both the disc or drum ED/EF and the DA Teg.
Is that correct?