How to Convert Drum Brakes to Disc Brakes

Hey guys, ChrisFix here, and today I'm going to show you how to convert your drum brakes to disc brakes And don't worry. This is going to be an in-depth guide so you can convert your drum brakes to disc brakes No problem at home using common hand tools as always Let's get our safety glasses on and although i'm working on a honda This process is going to be very similar if not the same for most vehicles with rear drum brakes So with that said let's get started and no matter what car you're doing this on The first thing you need to do is make sure you have all the parts to go from drum brakes to disc brakes And there are two main methods to do that The first method is to find the higher trim level of your car in this case We have the lowest trim level the del sol s and that is why we have drum brakes But the higher trim level the del sol si has disc brakes from the factory and that is exactly what this is right here These are parts from the junkyard from a del sol si and you can see The trailing arm with the factory disc brakes are installed So all you would have to do is unbolt your old trailing arm bolt in your new trailing arm Connect all the components for the brakes and you're good to go So that's the first method find the higher trim level of your current vehicle The second method is to find an aftermarket solution There are tons of companies out there that make drum to disc conversions And the nice thing is they kind of did all the research for you because they want their parts to work So they come up with an entire list of parts that you might need And in this case the kit comes with just these two adapters with some fasteners You have to buy everything else and the parts here are all from a honda del sol si So we have the caliper rotor e-brake cable the brake pads Everything here is from a honda del sol si that way we know it'll bolt right in So this is actually what i'm going to install so you can see the entire process Also, all the parts are brand new which i'm really excited about and the last thing I want to cover is very important Because a lot of people don't even do this when they convert their brakes and that is replacing the proportion valve This is super super important If you don't replace this your drum brakes are actually going to perform better than the new disc brakes Now not every car has a proportion valve. Usually the newer abs cars don't have it It's built into the abs and you don't need to change that. It's good to go but on the non abs cars You usually either have it in your master cylinder or if you follow your master cylinder follow the brake lines down Then it comes up here right there to the proportion valve And the reason why you want to change it is because drum brakes take less pressure to work than disc brakes disc brakes Take more pressure just because of the design So if you keep your old proportion valve that works for the drum brakes, you're going to have less pressure And these aren't going to work properly So I got this proportion valve from a honda del sol si which has front and rear disc brakes Which is exactly what we need And finally, I did make a basic checklist of all the parts that you're going to need to go from drum brakes to disc brakes And this is free to download in the description I'm, just trying to make this as easy as possible for you guys. So let's get started Okay So the first thing I want to do is head to the track and do a quick brake test to show before and after the conversion And yes, I know ignore that smoke. I'll fix that in the next video. The valve seals are bad So i'm here at bradenton motorsports park to do a 60 to 0 braking test And the goal here is to do three back-to-back stops and see what the distance is with the drum brakes Then go home do the conversion come back and do the test again with disc brakes and compare the distance So I raced down the drag strip and held 60 miles an hour until I got to the cones where I jammed on the brakes And stopped as quickly as I could Then I grabbed the measuring wheel and I started measuring from the cone and went as straight as possible to the center line of the Front tire because that's a good repeatable reference point. This is my first practice run. So let's see where we're at Okay, so 141 feet now with the practice run done I repeated this test three times back to back and the results are 140 feet then 141 feet and then 143 feet so pretty consistent And it makes me wonder if the new rear disc brakes are going to improve this at all So let's head home and find out. Okay So back at the house The first thing to do is chalk the front wheels that way the car doesn't move when we jack it up Next we want to move to the back wheel and with the tire on the ground break all the lug nuts loose Then we could slide the jack under the rear of the car And for this car i'm jacking it up right in the middle of the rear subframe And you want to lift the car up high enough to get the rear tires off the ground that way we could get underneath to Replace the parking brake cables later on now put your jack stands on each side under the subframe And carefully lower the car down onto the jack stands like that Good and finally pump the jack up to lightly touch the frame just as backup Just in case the jack stand fails for some reason and anytime you jack the car up before you go underneath Make sure you give the car a good shake and that is solid So now let's remove the wheel So now we could unscrew all the loosened lug nuts and the wheel could come right off And I like to slide the wheel under the frame that way if the car falls for some reason it won't fall on you It'll fall on the wheel All right And with the wheel removed you get a good look at how bad and rusty this suspension is It definitely needs to be replaced These bushings are shot and I also know that from driving the car the rear end feels all loose It just doesn't feel good. And since we're going to be adding power with the turbo Not only do we want better brakes, but we're going to want a good suspension So i'm going to do an entire video on how to rebuild your rear suspension But for this video we're focusing on the conversion now in order to get the drum off The first thing to do is make sure the e-brake is not engaged and that this spins freely Now as you would expect this drum is going to be seized on there and not come off easily So one method to get this off is to hit the edge with a hammer making sure you don't hit the studs And this is really seized on here and doesn't want to come off without a fight Luckily, some brake drums have threaded holes like these which take an m10 1.25 bolt So screw them in and then tighten each bolt down back and forth little by little to separate the drum from the rust And if you listen, you're going to hear it break free Perfect and now tighten that down just a little bit more and the drum should wiggle right off Okay Now we need to remove the axle nut behind this dust cap So get a punch or chisel and place it in between the dust cap and the hub right there Then you could hammer it a couple times turn the hub hammer it again Turn the hub now, this has probably never been removed. So it's been on here for over 30 years So I didn't expect this to pop right off Perfect. Now you can see it start to get loose and there we go. The dust cap is off So now we have access to our axle nut and i'm actually really impressed at how well this cap Sealed out all the moisture. There's no rust in here at all Now to remove the axle nut There's a little indent here in the axle that the nut is hammered into So we need to hammer that out and the easiest way to do that is to get a pointed punch like this You want to place the edge in there like that and then hammer it to bend the edge of the axle nut upwards Now that we have some good space in here the end of the pry bar fits in here really nicely So i'm just going to use that to hammer it upwards and again bend the edge of the axle nut up And now you can see we bent the edge of the axle nut up out of the indent so it's clear and free So to remove this nut we need a 32 millimeter socket Let's get that on there And then you want to use a breaker bar or extendable ratchet like this to break it free because axle nuts are always on there Very tight good With that broken free it should come off the rest of the way by hand And don't lose this washer because we need this when we reinstall everything now the hub bearing assembly should come right out Like that and next we need to remove the drum shoes and all the hardware And as you can see some of the hardware has already removed itself, which tends to happen when you remove old drum brakes So let's slide the right side shoe out to free it up good And now we need to remove this hold down spring right here So press it inwards with the pliers and then turn to release the pin just need to line this up like that good And now it should come right out And then let's push the pin through the backing plate and with these pieces removed now We can remove the brake shoe assembly and the only thing to disconnect is the parking brake cable right at the bottom here And to remove this just slide the end of the cable stop out of the brake shoe arm like that Now to remove the e-brake cable from the backing plate. There's a retaining clip right here This is a pain to remove but a little trick to make this easier is to use the box end of a wrench And just slide it over the retaining clip and you can see how it compresses the fingers of the retaining clip that way It's easier to remove now get a large pliers So you have some leverage and pull the rest of the cable out I like to use the backing plate to pry against to help you pull it out Now you can slide the wrench off and pull the cable through the rest of the way Beautiful. So with the emergency cable removed we could tuck that under out of the way And now we need to remove the brake line that's connected to the wheel cylinder and the brake line nut is so rusted I'm, not even going to bother trying to remove it. I'm just going to cut it right here This is going to get replaced anyway Because we need a soft line connecting to the floating caliper And it's worth trying to crimp the end of this brake line to stop it from leaking But if that doesn't work another thing you could do is find the rubber line off to the side here And they make this tool that works really well to pinch off the brake line and stop it from leaking Now I never recommend squeezing the brake line like this if you aren't going to replace them because it can damage it Internally and you wouldn't be able to tell until your brakes fail now with that said I am replacing these brake lines So this tool is perfect to stop the brake fluid from leaking out as you're about to see good Okay So the last piece we need to remove is this backing plate which comes off with these four bolts right here And a 14 millimeter socket should fit but it doesn't because of all the rust so hammer it on that way It doesn't strip Now we can break this free Good, and then remove it the rest of the way and we're going to repeat this process for each bolt Hammer on the socket break the bolt free and remove it the rest of the way with the ratchet Good, and once all four bolts are removed hit the backing plate with a hammer and we can remove that as well All right So there's two things left to do one We have to remove and replace our old e-brake cable and two we have to remove and replace our old brake hose Let's start with the e-brake cable. And as you can see if we follow it back, it's bolted in right here So let's head under the car and remove it Now there's three bolts holding this parking brake cable in and this first one is really rusty Okay, good I'm glad that honda uses zinc coated fasteners because even when the head is rusty the zinc coating keeps those threads in decent shape that Way isn't seized in there and it doesn't snap good So that's one bolt and this comes off and now with the cable loose here Let's follow this back to the next bolt Which is right back here and this bolt takes a 12 millimeter socket, but since it's covered in paint and rust I'm gonna hammer the socket on that way it fits and doesn't get stripped by mistake Good, and now we can remove the bolt the rest of the way like so and then get the mount loose And it took a little bit of paint off with it Now with this removed if you follow the cable behind the heat shield here There's one more bolt holding the cable in but first we need to remove this heat shield So let's break that bolt free and then remove it along with the rest of the heat shield And then that'll give us access to our last bolt and again, this is so rusty the correct size socket doesn't fit on it So let's hammer the socket on so it's less likely to strip and now we can break it loose And i'm just glad none of these bolts are snapping because that would make this job a lot more difficult Okay, so with all three bolts removed now, we could disconnect it from the assembly here So here's the left and right parking brake cables and when you pull on the parking brake it engages the rear brakes And to remove these cables we need to disconnect it from here and up here So first let's remove this spring which you could do by hand Now we need to remove the cables from the bracket And if you look at the back of the bracket these cable ends need to slide out of these slots on the sides So just align the cable so that it fits through the slot and we'll try to wiggle that cable end out Just like that and now I don't want to jinx it, but I was nervous This would be impossible to remove because it's corroded, but it actually isn't that bad So with that removed finally the cables need to come out of here And since this is so corroded i'm going to carefully tap this with a hammer just to hopefully break up that corrosion And make it easier to remove Now you're going to want to use a punch and hammer this out Okay, beautiful. I was concerned this was going to be a pain to remove as well But it's actually coming out pretty easily and once this is out You could squeeze the cable through the little slot right here good And now we want to do the same thing to the other side All right, and this is going way too smooth So just slide that cable out of the side of the mount and finally the cable is completely detached So we could push it through here and get it out of the way Okay, so this is pretty rusty down here and I want to get it cleaned up so I could paint it So i'm going to use a metal wire brush to remove all the flaky rust Now i'm going to use some compressed air to remove any dust from brushing the rust off And finally the rust paint could be directly applied to the car I know you guys are going to want the link to this so i'll put it in the description And this paint works amazing at coating the rust converting it and then sealing it away So it stops any future rust as long as you remove the big flakes of rust This paint absorbs right in and works incredibly well I use this all the time on my other vehicles and it's lasted years on my pickup truck Which was really rusty and since this is under the car, we want it to look nicer But more importantly we want to stop any future rust So make sure you coat every surface and work that paint in there and that looks really good So now let's let it dry and as that dries Let's pull the parking brake cable out the rest of the way And it's out with the old and in with the new and these two parking brake cables are almost identical except for the ends here So this is what fit into the drum brake and this is what's going to fit into our brake caliper And that's why we need to swap these out. So besides the end here. Everything else is the same So let's go get the new one installed. Okay, so I waited for the paint to dry and this is looking really good So now we can get our passenger side parking brake cable in Good and same thing for the driver's side get that cable in there and slide it the rest of the way down into the mount Okay, so now let's get the cable ends into the bracket So slide the cable through the slot and then turn it sideways Same for the other one get the cable in through the slot and turn it sideways Good, and the last thing to do is reinstall the spring Beautiful. Now the cables are installed So let's finish this up by mounting the cable to the chassis of the car and instead of installing old rusty bolts I'm installing some nice new ones So hand tighten that in there and then tighten it down the rest of the way with a ratchet so that it's snug Now, let's get the heat shield in place and notice I painted it since it was a rusty mess So let's tighten this down until it's snug Good now, let's move over to the next mounting spot get the bracket aligned and tighten this down as well Good and with that snug now, we can move to the last spot on the trailing arm right here. So get the bracket in place Then we could tighten the last bolt down all the way And finally the last thing to do is feed the parking brake cable through the trailing arm and pull it all the way through Until the rubber bushing fits into the hole good All right So with our new parking brake cable installed the last old part that needs to be replaced is this brake line But right now we have it sealed off really well. It's not leaking at all We want to keep it that way so we don't lose brake fluid So in the meantime, we're going to install all our disc brake components starting with our caliper adapter And this is going to mount right about there But the only thing is you can see this is really rusty. This needs to be cleaned up before we could mount this So let's clean this up And the reason why we need to clean this up is because the rust is going to create an uneven surface So with the bracket installed you can see it doesn't sit completely flush and that's enough to create vibrations And also misalign the brakes. So let's go and clean this up Now normally i'd say that you could clean this by hand with a metal wire brush But it's very important that we get all this bubbling rust removed So i'm going to use an angle grinder with a wire wheel attachment to knock off all this rust We want this surface as smooth and flat as possible That way the brake caliper adapter sits flat and is aligned properly If not, the actual brake caliper isn't going to sit right so just try to get all the rust off Now there's still some stubborn bubbled rust here So i'm going to use a hammer and a chisel to chip this rust off You can see it leaves behind a flatter smoother surface Same for up here, but the back of the hammer is actually working really well for removing this rust Now let's go over it one more time with our wire wheel again Just trying to get this as flat and even as possible And finally, let's test our adapter bracket to make sure it fits flush perfect nice and tight And check that out all that thick bubbling rust is gone. That is much smoother and much better So our bracket sits on here flush now The only downside is when you remove rust you also end up finding stuff like this There's a big hole here and this needs to either be replaced or repaired now. I am going to replace this entire suspension But that's not for this video right now. We're just doing a drum to disc conversion So i'm going to show you guys how i'm going to repair this pretty quickly and easily So to fix the hole we're going to weld and anytime you weld to a car you want to disconnect the negative cable on the battery Now i'm mig welding this hole and my first goal is to build up some metal around the edge because this is a big hole To fill and now once you build up enough metal and that hole is filled We could run some beads with higher heat in them without burning through This is probably a little bit overkill, but i'm not a welder and I just want to build up this material to be sure It's solid Beautiful. So now that hole is no longer a problem I'm, not a professional welder, but i'm able to get the job done. There is penetration. It's built up nicely That's not going anywhere So now the last thing to do is to paint this that way it doesn't rust again So tape off anything you don't want to get paint on Then spray it down with some brake cleaner to remove any oils and dust that way the paint has a clean surface to stick to And after that's dry we could paint the part now i'm using a special rust spray paint So as long as there's no loose rust, you just want to get complete coverage That way the paint could absorb in and seal off the rust that way you don't get any future rust And that's looking pretty good a few hours later Let's remove the tape from the spindle as well as the parking brake cable And now we can install our adapter bracket which fits in right here Now on all four bolts i'm going to use some medium strength thread locker that way they don't vibrate loose And then we're going to hand tighten these down that way the bracket could be held in place without falling off Then i'm going to tighten them down the rest of the way with my ratchet and you want to tighten these down in a crisscross Pattern that way the adapter plate is evenly seated against the mating surface And then finally you want to torque these bolts to spec which the instructions say is 45 foot pounds And with the adapter installed and on there good you could see the race is stuck on the spindle So the race is what goes inside the wheel bearing here That's why you could actually see the ball bearings Normally, you shouldn't be able to see that and that's what happens with old bearings just to give you a better view Here's the spindle and there's that race i'm talking about and this is probably the original bearing hub assembly These bearings are getting old the grease in there is all dried up. It's inexpensive to replace. We're right here So it's out with the old and in with the new and you can see the new one has the race inside So we need to remove this race And the easiest way to remove a seized race is to use a cutoff wheel and cut a diagonal slot into the race This cut not only relieves some of the tension in that metal which will hopefully loosen it up But also gives us something to hammer against just do your best to not go all the way through the race and cut into the spindle Now take a chisel and hammer that race outwards Well, it doesn't always go smoothly a piece of the race just broke off. Not a big deal Let's just cut another slot into the race And i'm going to use a torch to heat up the race to expand it and hopefully make it easier to remove since this is Pretty stuck on here. And now that it's smoking hot. Let's try this again Beautiful the heat did the trick. So let's remove this completely All right, and now we can get this off the spindle. Just be careful It's hot now i'm going to use a scouring pad just to clean this up a little bit And then we can install the new hub and bearing All right Now we can tighten down our axle nut and it's very very important that you do not forget about this washer I'm going to get this in now if you forget that washer even with the axle nut tight The wheel bearing will be loose and that won't be good. So get that washer in there now for the axle nut I highly recommend that you replace it some axle nuts are torque to yield Some have a lift that you have to indent into the spindle either way. It's cheap insurance These aren't expensive and it prevents your wheel from coming off. So it's worthwhile to replace this So now let's get some medium strength thread locker on the spindle threads Then we could get the axle nut on there and start those threads by hand And once it starts getting difficult to turn by hand, you could use a ratchet and tighten it down until it's snug But don't over tighten this because it's very important to finish tightening with a torque wrench If it's too tight or too loose, you're going to damage the wheel bearing So get your torque wrench and this car the torque spec is 134 foot pounds. So torque it to spec Good Now all we need to do is indent the edge of the axle nut into the gap in the spindle using a chisel Perfect. And now that's locked in place and can't loosen finally Let's get our dust cap in place and tap it in with a rubber mallet Okay, so now we can add our brake disc But first we have to clean the braking surface here Don't skip this step because the factory coats brake rotors in grease that way they don't rust in the packaging And you definitely want to clean that off with some brake cleaner That way you don't get it on your new brake pads And that's just one side now flip it over and do the other and only the braking surface needs to be cleaned off Just make sure you don't skip this step or you will contaminate your new brake pads with all this grease Now, let's get the cleaned rotor on the hub And then tighten down two lug nuts to hold the rotor flat against the hub that way we could test fit our brake caliper Okay, the moment of truth does it fit where it's supposed to and check that out. How cool is that? Now, let's just get the caliper bracket on there and make sure it's aligned properly And with that where it needs to be get that top bracket bolt hand tightened as well as the bottom bracket bolt And let's give this rotor a quick spin and i'm not seeing any contact So that's good But we are a little too close on this side here And as you can see that side is really close and we have a big gap here That's not within spec. We have to have this relatively even it doesn't have to be perfect But it can't be off this much and the reason why this is off is because when we sanded that rust We lost some material and that caused the bracket to move inwards and that's why it's very tight over here But the good thing is there's an easy solution using stainless steel washers as shims This is one millimeter thick and that'll be just enough to move it over so it fits right So let's unscrew the caliper bracket bolt on the bottom then swing the bracket up out of the way Get some medium strength thread locker on the threads get the bolt back in the hole of the adapter And now we need to slide this washer carefully over the bolt Good, then we could drop the bracket back down and align the bolt without losing the washer and then hand tighten that back in there Let's do the same thing for the top bolt remove it all the way Add some thread locker put the bolt back in and then carefully add the washer Then load the caliper bracket over the hole without losing the washer hand tighten it And finally torque down the spec which is 28 foot pounds So now let's get our brake hardware into the bracket and we're going to be using copper anti-seize to make sure the brakes don't squeak So get a thin coat of anti-seize on the machine surface where the brake hardware is going to sit Then let's install the brake hardware which snaps in And finally get a thin coat of anti-seize on the brake hardware surface where the brake pad ears slide against Good now do the same thing to the other side of the caliper bracket Snap the brake hardware in and get some anti-seize on that brake hardware Next let's install our brake pads and for our brake pads. We don't want to get any anti-seize on the braking surface here We only want to get the anti-seize on the backing plate and on the ears So get some anti-seize on the backing plate and rub it in so it's a very thin coat You don't want this to be gooped on there The anti-seize will lubricate any of the touch points on the brake pad and that'll help prevent it from squeaking Which is why we coated the backing plate and now I am coating each of the ears of the brake pad Now when installing your brake pads if your brake pad has a wear indicator like this This is designed to rub against the brake rotor Once the brake pad material gets too low and that'll make a squeaking noise and it'll let you know that your brake pads are low Well this brake pad with the wear indicator has to be on the inside for it to function properly And that's pretty much for all cars. So put the pad on the inside It should slide right in and then the other pad goes on the other side Finally let's install the brake caliper and you're going to want to add some anti-seize to the part of the piston that pushes against The back of the brake pad It's also a good idea to add anti-seize on the other side of the brake caliper Which again presses on the back side of the brake pad And then the last piece of brake hardware fits in right over here on top of the caliper And you can get a thin coat of anti-seize on here as well since it's going to be touching the top of the brake pads Now we can install the caliper by sliding it over the pads And then we want to get the top slide pin bolt hand tightened in Do the same for the bottom slide pin bolt and then torque both to spec which is 17 foot pounds And just to verify using the correct brake caliper on the correct side You can see right here It says r for right but let's just say yours doesn't say that you always want to make sure your bleeder valve is at the top So the brake line comes in down here and the bleeder valve is above that That way any air that gets in here can escape when you bleed it out. So we're good to go All right, and check it out. This is looking amazing So with our brake caliper and brakes installed the last things we need to do are get our parking brake cable installed I'll show you that in a second And then we also need to get our brake hose installed bleed the brakes and then we're good to go So let's get the end of the parking brake cable through the bracket and right here We need an e-type circlip and I have a nice kit of these which i'll link in the description Just in case you need it So we need a 12 millimeter circlip and that fits right into the slot of the metal piece on the cable Then we just need to tap it into place. So it fully seats perfect and that's not going anywhere Now we need to get the end of the parking brake cable to line up with the hole in the parking brake lever on this Caliper and this could be kind of tough to do with just two hands So a little trick is to use a wrench and that gives you a bunch of leverage that way you could use your other hand To line up the holes like so and then just get the pin in the hole and that holds it in place Good, and finally under that we just need to get the cotter pin into the hole. That way the pin can't pop out Good. So with our parking brake cable completely installed The last thing to do is install our new brake line and that means we have to disconnect this rusty mess right over here And I really don't want to strip this So get a metal wire brush and brush away all the dirt and rust from the threads and the surrounding area Then you want to add some heat to it, which is going to help expand the metal and make it easier to remove And finally i'm going to add some homemade crissfix penetrating fluid Which is just 50 acetone and 50 transmission fluid shaken not stirred And now that penetrating fluid is going to work itself deep into the threads and this works amazing And instead of using a normal wrench like this, which only touches two sides of the nut I'm going to be using a flare nut wrench which touches four sides. So it's less likely to strip. So here goes nothing Let's see if this comes off easily or if it's going to fight us. Okay, that's a good sign. Try another turn Beautiful the nut's spinning and the hard brake line's not twisting so we could loosen this all the way And they do make these flare nut wrenches in a ratcheting version, which I highly recommend. It just makes this so much quicker Good so with that loose now we could remove it and i'm going to use a brake line stopper to prevent it from draining fluid All over the place and this tool is pretty inexpensive and it works amazing I highly recommend it anytime you need to disconnect brake lines Now, let's use a pliers to remove the retaining clip from the soft brake line Good and then hammer it out because it's so rusty All right So with our brake line loose There's one more spot right behind the control arm right here that needs to be unbolted and then we could pull the brake line out So let's cut the hard brake line in the back since we're not using it anymore And with that cut now we can remove this retaining clip and then hammer out this off line Or not. Okay, so that's really rusted in there. So instead let's unscrew the two bolts holding in this bracket And then we can remove the bracket with the brake line. All right So with our brake line removed, I can't believe that brake line is seized into the bracket We need to reuse the bracket So I need to pop this out and I think hitting it with the hammer and a vice is going to do the trick So let's lay the bracket on top of the vice and then hammer this out Sheesh there is no way that was coming out inside the car. So i'm glad we took that out and hit it with the hammer Okay, so now let's install our freshly painted bracket onto the control arm And then hand tighten both of these new bolts in and finally use a ratchet to tighten them down the rest of the way That way they're snug good. Now we could feed our new stainless steel brake line back here and this plastic part here We're going to mount to our bracket with a nut and bolt So slide the bolt in then get a washer on the other side and then get the nut on now You want to tighten this down so it's snug but don't over tighten it because it's just plastic Now we can feed the brake line up to the other mounting point and that'll fit in right here Like that and we don't want to get any dirt or rust in the brake line So i'm using an ear plug to seal it off for now Then we can install the retaining clip and just tap that in there with a hammer until it fully seats Good next I like to get a little silver anti-seize on the threads of the flare nut that way It's easier to remove in the future. Trust me. You're gonna thank me later Now we can remove the stopper and this worked great to prevent all that brake fluid from leaking out And let's get the flare nut into the new brake line and once it's centered we could tighten this down And this is a pretty long flare nut. So it'll take a couple of turns And then once it starts getting tight like this Get a wrench on the bottom brake line to hold it in and then tighten the flare nut about an eighth of a turn And that's tight enough. There's no need to over tighten this All right So with our brake line tightened down all the way if we come to the other end of the brake line you can see over Here I have it dripping down into this cup because I want to kind of flush it out Here's brand new brake fluid here is the brake fluid that's coming out now. You can see a clear difference So i'm going to put a fresh cup down here to make sure it's all fresh new brake fluid coming out of the brake line And you're going to want to head over to the master cylinder and top off the brake fluid that way we don't run dry So make sure using the correct brake fluid in this case It's dot three or dot four either one works dot four is just a little bit better and fill it up right to the top And now that is much better. Our brake fluid is coming out nice and clean. So that brake line is flushed So let's go tighten it down against the banjo bolt Now notice the banjo bolt has two copper washers. This is very important So when installing the banjo bolt one copper washer goes on one side of the brake line And then the other copper washer goes on the other side of the brake line to sandwich it This acts like a gasket to prevent leaks. So don't forget it Now we could thread the banjo bolt in being sure not to cross thread it Then tighten it down until it's snug with a wrench or a ratchet And then once it's snug you want to torque this to spec which is 25 foot pounds Good now the copper washers are crushed down and they won't leak So let's take the cover off the bleeder valve and before we go bleed the brakes I have a trick to help prevent air from getting past the threads So unscrew the bleeder all the way and the trick is to add some grease to the threads of the bleeder valve That way when you bleed the brakes air can't easily get past the threads because it's clogged with grease Plus this prevents the threads from seizing to the caliper and then snapping off down the road, which is a real pain Okay, now we're ready to bleed the brakes. So get your wrench on the bleeder valve Then you can get some 3 16th inner diameter clear tubing that way you can see the bubbles coming out Now get someone to help you press and hold the brakes Okay, press and hold then crack the bleeder valve loose and close it and look at all those bubbles Okay, let go and then press the brakes again Now you're going to want to repeat this process until there's no bubbles left and a little trick to really force that air out Is to have your helper pump the brakes three times and then hold And you can see all that air getting forced out and just so you have an idea after doing this about eight times There's no more bubbles So remove the tube clean off that bleeder valve and then put the dust cap back on So with all the air bled out of our brake caliper, we are completely done going from drum brakes to disc brakes on this side So now follow the same exact process on the other side and it's as easy as that All right. So with both of our rear brakes officially converted from drum brakes to disc brakes There's one more thing left to do And that is to change out the proportion valve with one from a car that had rear disc brakes But before we do that, I have a really nice brake pressure gauge set that way We could compare the fluid pressure with the drum brake proportion valve and then with the disc brake proportion valve and see if it actually Does anything so to do this? We need to remove our bleeder valve all the way and then i'm using a custom bleeder valve Which is two bleeder valves welded to each other. So screw that in all the way and then snug it up Then we could thread our gauge onto the custom bleeder valve and then snug that up as well Finally, we need to bleed the gauge so that there's no air in the line Okay, so with all the air removed now, let's see what our brake pressure is press as hard as you can and hold Okay, so 700 psi for the drum brake proportion valve All right. So now let's install our disc brake proportion valve and it goes right there So first let's get an absorbent mat under here because it's going to leak a bunch of fluid and there's no way around that Now we want to break all these flare nuts loose starting with the top one Good now do the other top ones And this one is very tight and we don't want to break this because this would not be fun to fix So let's use a little heat on the nut and then let's try this again Good a little heat goes a long way to make these easier to remove Okay So now break these nuts loose and then we can loosen them up completely And pull the brake line out and this would be a lot easier to do with ratcheting flare nut wrenches So if you need to do this job, definitely get some trust me This is very tedious with normal flare nut wrenches And now we have the last two flare nuts in the back that need to be removed So get that bottom one out and finally, let's unscrew the top one and this nut is completely loose Now with all the brake lines removed from the valve Let's remove these three 10 millimeter nuts holding the valve to the firewall and these are pretty rusty But this first one broke loose really easily Oh, no Okay, so I spoke too soon and I broke this stud. So, uh, let me show you how to prevent this from happening again Okay on the other stud The first thing we're going to do is wire brush all that rust so the nut isn't getting forced over chunks of rust as you Unscrew it next add some heat to the nut to expand it and also help break some of the rust free And finally add some homemade penetrating fluid onto the nut and threads to lubricate it now with that soaked in let's give this a try Oh, well, it's a shame I had to break that other stud because this one came off so easily once it's prepped properly And then do the same thing for the last stud at the bottom brush it clean Heat it up and then hit it with some penetrating fluid And finally unscrew it and again, this comes right off Okay, so now the drum brake proportion valve should come right off good and it's out with the old and in with the new And i'm going to use new fasteners on this that way It's not a rusty mess and just snug these down don't over tighten them because it could snap off Now for the other side, we're going to give something a try Let's add some red thread locker and work that into the threads and there should be enough threads for this nut to grab onto Okay, good. And then just carefully tighten this down. You don't want to over tighten this You just want to engage as many threads as possible Good and I think that'll work and finally let's finish up by getting the bottom nut on there and snugging it up And that's not going anywhere even with the stud that got broken off So now let's get all these flare nuts tightened back up starting with the back ones And you're going to want to hand tighten to start the threads that way you don't cross thread them And I actually went out and bought a ratcheting flare nut wrench set because of how tedious this was when I was unscrewing them And already I could tell you this is going to pay for itself And when tightening these you just want to snug it up. Do not over tighten them. They don't need a lot of force All right, so this is great I will repeat what I just said get ratcheting flare nut wrenches because I know on camera It looked like removing them was fast But it was really a good 30 to 40 minutes of bending over the engine and loosening each flare nut little by little And now this is going to take me less than five minutes to tighten up good now with all these flare nuts tight Let's add some brake fluid. That way we don't run dry So with the brake fluid topped off now What you want to do is get somebody to go in the car and press the brakes as you look and make sure there's no Leaks at the proportion valve good press the brakes Let off press the brakes Let off All right. I don't see any leaks So we're ready to bleed the brakes and we're gonna have to do all four brakes because we removed all four brake lines Now the best way to do this is start with the furthest brake away from that proportion valve Which in this case is the rear passenger side right here So you're going to want to bleed the brakes the same way as before The only difference now is even though the brake fluid looks like there's no bubbles in it Just keep bleeding those bubbles have to travel a long way from the front of the car See, there you go. Now. We want to bleed all this air out So keep bleeding the brakes until the brake fluid has no more bubbles good now There's no air in this brake line. So this caliper is done So with the rear passenger caliper bled now, we're going to go to the next furthest brake caliper Which is over here on the driver's side rear and we're just repeating the same exact process for this brake Keep bleeding it until you see air and then bleed it out until it's bubble free good and now we're done back here So let's give this parking brake a test. Oh, man This is way tighter now And now we could get both wheels on the rear since we're done back here And I did set that parking brake that way I could torque them to spec without them spinning And with both rear wheels on now, we can remove the jack stands and lower the car down to the ground So we're done at the back. Now. Let's move to the front passenger side And now's a good time to check your master cylinder and top it off That way you don't run it dry and pump air back into the brakes Next we're going to bleed this brake caliper Just like the others and you can see up front There's barely any air in the system since we bled most of it out of the rear Good now, let's finish up here torque the wheel of spec And lower the car back onto the ground and finally we only have the driver's side brake to go So let's bleed the air out of here. And as you can see, there's barely any bubbles coming out, which is good So we're completely done bleeding the brakes. So let's finish up by torquing the wheel down Then grab that jack stand and lower the car back to the ground All right. So with all four brake calipers completely bled now Let's top off our master cylinder here And you just want to fill it to the full mark on the side of the master cylinder since the rear brakes are new And the front brakes are pretty much new as well And the last thing to do is to check the brake pressure because we have our brand new rear disc proportion valve in here Which is not leaking by the way, that's nice and dry So I want to see if the brake pressure actually increases like it's supposed to so let's get this wheel off And with our gauge connected and all the air bled out press the brakes Oh man, look at that We have a lot more fluid pressure now And just so you can see the difference the left is the drum brake proportion valve at 700 psi And the right is our disc brake valve at 1100 psi So about 60 percent more pressure which makes sense because the disc brakes need more pressure than drum brakes Okay with the brakes and proportion valve installed and bled Let's head to the track and see if there's any improvement on our stopping distance Now on the drive over to the track the brakes felt great So let's see if we could beat that 141 foot stopping distance we got with the drum brakes And our first 60 to 0 was a disappointing 137 feet and that was followed by 133 feet and then 129 feet and I think what's happening here is the new brakes are betting in because the distance keeps getting shorter and shorter Until finally it started getting consistent. So our next three stops were 111 feet 112 feet and 111 feet again So that's about 30 feet better than our 141 foot average with the drum brakes So after the conversion this car now stops two car lengths shorter, which is a significant amount So there you go. That's everything you need to know on how to convert your old rusty drum brakes to these nice new disc brakes They look so much better But not only do they look better as you just saw they perform better as well Plus these will be a lot easier to replace when you need to replace the brake pads and rotors Now, I hope this video was helpful If it was remember to give it a thumbs up if you're not a subscriber consider hitting that subscribe button And as always all the tools and products are linked down in the description so you could easily find them