323i Rear Disc Brakes and Trailing Arms, Do this fit on....

[pichos1]

the 2002's. If so how much work is required to make them work?

Thank you

Jan

[BarryA]

crossmember, but E21s use a coil-over type rear suspension (no spring perches) making one of two modifications necessary - either a set of perches must be cut off stock '02 trailing arms and welded to the E21 arms, or the car must be converted to coil-overs.

Couple of other issues as well - e-brake cable modifications will probably be required, and if I remember correctly the rear track width on E21's is slightly wider than the '02's, which may create tire to fender lip interference issues. On the positive side, 323 stub axles should be stronger than stock '02 parts, since they were designed to handle the additional power of the 2.3 liter M20 engine.

[pichos1]

Thank you very much Berry. As for the rear 323 disc brakes, is that the best conversion for the 02?

Regards

Jan

[ClayW]

These are pretty big disks in the back. I haven't yet done the conversion on my car, but the rear disks from that car are supposed to be an amazing upgrade, better than the 320 drum conxersion. The only other rear disk brake option is to use the same disks (I think) and calipers from a certain year VW GTI...though can't remember which year. As I understand, these mount on a custom bracket in the 6 o'clock position and have to be removed to be bled......the 323's calipers do not.

Hope that helps.

[iflytii]

Barry hit it on the head. It is a little work but that's half the fun...

Here is what I did:

[pichos1]

Thanks everyone for your help, I know now what to do.

Kind regards

Jan

[BarryA]

discs in the original post response - E30 rear calipers. 323's use the same rear rotors as disc brake E30s and very similar calipers, but E30 calipers have significantly more pad surface area.

There's a little minor machining required to E30 calipers to make them fit 323 caliper mounts - according to posts on a couple of the E21 boards, E30 calipers are better matched to Volvo 240 turbo or 5 series front calipers (and are MUCH easier to get parts for) than 323 calipers.

[TobyB]

but I can't tell you how,

because I haven't figured it out myself yet.

Do take a look at Mercedes 190 front rotors sometime, though...

Toby

[iflytii]

e30 calipers fit with very little modification. Most of the modification involved drilling out the threads from the caliper bracket. The 323 trailing arms are threaded into and through the mount where the e30 mounts through the trailing arm into the caliper bracket. . I'll post some pics of the 323 caliper compared to the e30 caliper tonight.