I have a 2002 Honda Civic EX 1.7L VTEC with 32,000 miles automatic. I had to get my brake drum and shoe replace and it was a nightmare to work on it. I’m planning to swap them into disc brake system but what car is similar I can use to put it on my civic? Thanks.
Also, can you the same E- brake on my em2 to the new rear brake caliper?
It's not worth it. You won't notice any difference because the rear brakes hardly do anything.
There's plenty of information out there...
https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/0608-ht-honda-civic-rear-disc-brake-conversion/
https://motoiq.com/project-honda-civic-ej-fast-brakes-rear-disc-brake-conversion-kit/2/
https://www.7thgenhonda.com/threads/diy-rear-drum-brakes-to-rear-disc-brakes.1756/
https://www.civicforums.com/forums/189-wheels-tires/315969-rear-disk-conversion.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQhFH1mGHOo
How can I order the civic EJ fast rear brake kit?
Is there any other place where I can conversion kit? Just sent me link to the stores.
I wouldn't waste my time and money. You typically change your rear brakes every 2 or 3 times you change your front brakes. They're mainly there to keep the car stable.
Once you've torn drum brakes apart once, they're all about the same. Like you, I had never torn them apart until I did my Ranger's rear brakes a couple years ago. It took a day and a half to get it back together. A few months later, I tore one of the drums down again to replace a bad parking brake cable. Reassembly took maybe 20 minutes. I tore my Catalina's drums down and reassembled them 3x doing a brake overhaul last year. The trick is getting the hang of applying leverage to the springs, and to have the right tools. One you get it, it's easy.
I understand what you're saying, but I upgraded my '99 Cherokee to rear discs and what a difference! Not only are they much easier to work on (I hate wrestling with brake springs and adjusters), but it made a surprisingly big difference in braking power and stability. In my case I used the rear discs from a late 1990s Grand Cherokee, including the proportioning valve.
The main thing I hate about drums is that stupid star adjuster. It wasn't bad to adjust the shoes on my truck, cuz I could get underneath without raising it to mess with the star gear. The Pontiac sucked. Haha. I got it close enough and forced it to self adjust. Between my truck and the Pontiac, I found a really long pair of Kobalt forceps, probably a good 8-12" long. They have a double hinge in the middle. That made the springs way easier to stretch on the Catalina. I was using my step dad's tools on the truck and he's much bigger than I am, so he could wrestle the springs. Haha.
I never understood why drums were more "intuitive" to design and use vs a caliper. It seems counterintuitive, especially when your instinctive way of stopping a spinning object with your hand is to clamp it between your fingers and thumb, like a caliper.
They're ruining the simplicity of calipers these days as well. My 'Stang's rear rotors got gouged somehow. Pads were fine. I replaced pads and rotors today. I forgot about the stupid twisting the piston does for the parking brake self-adjuster. Gotta rent a tool to press pistons in these days.
Changed my 82 vanagon to rear discs and made a huge difference as well