Help with Suspension and Brakes please

[starktech1]

Hey guys, first a little introduction. My names William, I bought my Eclipse RS about 3 years ago. It came turbocharged and rebuilt already, with a port fueler and tune. Was running 19lbs smoothly. One day the plastic zip tie holding the oil cooler line up under the car broke, the line rubbed the ground, and on my way into town the oil leaked out. Then the knocking came, got it home, and it was knocking like hell. Pulled oil pan off, TONS of flake. Pulled engine out and it looked like a confetti bomb had gone off inside with silver shards of metal and flake. Two eagle rods were black.... So then started my entire rebuild. Have replaced parts inside the transmission, have totally machined and rebuilt a fresh new motor using the best parts available, did a little work to the head, and ready to drop it all back in. But first i'm doing some maintenance and upgrades to the brakes and suspension. That's where you all come in!!

Suspension questions:

1)How often are you supposed to replace the knuckles? Only if they fail/break?

2)Are all four wheel hubs the exact same on these cars? I would check myself but my car is in my dads garage since I moved into a home without a garage so now I must go all the way out there to work on it.

3)Where, besides the dealership, can I find rear suspension components, such as upper, lower, trailing, and toe control arms? I can only seem to find the front suspension parts online..I'm searching for 97 Eclipse RS parts, should I search for other models of the Eclipse? Are they all the same parts? Or different?


Brakes questions:

Ok i'm doing 2 things, front GSX brake upgrade, and rear drum to disc conversion. I'm confused about a few things..

4)For the rear drum conversion, do you have to swap the knuckles too? One site this guy said he had to..

5)How do I order the SS lines...how do I order them for the front considering the components i'm using up there, and how do I order them for the back? for the front, do I order lines that fit a 97 GSX? For the rear, do I order some that fit any model eclipse that had rear discs?

6)Is it necessary to change the proportioning valve, considering these mods?

7)Ok this one makes no sense to me. On almost all the how-to's on the rear drum to disc conversion, it says among the steps to "use a step reamer to hollow out a big enough hole on the newly sourced backing plates so the new ebrake cable will fit into the slot." Ok, if the backing plate was sourced from an Eclipse which came with rear discs, and the ebrake cables were sourced from an Eclipse that had the rear discs, why don't they already fit right? Lol....am I missing something?



If anyone would love to spend a few moments helping me track down these answers I would sure appreciate it so I may go ahead and order the stuff I need and get the show on the road..

 

[david-b]

1) Knuckles... when they break.
2) Pretty sure they're not. Fronts are different from the rears. The ABS fronts are different from non-ABS fronts
3) Dealer / AutoZone?
4)
5) I believe you'd get the GSX for the front if you do the converstion. Then any 2G Eclipse FWD for the back. I believe AWD have different brake lines for the back
6)
7)

Hope someone else can chime in and make sure everything is right. I'm not 100% sure about most of this. Anyone?

 

[starktech1]

dave, (5) when you say get the lines for the back for a fwd eclipse, are you taking into consideration that the drums will be replaced with discs? Like the lines will fit both the drums and the discs?(Fitting wise)

 

[minimoose]

As far as the suspension goes, I know for a fact the turbo and non turbo rear k members are the same besides the fact that the non turbo does not have a rear stabalizer. The knuckles you would only have to change if they were broke or a bearing wore grooves. Im not 100% on the front suspension being the same tho for the turbo and non turbo. Hope this helps.

If you dont mind used part it would be alot cheaper to buy the suspension parts from a junk yard. I like doing it this way because before you install them you can clean them up and paint them and no one would know the difference. I wouldnt use a junk yard strut unless your really pinching the budget and while you were at it, replace all the old bushings.

 

[starktech1]

Awesome awesome..now I just need help with questions 6 and 7 and i'm good to go. Thanks guys

 

[PurpleHazel]

Not 6 or 7 but your rear uppers are made new by Dorman. #s 521-149 and 521-150. Less than $100 each new. Found em for $55 on one site. ( had a rare quiet moment or two at work today. Didn't get any farther than that tho.)

 

[starktech1]

What site?

 

[PurpleHazel]

Talon Dorman Suspension Control Arm - Control Arm - 1996, 1997, 1998, 1995, 1993, 1994, 1990 - Front Right Lower, Front Left Lower Fro, Front Left Lower Rea, Front Right Lower Fr - Auto Parts Network

I never did check the price at work -insert name of major parts store chain here-, but generally online is cheaper. I'll look for some of the others on your list tomorrow if I have a quiet moment. (Yeah, right, I usually have more phone lines ringing than I have ears. Lol )

 

[starktech1]

Lol...thanks a lot man, if you can thatd be great. Try to find me all four components if possible

 

[starktech1]

Guess I'll have to go dealer I can't find them anywhere