Who has the best prices and shipping for GM parts? Are there any dealers in here or folks with discounts?

For the good of the C5 and C6 community I am seeking to buy C7 knuckles to fit to the car and provide PROOF whether they will or will not bolt up for use of C7 brakes by those who choose to.

Everything I have found has been either rumor, or on other project vehicles and I wanted to mock them up directly to a C5 for reference and proof positive. No more rumors.

There is a used full set for $350 right now on Ebay. I'm just wondering if I can do better.
Driver Front 84506878 or 23113204
Pass Front 84506879 or 23113205
Driver Rear 84506880 or 23113206
Pass Rear 84506881

 

This is the official GM parts site: Shop GM Parts - GM Genuine Parts & ACDelco

 

I actually managed to make an offer for the full set which was accepted. I will soon have everything we allegedly would need to put C7 Z06 brakes on a C5. Now I just need rotors and pads......

 

You're doing God's work for many of us

 

I need to find a new one also, since Suburban Chevrolet (Trunk Monkey) went under

 

I'm just a curious technophile.

The lynch pin to the C7 swap option becomes rotor options. The Z06 calipers which I have came with 2-piece rotors which are a great step forward for factory brakes but makes buying rotors a high expense. If you can afford those rotors that's awesome. Yet once you enter that lrice range as an overall conversion it becomes preferable tk seek an aftermarket Wilwood or similar set. And so the question becomes whether the C7 Base, Z51 and/or Z06 calipers can be deployed on a C5 or C6 but use cheap rotors to work.

 

But the large two piece rotor with high count cooling vanes is the hot item that makes the brake upgrade an... upgrade? If you can only afford to do one thing I would upgrade rotor instead. The benefit to upgrading the caliper is there is now room for a bigger disc.

In fact I have satisfactory brake with KNS blank rotor. 325mm. After 1 year I have done 5 track days, 7 autocross, and about 5000 miles on the road.. They are starting to get some "crazing" if you look closely. Admittedly, I have stock power (and street tire) so needs are modest.





If I wanted more heat capacity, either more HP or harder on brake, the kangaroo paw can only pump so much air... these already get red hot which is where the crazing/cracking comes from.

I guess my point is, the best two piece rotors manage heat by having more cooling vanes to pump more air and make a higher surface area. The cooler the disc runs, the longer it will last because the heat cracks will take longer to show up.

If you are calculating rotor replacement cost from crap delco brand c5 discs that crack thru after 30 minutes on track, "good" rotors... don't do that.

 

Glad to see someone doing it. Look forward to updates

 

I guess the real thing here is the use case for the BBK. Street cars or drag cars can get away with a one piece rotor and still experience much improved braking over the stock C5 setup, and the added bonus is they look dope. Track cars are function over form and the BBK upgrade needs to function and last, that is where the expensive 2 piece rotors come in, as mentioned by @Elektro . I appreciate where @Tusc is headed with this test and the fact that he is spending his money to do it for the good of the community, it will be interesting to discover if, at the end of the day, it ends up saving enough money to justify the trouble of changing all the parts rather than buying a ready to go BBK.

 

I wager for street mode yes. For track mode it may enter a grey realm based on preference and goals against cost.

Worlds cheaper than a brand new AP front kit, and able to deploy DBA rings to the front for $600. Yet demanding the advance to a 19" wheel/tire.

Being familiar with the market now, I see the C7 Z06 complete setups go for 500 and 750 on the low end, to 2000 here on the forum as take-offs. The ebay shops bump it to 2500 to 2700 off wrecks. Price and source point me back to the forum for these, but ebay has more revolving stock.

No question for me though. If I scored a set for sub 1k, knuckles for 400 and could spend a day at the track? Absolutely! Then later I can UPGRADE to DBA rings and whatever race pads and go even harder? I'd be sold as a street/occasional track driver.

If my annual event budget lived and died by sets of tires and wheels though, I might make a different choice.
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This could be a very interesting project. Best of luck getting all the parts at a reasonable cost and then getting all the items successfully installed on the car. Looking forward to seeing your thread documenting your process.

 

From the look of it, there may be an issue with steering speed as the C7 steering arm is quite a bit longer than C5/C6. It may be possible to run an FDF Mini-Mantis to get it back in tolerance. Or there may be a way to run a C7 Mini-Mantis adapter but with C5 pin points on their bar. An added expense if necessary. Still puts the setup in cheaper than an aftermarket setup or close. Many variables at hand. Not a ton of firm answers or measurements. But we'll document all we can.

 

maybe a crazy idear but have you looked into swapping the rack?

 

I have not. It's not something I'd be interested in doing labor-wise for the what if factor. Further complication of which being that it seems possible it would affect AH, though that would need to be looked into by those who are electronics minded.

And quite honestly at that point the juice would not be worth the squeeze to me versus simply buying an aftermarket brake setup to plunk on the car. After typing that statement I looked it up an a new Delco C7 rack, even if it were compatible with the steering joint and PS lines as well as the cradle would still be $1,975 new or $700 to $800 used.

Though in having never looked into it before, it would appear that the C7 rack is electric assist. I'll check later to see if they are fully electric or if they have a pulley system providing most of the boost. Interesting. I also wonder if they are noisy or not. With our ABS boxes right up front it opens the next question of whether there is enough space to even use one of these racks if someone got geeky.

My curiosity is restricted to the brakes themselves. I have my own project to kick my butt on to finish. I don't mind a side jaunt to check basic viability but I'm not looking to go down an entirely different road right now.

Edit: because I ENJOY being divergent like that and geeking out on weird options for these cars, but I am trying to rein myself in and just get the car running.

 

Now look what you made me do: https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...tionality.html

 

no it's electric sorry I asked

 

Nothing wrong with electric at all - so long as it is quiet. Some models out there are pretty noisy and would need good rubber mounts or insulation not to hear. The fact that this is down in front of the engine is good because it would not be right along the firewall where you'd hear it. Who knows if it is viable though. I can't do it on my Z06 because I have a hydro-boost brake master setup and this is a self-contained unit. I would need the more typical TRW (porsche) or Volvo/FoMoCo pumps with reservoirs and pressure lines for that to work - which I had considered earlier.

 

well at some point it becomes more cost effective to just order a brake kit made for a c5

electric racks shouldn't make any noise, certainly not heard from within the cabin.

There was an old episode of wheeler dealers where they rebuilt an electric rack (honda s2000) that was making noises

 

I agree. The guaranteed lynch pin on any argument about noise being that most folks buying brand new Corvettes have an aversion to NVH and would complain if they hear a whine from the car. Though I have seen a LARGE part of the local scene here in Connecticut ditch their C7s and convert to the C8s. I see C5s a lot. I see C6s not as much. C7s are fairly uncommon. But C8s are coming out the woodworks up here now.