By Charles R. (64.170.157.193) on Wednesday, May 09, 2001 - 11:36 pm:

I had to make a new thread, because I couldn't post this under "more on brakes". Server problems?

There are indeed two, different diameter hubs for the '80-'83 Civics.

Besides the diameter, there is a difference in length as well.

Here's the story.
My '80 Civic wagon has '84 Accord rotors and calipers. When I got the '79 wagon spindles, I cleaned them up and ordered new '80 wagon bearings (B32)and '79 seals. At this time I ordered new '84 Accord rotors and calipers too. I ended up having to go to the wrecking yard for the hubs, These came from an '80 hatchback.

Problem one, hubs are too small for bearings. I had known there were two bearings listed, I didn't make the connection. Until then. The B32 bearing has a 1.4something inch inside dia., the other, a B36 has a 1.37+ in. inside dia.

Problem two. After installing the hubs on the correct bearings, I put the rotor in place. The rotor's friction surface almost hits the caliper mounting bosses. The "hat" portion of the rotor is too deep, leaving no room for the caliper.

So what gives?

Armed with a tape measure(and my spindle), I went though the wreckers and checked all the Hondas (of appropriate vintage) I could find.

The Accords, Preludes, Civic wagon and Civic four door models, all had the deeper 'hatted' rotors. The 1st gen CRX's(no 2nd's) and Civic hatches(with vented rotors) had shallower hats. The difference between the two was about a 1/4 inch.

I have to assume the larger dia. Civic hubs use the deeper hats, while the smaller ones use the others. I didn't take any others apart.

So I exchanged to '84 CIVIC rotors and calipers, and everything fits fine.

The other thing to note about this. The wheel "offset"(compared to the strut), changes, depending on which hub you use. The wagon hubs with deeper hats should move you 1/4" out, away from the strut as compared with the other hubs with shallower hats. This could be important for tire fitment. I'll find this one out tomorrow.

By Adrian (Civicguru) (203.42.97.227) on Tuesday, May 22, 2001 - 03:57 pm:

Interesting ... you learn something new every day.
I would suspect the change is year based, rather than model (hatch, wagon) based. I've used drive flanges from an '82 wagon and an '82 hatch and they are identical, both needing the deeper rotors if using EN uprights, but shallower CRX or similar rotors if using EB uprights and caliper brackets. I've never had a good look at an '80 model and I guess I assumed they were the same, but I do know (around here anyway) the very early ENs used 12 inch wheels rather than 13s like the later ones. I guess they probably had some differences in the brakes and hubs as well ... something to look out for I suppose.

By Charles R. (64.170.157.204) on Wednesday, May 23, 2001 - 12:09 am:

Yeah, you might be right about the difference being year based. After going back for other things, I found out that the car I got my hubs from was an '80 four door(shows how much I pay attention, huh?). So I take back what I said about the models and will just say, "pay attention to which hub you use, there are two".

By krummenp (12.145.208.12) on Tuesday, May 29, 2001 - 11:18 am:

just wondering... on my '81 Accord, I need/want to go to 4x100 I'm wondering does anybody know will the front rotors and drums from an '82 Accord with a 4x100 fit easily on my '81 Accord?

By John S. (207.160.163.93) on Tuesday, May 29, 2001 - 11:40 am:

You will pretty much be forced to use the same approach as us Civic guys. The front uprights use the same bearings...just press the 2nd Gen hubs into them...you can already mount the bigger 2nd Gen Accord front brakes directly to the uprights.
In the rear you'll have to take the same aproach to mount the 2nd Gen brakes to your rear upright/spindle unit. (which is similar to the CVCC rear unit). By the way those Accord strut housings should be threaded at the top, and Konis may still be available for them.
You will definitely benefit from this conversion on your heavier Accord.

By John S. (207.160.163.93) on Tuesday, May 29, 2001 - 11:42 am:

Oh I forgot, don't bother with the 82 front brakes, your much better off with 84-87 units which are bigger still.

By krummenp (12.145.208.12) on Tuesday, May 29, 2001 - 12:05 pm:

ok, call me dense, but I haven't pulled apart my front hubs yet, so humor me with what is probably really obvious...

I remove the castelated nut, then I'm assuming with a certain amount of finesse and whacking with a rubber mallet I remove the hub and rotor as a whole unit? reassembly is just a matter of greasing the bearings from say an '84 that are part of the hub and rotor combo, then I just press them back on, and crank down on the castelated nut? of course putting in a new cotter pin.

rear drums are just a matter of removing the whole brake assembly and then remounting the new brake assembly on the spindle and bolting up the 4 bolts to the spindle assembly.

are the spindles the same size on the rear from the '81 and the '84?

anybody have any photos of this being done?

struts will be another post. I need to learn how to make strong coilovers.