Okay, as if I don't have enough going on.
On one of the donor cars I've been nibbling away at, '98 SL2, has rear discs.
Any real advantage to putting those on my '98 SC2? Is there a proportioning valve or tricky e-brake set up? PAX

 

stopping power (proportioning) is about 80/20 Frnt/Rr, so not much use of the rears.
many people say there really isn't much difference in feel -- prob b/c there is so little braking actually coming from the back.

Guess it's personal preference.

Search the net for "saturn rear brake disc conversion". One of the complications is selecting the correct ebrake cable as saturn kept changing the design over the years

 

That's what I've heard/read and was listed as the reasons it was discontinued. PAX

 

just like everything else in life, they didn't care how it felt, it saved money

 

They look cool through aftermarket spoke wheels.
I put rear discs on my 91 Metro because I had them. I swapped the proportioning valve which had a different part number on it. The parking brake cables were also different as well as the hoses. The rear knuckles were disc brake specific on my swap also.
On the Metro the biggest gain was the 12mm wheel studs, the early Metros had 10mm studs.
The disc brake swap got rid of humpy rear drums, of course they could have been turned.

 

People do it on the Ions just because it is easier to do disk brakes over drums. Which I agree 100%.
I believe it is a 70/30 ratio. But who knows.


Regardless, we are the original owners of Topanga, and the drum brakes have been changed once at 120ish thousand miles.
My sisters 04 has 112k on it, and I changed the original OEM drum brakes.


Not saying rear brakes should be ignored, but they take WAY less of a beating than the front.

 

80-120K for rear pads on the s cars -- 120K ish for me, and 230k ish again. Believe s cars are 80/20 but don't quote me on that