I dont think I'll get to the steering box mod for a while. Gotta leave for another Iraq tour real soon, so I wanted to put a fresh set of pads on the 89 so I wont have to worry about the wife wearing them out while I'm gone. I figured I should change out the front calipers to the 96 SR units I had in the garage. Its a pretty strait forward swap as reported by Lordtrunks and Hazy. Heres a couple pics.


Here you can see the size differences in the hardware. Gen 1 is on top gen 2 on the bottom. The gen 2 pads have much more surface area, but are the same contour of the Gen1.

The caliper brackets need to be used from the gen 2. knuckle mounting bolts are the same size location. If you get the short metal brake line that goes into the caliper from the donor gen 2 it will make the job a little bit easier. One of my donor calipers had the line but the other one did not, so I had to "adjust" it slighly to get it lined up. I also adjusted the thin metal mounting bracket that goes between the soft and hard line.

I retained the gen1 rotors and splash shield. The splash shield requires some trimming/bending in order to accommodate the bigger brackets. For a more complete job one could swap to gen2 rotors as well as the splash shields. I'm not sure if the splash shields will interchange.

Before:


After:



End result is a noticeable difference in braking response. It now brakes like my wifes old jetta did. I think it will good for when and if I go up to 35's. I would reccommend it.