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Camaro Cradle Swap PICS

60837 Views 148 Replies 46 Participants Last post by  yutzybrian, 
dblaron
4
I decided to create a thread to show the installation of a 5th Gen cradle in my car. So far i have read about tons of people swapping just the carrier (obviously), a few people have actually swapped the knuckles, and i read about one person who supposedly swapped a cradle but didnt provide any pics or info about it.

Heres the story. Skip to Post 2 if you dont care......

A few months ago i got to playing around with the idea of doing a gear swap on my car (like many others have done). Being the kind of person I am i couldnt just stop at a simple carrier swap, I started researching. I came across Cleveland Pick A Parts (CPAP) ebay site and noticed that they had a complete rear section for sale out of a 2010 Automatic SS camaro. It had the 3.27 gears and at the time they were having a 25% off sale. Now that really got my gears (pun intended) turning.

Could I simply purchase the whole assembly and bolt it straight into my car? Eliminating the need to pull the axles, unbolt miscellaneous links and arms ect. I decided to do some more research and found the threads about a few guys who installed camaro knuckles and the required control arm on their cars but used the stock G8 cradle still.

I came to the conclusion with the research I had done and the killer sale going on that I would give it a shot. I decided to call CPAP. They had sold the setup that i was looking at and didnt have another one. I asked how often they get camaros in and was told "Usually every week!". I also decided that I really wanted 3.45 gears from a manual car and gave them my number to call when one came in. I waited a few weeks and gave them a call, No manual camaro came in. This went on for a few months. A couple automatic models came in. I finally was done waiting and called to order the 3.27 setup when guess what? A manual car was due to be delivered the next day!

They sent me some pictures the next day and we agreed on a price. I was on cloud nine. Shipping to a business with a forklift was the cheapest route to go so I called a friend at the Chevy dealer not far from me. He gave me the green light to have it shipped there, how awesome is that. I emailed Pat G for a tune update and he sent it over a few days later. Again Awesome!


I picked it up this morning. Here's a few pics. I already have CTSV calipers on my car so the Camaro calipers I am getting are a bonus and will be sold on here shortly. I am planning on starting the install this Sunday with help from a few friends here on the Board. More install pics to come.

Loaded up at Abel Chevrolet


Got home and pulled the plastic off





Progress-
Everything is disconnected on the G8, Brakes, driveshaft, exhaust, ebrake cables. The pins on the harness for the abs sensor are opposite gender so i cant simply re-pin the connector. If i had the right pins handy i would just replace them. I will cut and solder the wires instead. Im taking a break, waiting for some help to come over to drop the cradle out. So far i only have one little helper.

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dblaron
4
First issue
The wheel speed sensors are different on the camaro. I was already aware of this ahead of time, here is a quick pic of the harness connector. I am hoping to pull the connectors apart and swap them over. If that doesnt work ill simply cut and solder the wires.

I cut the G8 connector off of the cradle and soldered each wire onto the Camaro harness.
Passenger side G8 grey wire goes to Camaro Brown wire
Driver side G8 grew wire goes to Camaro Tan wire
Camaro harness






For removal.
Pretty straight forward. Jack up the car and take the back wheels off.

Drop your exhaust.

Disconnect your drive shaft-
pull one bolt, put the car in neutral, rotate the axle to turn the shaft until you can reach another bolt, put the car in Park, remove the bolt, but the car back in neutral to rotate the shaft again ect......

Pull your calipers off and hang them off to the side. No need to disconnect the brake hoses.

Pull your ebrake cables off the knuckles.- Pretty easy they hook onto a tab on the back of the knuckle.

Unplug your wheel speed sensor harness, its the grey connector near the gas tank on the passenger side.

Remove the lower Shock bolts.

Support the cradle with a jack directly underneath the carrier. Remove the 4 bolts that hold the cradle on. 21 mm i believe. If these haven't been removed before they can be a pain. Be careful, if the they are being stubborn use a torch to heat the bolt up to melt some of the factory locktite.

Slowly lower the cradle with the help of a friend on either side to balance on the jack. It balances pretty well on the jack.


Tied Up the Calipers

Coming Down!
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dblaron
8
The Cradle is in
There was a few hickups,
First. The spare tire well was in the way of the cradle. The G8 cradle has a large recess to clear the well, the Camaro's does not. I knew the sway bar was bent to avoid the well but didnt know about the cradle.

G8 cradle


This wasnt going to stop me. We decided to "alter" the well to give us the room we needed. I dont carry a spare currently so im not too worried about room in there. Maybe one day I will but ill cross that road when I get to it. I used a heat gun and Yeti laid underneath and pushed with various tools to change the shape.

I reused my BMR sway bar, the G8 brackets mount onto the Camaro no problem, no issues there. The camaro sway bar hits the spare tire well big time. If i wanted to do some more surgery to the well i could use the camaro bar. Maybe one day









This is the camaro stock bar. I wanted to leave it on there somewhat while we installed the cradle to see where it hit.

Second Issue
Cts-v Calipers and not a direct bolt on to the camaro. WHAT!!!!
The camaro calipers are notched to clear the dust shield on the camaro. The cstv's are not. Nothing a little notching of the dust shield cant fix. I could have tried to mimic the notch on the caliper but chose to do it this way.



This is the notch in the camaro caliper. I decided to make my car fit the calipers, not the calipers fit my car.....
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dblaron
A few more things.
It appears that the new cradle lifted the back of my car a bit. Maybe 1/2" or so. Also, the new setup is approximately 3/8" narrower than the g8 setup, we measured rotor to rotor.. I was actually hoping this was the case. I have been fighting a rear rubbing issue with my wheel combo. I hope this fixed the issue


The Camaro bushings are huge! And they stick up quite a bit out of the cradle. I believe this is why it raised my car up.


The brake hose brackets are different. the G8 has those silly black plastic turn-in washer thingys. The camaro uses at bracket on the hose that bolts to the upper control arm. Either swap the hoses or figure out a way to support your g8 hoses. If you dont already have brembo calipers like I do this swap would kill 2 birds one stone.

The parking brake works just fine. I reused our parking cables, they hook right up to the camaro knuckles.
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The Yeti
In for results! Oh wait, I am helping with the install :)
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dblaron
The Yeti said:
In for results! Oh wait, I am helping with the install :)
Click to expand...
I hope you can multitask. One hand on a wrench, the other on your camera!
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The Yeti
dblaron said:
I hope you can multitask. One hand on a wrench, the other on your camera!
Click to expand...
I am good with holding a camera and performing at the same time, been doing it for years lol
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R
I would poly bush the diff it while it's out of the car..... GL with the install.
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executor999
Genius idea. And an epic mod with a lot of benefits! Definitely going to follow this thread until the end.
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WhiteGXPG8
How about swapping the engine cradle and front suspension? That might be nice.
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dcg8554
I have done the rear knuckle conversion but I am curious about the cradle swap. I have seen ZL1 rear assemblies out there and this could be another solution. With the Holden HSV GTS coming out I wonder if they use the ZL1 cradle assemble??? I have read that the rear sway bar for the Camaro will not clear our cars, but one for the HSV should take care of that. Good luck.
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dblaron
dcg8554 said:
I have done the rear knuckle conversion but I am curious about the cradle swap. I have seen ZL1 rear assemblies out there and this could be another solution. With the Holden HSV GTS coming out I wonder if they use the ZL1 cradle assemble??? I have read that the rear sway bar for the Camaro will not clear our cars, but one for the HSV should take care of that. Good luck.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I actually made a "best offer" on a zl1 rear on ebay but it wasn't accepted. I plan on using my bmr sway bar that I already have on the car. We'll see how that all goes.
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M
hmm, I was under the impression that the rear cradle mounting was a little bit different, as the location of the 4 main big bolts and cradle bushings go, but I guess I was wrong. very good idea.
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dblaron
matthewo said:
hmm, I was under the impression that the rear cradle mounting was a little bit different, as the location of the 4 main big bolts and cradle bushings go, but I guess I was wrong. very good idea.
Click to expand...
That could be! My problem is that I haven't found anywhere on the Internet that says so.........
There's a guy on here my the name of Americanparts that posted that he put a camaro cradle into a wrecked g8 that he bought. That's the only thing that I've found so far. I'll try to find the thread.......

http://www.g8board.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58488&highlight=
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dblaron
Updated post #2 with issue
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V8 G8
sub'd. This is awesome and a great idea
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dcg8554
If you want, you should be able to use the Factory G8 harness and just switch over the Camaro wheel speed harness connector, the pins come out pretty easy. This would prevent you from cutting the harness and having to worry about a poor connection or corrosion later, especially with the ABS and traction control. When I did my conversion I just took apart my G8 wheels speed harness connector and then plugged the wires into the Camaro sensors and sealed them. Everything works perfectly. However I am looking for a junk yard that has a Camaro so I can get the proper harness connectors. I want a true plug and play conversion.
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dblaron
dcg8554 said:
If you want, you should be able to use the Factory G8 harness and just switch over the Camaro wheel speed harness connector, the pins come out pretty easy. This would prevent you from cutting the harness and having to worry about a poor connection or corrosion later, especially with the ABS and traction control. When I did my conversion I just took apart my G8 wheels speed harness connector and then plugged the wires into the Camaro sensors and sealed them. Everything works perfectly. However I am looking for a junk yard that has a Camaro so I can get the proper harness connectors. I want a true plug and play conversion.
Click to expand...
What connectors are you looking for? I might be able to help.
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dcg8554
I'm looking for the harness connector that connects the Camaro harness to the Camaro wheel speed sensor. They are 2 wire connector, the right rear side should have a WH and BN wires, and the left rear side should have a OG and TN wires.
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dblaron
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Ok, this is the one youre looking for. Ill do some research, they have to be available somewhere.

The entire harness is Part number 92229815





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