69 Newport brake swap

[MoparMcK]

I recently bought a 69 Newport. It has power drum brakes currently. I read an article that said any 69 and up Chrysler disc brake setup will work for the drum to disc swap. I have been doing some research when I can. Just making this post to see what the best options are.

What is the “go to” year and model to get what I need for the swap?

Will my booster work?

I know I need the different spindles, proportioning valve, dust shields, calipers, rotors, master cylinder. Anything else? I know I can get the master cylinder rotors and calipers at the parts stores. Just want the calipers for the core charge.

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

69 - 73 are the years of C body disc brake systems you want to use. Search disc brake retrofit or disc brake swap and you will find lots of articles. If you still have questions PM me and I can help. Your 79 Cordoba disc brake system will not bolt into your car if I recall correctly.

 

[MoparMcK]

69 - 73 are the years of C body disc brake systems you want to use. Search disc brake retrofit or disc brake swap and you will find lots of articles. If you still have questions PM me and I can help. Your 79 Cordoba disc brake system will not bolt into your car if I recall correctly.

Ok thank you. As I got thinking the Cordoba is a B body?? I have edited my post accordingly and have been doing some research.

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

The Cordoba is based on a completely different platform and the geometry of the spindles etc. doesn't work.

Also (and this is VERY important), your brake drum booster will not perform adequately to energize your disc brake system completely. You need to use the proper disc brake booster or the system can let you down when you needed the most. And this is why the disc brake systems had a different booster then the drum brake systems originally.

You will be in luck in that you will likely be able to use the later model (and more easily sourced) single diaphragm Kelsey-Hayes disc booster. The one that has everybody going around in circles trying to find is the 65 through 69 Bendix dual diaphragm disc booster.

 

[Snotty]

'73 and up parts are lower in cost than earlier years, and more readily available. However, there are complete replacement kits available from several companies today so the parts search is not necessary anymore.

You current booster will work; I have used mine for over 12 years. But, I am thinking about replacing it for the reasons that Ross just said: "...your brake drum booster will not perform adequately to energize your disc brake system completely." Not that I've ever had the need to, but I doubt that I could lock my wheels up if I wanted to. Something to think about.

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

'73 and up parts are lower in cost than earlier years, and more readily available. However, there are complete replacement kits available from several companies today so the parts search is not necessary anymore.

You current booster will work; I have used mine for over 12 years. But, I am thinking about replacing it for the reasons that Ross just said: "...your brake drum booster will not perform adequately to energize your disc brake system completely." Not that I've ever had the need to, but I doubt that I could lock my wheels up if I wanted to. Something to think about.

That's what I'm talking about - maybe it's the difference between ten or fifteen feet of stopping distance that allows you to not kill that kid on the bicycle that rides in front of you or...


And then when the lawyers check to see if your brake system was up to par and they find that the conversion was done by a non-certified mechanic AND you used the wrong booster to boot... well, the lawyers are going to have a field day.

Even if you never ever need to find out whether your brakes are performing to their maximum capabilities, it's better safe than sorry.

Just my opinion

 

[satilite73]

Going by when I owned my '71 Newport 20 yrs ago, so, not 100% up to speed on what is currently available.

Back then I used a '73 to upgrade the brakes in my '71. My reasoning was the '73 had a one piece rotor, and the spindle was made for a larger bearing. Also, back then, ONE '71 two piece rotor was more expensive than TWO '73 rotors. The '73 spindle swapped to my '71 with no issues. '74 - up was different, if I remember correctly, they were different where they attached to the lower ball joint.

All that being said, my Newport was a disc car to start with. I had a '73 Newport I was parting out at the time, and looked at the differences and cost differences. When I saw how much cheaper the rotors were, I made the switch. Back then I heard the '73 rotors were the same as 1/2 ton pickups '73-'79, but I never confirmed it.

 

[Snotty]

Going by when I owned my '71 Newport 20 yrs ago, so, not 100% up to speed on what is currently available.

Back then I used a '73 to upgrade the brakes in my '71. My reasoning was the '73 had a one piece rotor, and the spindle was made for a larger bearing. Also, back then, ONE '71 two piece rotor was more expensive than TWO '73 rotors. The '73 spindle swapped to my '71 with no issues. '74 - up was different, if I remember correctly, they were different where they attached to the lower ball joint.

All that being said, my Newport was a disc car to start with. I had a '73 Newport I was parting out at the time, and looked at the differences and cost differences. When I saw how much cheaper the rotors were, I made the switch. Back then I heard the '73 rotors were the same as 1/2 ton pickups '73-'79, but I never confirmed it.

When I thought I had '73 parts, I bought new rotors: $180 for both. When I learned I actually had '71 parts, finding the correct rotors was tough enough, but $470 for both!!! Wow!! The two-piece issue is the reason for the scarcity and the cost.

 

[BAD69FURY]

I recently bought a 69 Newport. It has power drum brakes currently. I read an article that said any 69 and up Chrysler disc brake setup will work for the drum to disc swap. I have been doing some research when I can. Just making this post to see what the best options are.

What is the “go to” year and model to get what I need for the swap?

Will my booster work?

I know I need the different spindles, proportioning valve, dust shields, calipers, rotors, master cylinder. Anything else? I know I can get the master cylinder rotors and calipers at the parts stores. Just want the calipers for the core charge.

View attachment 530430

I just did this conversion from drum to disc on my 1970 Chrysler Newport. My advice is do not be in a hurry, do your homework, it will save you a lot of time, money, headache, and grief. There is a lot of good valuable info here if you search for it. I know there are sticky threads on this topic somewhere, its been covered here many times. It was recommended to me to use factory parts, and I’m glad I did. It took me over a year to source all the correct parts to do the swap. But essentially I used the 65-72 disc brake spindles with caliper brackets, and wide mouth pin calipers. Beware of auto parts stores selling you supposed “C body calipers” most of the time they give you a “b body caliper” in a C body box, you’ll notice the difference cause the c body pin calipers are slightly wider. Rotors are 11.75 by inch and a quarter wide. Uses A6 and A2 bearings, I recommend Timken. Used the Disc/drum dual diaphragm bendix booster. Unfortunately I had no success with the correct mopar combination valve, and c body disc/drum master cylinder, probably just bad luck getting some bad units. Ultimately what worked for me was using an off the shelf mopar 4 bolt disc/drum master cylinder 1 1/8 bore and a GM combination valve and everything was solid, my brakes have been fantastic since and work great!

Good luck with your conversion, it will make a world of difference and you will enjoy driving your barge with confidence!

 

[BAD69FURY]

Correction I used 69-72 disc brake spindles. Also here is one of the sticky threads with lots of valuable info:

65 Fury disc brake conversion advice

 

[1966newport]

good luck finding 1973 calipers

 

[Snotty]

good luck finding 1973 calipers

It was 12 years ago when I looked and had no problem, but I haven't looked recently.