74-78 front brakes/spindles... useful for early conversions?

[cantflip]

This subject has floated to surface before. I thought I'd like to see a single thread where commentary is welcome.

SOLD - **REBUILT** "C" Body Disc Brakes 74 Up, Chrysler, Dodge, Plymouth, Cars

"This for sale ad of mine is going to get into a big commentary, pissing contest between what to do, and wouldn't do it.
It going to off the railroad track pretty quick from here.
If anyone want's to buy the parts, and use them on a 74 and up car that's fine, and not use them for a swap purpose, that's fine too.
I'm going to pull the plug on this ad, and mark it SOLD, so no more replies can be posted.
If anybody want's these check me out in the local Sacramento Craigslist, under the search word Mopar, in the parts for sale section."

No disrespect meant for @hemi71x , I welcome the sellers of useful parts here... I hope your items find a car that needs them. You cleaned that stuff up nice.

As far as selling is concerned, I believe our commentary usually helps the buyers decide if they need an item or not. There doesn't seem to be a clearly GOOD use for these spindles on earlier cars, but there is at least one conversion that has some of us critics thinking it's far from ideal.

Disc Brake Conversion to 1961 Chrysler 300

Thanks for providing the link @hemi71x

The issue we are concerned with is the grinding and bending done to make this work...

It seems to me... do any of you think a little more work with those spacers and steering stops, most of the grinding could have been avoided??? Maybe different tie rods too???

I last saw this brought up when @C Body Bob had spindles for sale... here's the link I found...

WANTED - 72 & 1/2 up disc brakes

I'm not selling, and I don't mean to step on anyone's sale... it seems to me that those selling would benefit from a "known good" conversion application. I also don't trust the aftermarket sources any better than I do this "grind and bend" stuff... I think all of the engineering is lacking when trying to make common bowtie parts fit whatever car.

 

[C Body Bob]

I still have mine for sale. The ball joint hole is too big to fit the earlier upper arm. I was on one of the hot rod/rat rod boards a week or so ago & a guy was making bushings to adapt some kind of big brake spindle to his project. Which is what I always though could be done. I didn't repost it here cause I figured it start a big fuss.

 

[traintech55]

THANKS Cantflip and C Body Bob. This has been a very touchy subject here for a long time. One of my projects for over the winter will be designing an adapter to fit the 1965 and up drum brake spindles to work with the Chrysler brake adapter and Calipers. I do know the 5300 rotor will fit the drum brake spindle. Scott (Locomob) is holding a set of spindles for me. We older guys have to help the new guys keep from having these lovely cars from getting mangled up. I am totally with you on this. To quote Saylor again, we need to try not to die.

 

[cantflip]

I still have mine for sale. The ball joint hole is too big to fit the earlier upper arm. I was on one of the hot rod/rat rod boards a week or so ago & a guy was making bushings to adapt some kind of big brake spindle to his project. Which is what I always though could be done. I didn't repost it here cause I figured it start a big fuss.

The whole point of my starting this thread was to encourage anyone to offer whatever they had... the bigger the poop storm, the better the results.

Well, I hope...

 

[Wollfen]

You know that bottom arm is a simple piece of steel, surely someone could make one out of wood that suits the early cars to fit these late model disks then have the wood arms used for sand casting molds to make steel ones. Not at home, but at a foundry.

 

[Big_John]

You know that bottom arm is a simple piece of steel, surely someone could make one out of wood that suits the early cars to fit these late model disks then have the wood arms used for sand casting molds to make steel ones. Not at home, but at a foundry.

The spindles are forged, not cast. A casting would have a small parting line, just like a cast crankshaft.

 

[Wollfen]

The spindles are forged, not cast. A casting would have a small parting line, just like a cast crankshaft.

Im not talking about the spindles, if you look at the pics of the part that is ground, it is the lower arm that bolts to the spindle, but you are probably right it is probably a forging too.

 

[Big_John]

I'm not real impressed with that conversion.

I think you might be really screwing with the geometry of the front end using those spindles and spacers. The grinding is very crude, although I've seen steering arms bent like that without problems.

I did a disc conversion on my 53 Windsor and that was a pretty simple bracket wand used Ford rotors. I think that would be the way to go with the car shown.

 

[1978 NYB]

I wouldn't do it.

 

[traintech55]

Now that I am home and have a better chance to look at this I think if any grinding had to be done it should have been on the spacers on the spindles, not the arm.

 

[pomonamissel]

well guys i would have counter sink that bolt in that steering arm , so the thickness could be kept , but the stop would need some modification , no great issue there and for the heating to cherry red of steering parts for bending to alining is or was okay on the early us built cars , with out issues . hell how do you think a hot forging is done , lol . but hot rodding is not for the meek . i've broke alot of parts in my time . so bob you tried a 75 up spindle on a 61 -64 ? i'd like to do my 64 300k with chrysler stuff , i have all the disc's from a 75 imp , spindle out fronts and rear disc's setups also , even the master and booster n ' p' valve . and i'm not slaming chrysler calipers , but the gm calipers are more compact and lighter and mount easily . to use older aftermarket rims , that 1/4'' off the caliper radius means balance weights can be there on my 15'' old school american torque thrusts with a chrysler 11 3/4'' dia rotors , and the gm larger dia rotor is only an 1/8'' larger on the dia ( 11 7/8'' dia ) .

 

[commando1]

Just one miniscule invisible hairline crack and...

 

[cantflip]

Thanks to all for sharing your thoughts so far. Please feel free to use this thread for both thoughts or attempts with the Formal spindles and alternatives... go off track and be the board that I love so much.

I really would like to see an alternate use for these parts, but another part of me is happy knowing these are one part of a Formal nobody else wants.

I understand when seller's who don't spend much time here think they are done wrong when we get of target. But that keeps their thread up top and sometimes helps good things happen. Here is an excellent example of a FCBO wanted/sale thread gone right...
WANTED - 1969 Chrysler 300 front valance