WANTED Disc brakes

[MrB]

Wants to buy complete disc brake set complete with spindles, rotors, calipers and all hardware.
Also wants a master cylinder for power disc brakes.

Im going to put this on my 1964 Chrysler 300

 

[saylor]

ECI brakes ask for ralph.

tell em we sent ya.

- saylor

 

[Wollfen]

If you want to go second hand, then the best system to buy is the 1973 C-body setup, they have the cheapest replacement rotors available. Mind you, if you don't do many miles in the car then any 1969-72 C-body system that already has good rotors will suffice.

 

[Bryan]

If you want to go second hand, then the best system to buy is the 1973 C-body setup, they have the cheapest replacement rotors available. Mind you, if you don't do many miles in the car then any 1969-72 C-body system that already has good rotors will suffice.

Do the 69-72 parts fit on a 64? I thought they made radical changes to the spindles, arms and ball joints between 64 and 65. I may be wrong, so hopefully someone with FL experience will clear it up for us.

 

[Wollfen]

Do the 69-72 parts fit on a 64? I thought they made radical changes to the spindles, arms and ball joints between 64 and 65. I may be wrong, so hopefully someone with FL experience will clear it up for us.

Whats most important is the lower control arm mount for the lower ball joint, I cannot picture it in my mind right now, If i could see a pic of that then I can confirm if it is an issue or not.

 

[Wollfen]

I do think that the 64 300 has a lower control arm with a ball joint in it. That will be the issue for sure since the later stuff has the ball joint attached to the spindle. A 74 on disk brake assy may be the way to go in light of this. Again, pictures will be the way to go on this subject.

 

[commando1]

2¢ and then I'm outta here.
I do not think 65-78 ANYTHING (brake wise) will bolt onto a 63/64 Chrysler.
If I am wrong, please show me.

 

[67-Fury]

Scarebird.

 

[Bruzilla]

I do think that the 64 300 has a lower control arm with a ball joint in it. That will be the issue for sure since the later stuff has the ball joint attached to the spindle. A 74 on disk brake assy may be the way to go in light of this. Again, pictures will be the way to go on this subject.

I just pulled the brakes off a 73 C-body, which has the same as the 74, and the lower ball joint is pressed into the lower control arm, not the spindle.

 

[MrMoparCHP]

2¢ and then I'm outta here.
Live with the drum brakes, learn to drive like you did back in the day.
Both my Barracuda and my Polara are both all drum cars and it has never been an issue.
So unless you plan to autocross don't bother.


Alan

 

[Bruzilla]

I stand corrected. I went out and checked the lower control arms and Wollfen is right. The ball joint isn't in the control arm.

 

[jake]

Here is my 64 dodge with the scarebird setup.

 

[MrB]

Im not a drum brake guy. I want discs in front.
Will try check out the 73/74 setup and see if that spindle could work. The rest of the parts like rotors, calipers and so on is just for core. Will buy new stuff as I think brakes is pretty important...
Will put in new joints and brakelines/hoses aswell. Probably go all the way and change shocks and stuff like that to.

 

[cantflip]

Im not a drum brake guy. I want discs in front.
Will try check out the 73/74 setup and see if that spindle could work. The rest of the parts like rotors, calipers and so on is just for core. Will buy new stuff as I think brakes is pretty important...
Will put in new joints and brakelines/hoses aswell. Probably go all the way and change shocks and stuff like that to.

For WIW drums work fine if maintained and have parts availability. The only problems with drums are: They don't shed water as quickly a discs... usually not a problem for a classic. They don't shed heat quite as well... with low speed infrequent stops they could actually work better than big disk setups... the discs main benefit is lots of hard high speed braking, they shed heat better the bigger they are... but any brake is subject to "fade"... drums wont hurt a carefully driven cruiser... they only would POSSIBLY present issues if heavy towing, serious mountainous driving or extremely spirited driving for extended lengths of time.

The down side that causes drum conversions is lack of part supply. Sometimes just for "gee whiz" effect. Too often because someone can't figure out how to make them right. Since coming to FL I have seen something like 8/10 old rear drum only cars with improperly adjusted or improperly installed drum brakes... I cannot begin to tell you how often someone said their car never stopped that good before after I did a brake job. Everything is in the FSM, don't buy cheap or "fashionable" parts. Top quality brakes without special colors or the word "ceramic" as the main focal point of the box are good (it is ok that ceramics may be a part of newer compositions). Find a good mechanic who really knows how to troubleshot front drum brakes... BTW he won't tell you to get rid of them.

 

[MrB]

I am a mechanic and still dont want front drums on this car.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with drum brakes but Im gonna tune that engine up and want some more speed in the car. Maybe even do some dragracing just for fun...

 

[Wollfen]

Im not a drum brake guy. I want discs in front.
Will try check out the 73/74 setup and see if that spindle could work. The rest of the parts like rotors, calipers and so on is just for core. Will buy new stuff as I think brakes is pretty important...
Will put in new joints and brakelines/hoses aswell. Probably go all the way and change shocks and stuff like that to.

The 73 setup will not work but the 74 up disk setup has the same assy for the bottom ball joint/lower control arm that you have in your car, go check a setup on a parts car and you will see what I mean.

 

[fury fan]

Old thread, yes, but I hafta rant.

I am waiting for the day that the 'drum brakes are good enough' philosophy will be gone. What was good enough in 1970, when most cars had drum brakes, ain't good enough for today. There are very few shops that truly know how to optimize drum brakes (like arcing the shoes to match the drums?), so they won't be as good as they were back in the day. Bigrigs in the 60s-70s didn't always have brakes on the front axle, would we say that is good enough?

And the bigger problem - EVERYTHING nowadays has better braking than our old cars, and drivers are more distracted than ever, therefore using their brakes more abruptly. Modern cars don't nose-dive under hard braking, so there's another visual cue we don't get. The CHMSL that was originally up high where it was useful is now only inches above the regular lites and of limited use. And I'll go so far as to say that kids don't get whipped for running into the street anymore, so there's that too.

All of that adds up to increased liklihood that *someone else* will cause *you* an accident, no matter how cautious you are. The odds are stacking against us, no matter what we choose to believe.

So if someone wants to convert to better brakes, please don't talk them out of it!!!!!

 

[twostick]

C-body stuff won't work on a 64.

My understanding is that FMJ spindles can be coaxed into service for that platform which should also mean late B-body too.

Kevin

 

[twostick]

Check the last post on this Moparts thread.

'62 Chrysler factory style disc brake upgrade? | Moparts Question and Answer | Moparts Forums

Kevin

 

[cantflip]

So if someone wants to convert to better brakes, please don't talk them out of it!!!!!

Wouldn't dream of it. Just because they are disc doesn't automatically mean they are better. I wish the cars came with disc brakes and better disc brakes when new. I wish there were more companies offering more applications for nice big well engineered brake systems.

What I see tends to be a lot of "how can I put discs on the car for cheap", "I want to put discs on for better performance" and "I want to resto mod my car and need disc brakes"... If I see an "upgrade" I can feel good about, I promise to give it my full endorsement. In the meantime, I may help out if you're neck deep, but I don't know if I am ready to get behind this yet. I have asked elsewhere for some honest feed back. Maybe a dedicated thread is in order.

A nice sized brake upgrade would be great, a modern functional system would definitely get my attention. I keep seeing stuff that was 1970s tech and sizes... not too different from drums in performance except for the benefits I gave above. Running softer organic compounds to save your brake rotors is also opposite to technology. I have driven many very nice modern brake systems and none of the old stuff is really the same. That's why I see this a worthless upgrade for many cars.