Suspension rebuild and disc brake swap...by a noob for noobs
I just rebuilt the front suspension on my '74 Swinger slant and replaced the drum brakes with disc. Having never done anything like that before, I thought it might be helpful to post some pictures and descriptions in case any other newbies out there want to try it. The job is mostly done now but there's a lot to post so I'll do it in installments. Here's the "before" picture.
The vision for the car is a daily driver with OEM-type components (no tubular control arms, adjustable proportioning valves, etc). I'm not trying to restore the car to its showroom state but I want all the upgrades to be factory options from '74, with a few exceptions. This car was originally outfitted with base mechanical components except for power steering.
The disc brake cars in '74 had the large (4.5") bolt pattern, but the drum cars like mine still had the small (4") bolt pattern. In order to avoid having different bolt patterns front/rear, the first step was to upgrade the stock 7 1/4" rear end to an 8 1/4" with LBP (LBP 7 1/4" axles exist but are rare). I found the 8 1/4" at my local salvage yard for $250 plus a little extra for the u-bolts and shock plates. Long story short, it needed all the bearings and seals replaced which cost me a bundle at the shop when I decided not to tackle that myself--you can read about that here. On the bright side, it turned out to be a sure-grip which was a pleasant surprise (2.71 gear ratio which is fine by me).
If I had to buy new wheels anyway I might as well go with rallyes for looks. I debated ordering some 15x7" reproduction wheels but decided to go with the factory option 14x5.5". Before making that decision I made sure I could find decent 14" tires. I went with Michelin Defenders because they have worked well on my wife's Odyssey and are available in the size I wanted--205/70R14 which is very close to the outer diameter of the 6.95/14 stock tires. (I considered steel wheels, dog dish caps and BFG T/A radials with white letters but that would have been too "muscly" for my car. I also considered keeping the original "deluxe" wheel covers but I find them ugly.) Having chosen rallyes, I got a set of 4 with trim rings and center caps (the "acorn" type that was used in '74) from a FABO user. One of the rims turned out to have the lug holes reamed out, so then I found another pair of rims from another FABO user. That left me with 5 good LBP rims, which is good because I needed a LBP spare tire anyway. I sandblasted the rims (thanks to MOPARMITCH who let me use his blaster), then painted them with rattle-can primer, silver, and clear matte wheel paint.
While replacing the rear end I also swapped in new 5-leaf stock replacement springs and bushings from ESPO Springs-n-Things (great products, great tech support). To keep the factory setup, I went with 10" drum brakes. My 8 1/4 actually came with 11" plates, so I had to go back to the salvage yard for 10" backing plates, parking brake levers and struts. I reused my old parking brake cables, wheel cylinder push rods and shoe guide plates, and I got all the other brake components cheap from RockAuto. More on the rear end swap here. One thing I found out is you can't always use torque settings from the shop manual: read here about the new wheel cylinder bolt I broke off. I also had a hard time flaring the new brake lines, which I asked about in this thread. Here's a pic right after my son and I finished installing the new springs and rear.
You can see the car's tail is higher than before. The front end is too low because I hadn't yet adjusted the front ride height, which needs to be done after replacing the rear springs. Not shown in the picture is how the new springs immediately reduced rolling in turns, even though I hadn't touched the front end yet. This was Easter Sunday 2016 (yeah, we took a morning break for the holiday). In the next installment I'll start the front end project.
I just rebuilt the front suspension on my '74 Swinger slant and replaced the drum brakes with disc. Having never done anything like that before, I thought it might be helpful to post some pictures and descriptions in case any other newbies out there want to try it. The job is mostly done now but there's a lot to post so I'll do it in installments. Here's the "before" picture.
The vision for the car is a daily driver with OEM-type components (no tubular control arms, adjustable proportioning valves, etc). I'm not trying to restore the car to its showroom state but I want all the upgrades to be factory options from '74, with a few exceptions. This car was originally outfitted with base mechanical components except for power steering.
The disc brake cars in '74 had the large (4.5") bolt pattern, but the drum cars like mine still had the small (4") bolt pattern. In order to avoid having different bolt patterns front/rear, the first step was to upgrade the stock 7 1/4" rear end to an 8 1/4" with LBP (LBP 7 1/4" axles exist but are rare). I found the 8 1/4" at my local salvage yard for $250 plus a little extra for the u-bolts and shock plates. Long story short, it needed all the bearings and seals replaced which cost me a bundle at the shop when I decided not to tackle that myself--you can read about that here. On the bright side, it turned out to be a sure-grip which was a pleasant surprise (2.71 gear ratio which is fine by me).
If I had to buy new wheels anyway I might as well go with rallyes for looks. I debated ordering some 15x7" reproduction wheels but decided to go with the factory option 14x5.5". Before making that decision I made sure I could find decent 14" tires. I went with Michelin Defenders because they have worked well on my wife's Odyssey and are available in the size I wanted--205/70R14 which is very close to the outer diameter of the 6.95/14 stock tires. (I considered steel wheels, dog dish caps and BFG T/A radials with white letters but that would have been too "muscly" for my car. I also considered keeping the original "deluxe" wheel covers but I find them ugly.) Having chosen rallyes, I got a set of 4 with trim rings and center caps (the "acorn" type that was used in '74) from a FABO user. One of the rims turned out to have the lug holes reamed out, so then I found another pair of rims from another FABO user. That left me with 5 good LBP rims, which is good because I needed a LBP spare tire anyway. I sandblasted the rims (thanks to MOPARMITCH who let me use his blaster), then painted them with rattle-can primer, silver, and clear matte wheel paint.
While replacing the rear end I also swapped in new 5-leaf stock replacement springs and bushings from ESPO Springs-n-Things (great products, great tech support). To keep the factory setup, I went with 10" drum brakes. My 8 1/4 actually came with 11" plates, so I had to go back to the salvage yard for 10" backing plates, parking brake levers and struts. I reused my old parking brake cables, wheel cylinder push rods and shoe guide plates, and I got all the other brake components cheap from RockAuto. More on the rear end swap here. One thing I found out is you can't always use torque settings from the shop manual: read here about the new wheel cylinder bolt I broke off. I also had a hard time flaring the new brake lines, which I asked about in this thread. Here's a pic right after my son and I finished installing the new springs and rear.
You can see the car's tail is higher than before. The front end is too low because I hadn't yet adjusted the front ride height, which needs to be done after replacing the rear springs. Not shown in the picture is how the new springs immediately reduced rolling in turns, even though I hadn't touched the front end yet. This was Easter Sunday 2016 (yeah, we took a morning break for the holiday). In the next installment I'll start the front end project.