72 Duster Resurrection

[Duster Captain]

Im here! Stupid life and job stuff has been getting in the way of my Duster today....

Onward!

Duster captain, where are you located? This will make it easier to figure out which things are best to source for your car. I'm in Abilene, so theres no shortage of old stuff in my junkyards to pick from. Guys from up north like cdnEHbody dont have access to this old stuff anymore which is the reason he is sourcing the scarebird kit. Personally i prefer to use factory stuff if its available. I dont regard M body stuff as old even though the last ones rolled off the line in 1989, probably because my wrecking yards still have plenty of them, and the rotors, wheel bearings, seals, brake pads and hardware kits are the same as 73-76 A body disc brake. Only things that are a bit different are the calipers. Caliper brackets and spindles, but it all works.

Im in Houston. Tons of pick a part boneyards around but I am struggling to find ones that have older cars....any ideas? Abilene would be a trek for me, but if the juice is worth the squeeze...

I was broke (still am and most likely will always be due to my hobby)
cheapest way is rebuild the drum brakes (but go to dual master for safety)

money wise, it's a tossup between 73-up and a conversion anymore.

next cheapest way is to piece it together for the disc brake upgrade. I did the scarebird brackets using the original 9" spindle and hub from the drums and had the autoparts get the rest piece by piece as money came in.
Yes ,you can stay small bolt pattern wheels if you get the rotors drilled at a machine shop (or use the supplied paper pattern, make copies for future use if you want to) my cost was 25.00 for both. that was using scarebirds brackets and auto store parts only, not their kit. my cost was easier to bear since it was piece by piece.

most of the other kits I have seen or used have a center register that can be a problem using you old wheels, there is supposed to be one kit that's a copy of the 73-up parts and a bolt on but I have not used it or seen it work on early A's yet.

here is my setup. yeah I had the hub drilled so that I could go large bolt pattern also but I rolled the car around on the small bolt pattern studs for a long time before re-drilling the front hubs to LBP.
View attachment 1715093364 View attachment 1715093365 View attachment 1715093366

Thanks for the info, you are not the first person to suggest the scarebird kit, I think that will be on my list for eventual disk upgrade.

Good looking kit. If you want to stay small bolt pattern, thats definitely the inexpensive way to go. If your wanting to eventually put some nice looking aftermarket wheels on it small bolt pattern is not the way to go as your choices are limited for the small bolt pattern. BTW DOT required dual chambered master cylinders, and a low brake pressure warning light to be standard equipment by 1967. Since his is a 72 he is pretty much set in that area.

I am looking at a complete running 1986 M body fifth ave parts car for $200. This is probably the best parts car deal next to buying a V8 A body parts car that you can buy if redoing an A body. It has a 318 V8, and an A999 variant of the A904 with a lock up converter. The M body radiator is a bolt in on 67-72 radiator supports, along with the fan and shroud. The disc brakes are a bolt in. It has an aluminum oil filter adaptor, the power steering box refits all the way back to 1967. 3 speed wiper motor fits A body And theres so much more you can mine out of one of these before parting out the remainder that you dont need on evilbay to make back some of your money spent to buy it, and scrapping whats left. I think M body spindles and discs also fit early A body.

Yeah sounds like I will need to go to the large bolt diameters for sure eventually.

Just checked rock auto. I dont know if you have 9" or 10" drums, but the wheel cylinders apparently are the same left and right in the back, but left right specific in the front. They are pretty dirt cheap about $3 to $5, the right front is about $14 though. The brake lines are pretty cheap at $7-$9 each. Master cylinder isnt cheap. Hopefully yours works.

If you dont have them, theres 3 brake tools you need for doing drum brakes. I got mine at sears long ago in the mid 1980s. You need a star wheel adjusting spoon, a spring cup remover/installer, and return spring remover/installer.

If you decide to do the brakes, shoes etc, pay close attention to location of all the hardware and which shoes out of the set have more lining on them. Its been a long while but i believe the leading shoes at each wheel have to have more lining on them than the trailing shoes at each wheel.

Also only pull apart one side at a time, so you can use the other side as a point of reference seeing where everything goes and how it fits together to put it all back together

Specialty drum brake tools below. A very cheap way to save you cuss words and skinned knuckles. The brake spring cup removal tool 3rd pic below, mine is made by lisle, and has a different sized cup on either end making it more versatile. I couldent find a pic of it online though.

View attachment 1715093460

View attachment 1715093461

View attachment 1715093462

Wow, I did not know these parts are so cheap, I'll probably just rebuild the whole drum system. Thanks for the price lookups, Im putting together a big shopping list. Definitely liking the special tools.

You can also go to www.mymopar.com

They have the entire factory issue 1971 plymouth body service manual available for free download
And the entire factory issue 1972 plymouth chassis service manual available for free download.

The wiring differences between 71 and 72 are very minimal. If you have room on your computer for these FSMs i recommend downloading them, then you can print out copies of whatever you need to look at. The info is worth its weight in gold.

I found that manual earlier on the net and yes, it is awesome. Maybe I'll just take that sucker to a print shop....

 

[Duster Captain]

I plan on pulling the front brakes apart tomorrow after work, so I will post pictures then. Hopefully I can get the front brakes back into working order by the end of the weekend so I can drive some more...

 

[moparmat2000]

If going big bolt pattern eventually, you may want to concider installing disc brakes off an 84-89 M body fifth ave, diplomat, fury. At leat this keeps it all mopar uses bigger piston calipers, and is a direct bolt in without sourcing different parts from different makes. Doctordiff even makes bushings so you can use your existing small ball joint upper control arms and not have to source the big ball joint upper arms.

Some parts you have to source for the scarebird kit for different applications include toyota previa van rotors and chevy celebrity calipers. So essentially a lighter duty rotor, and small bore caliper from a front wheel drive car. So your getting discs that stop a little better than a set of properly adjusted drums your replacing them with. Personally i will pass on that, and install a disc setup that came off a mopar RWD setup designed to stop a heavier car with a V8.

If you plan on a V8 later, and eventually hopping it up, you would be way ahead in more ways with the mopar setup. M body stuff is not that expensive and should be all over the junkyards by you. I got mine for $100 everything from the spindle out to the outer dust cap. About $6 in grade 8 bolts and nuts, a pair of A body disc brake lines, and a new diplomat M body master cylinder on closeout from rock auto for $12.29. Sure i still need to buy A body disc brake lower ball joints. If you source your stuff right, you could do a complete M body setup with everything to install it including master cylinder for about $250-$300 and keep it all factory mopar. If you rebuild the calipers yourself, about $5 for a seal kit to do both, and get the used rotors turned about $10 each instead of buying new rotors $50 each and remanned calipers about $30 each you can save even more money on an M body setup.

Maybe from a dollars standpoint just get the drum setup working decent enough to drive the car. Then sit back and think of what you want to do. If you go scare bird, the rotors and calipers are a hodge podge of different makes, and if deciding to redrill to big bolt pattern with that kit, you will end up paying a machinest to redrill everything to a larger pattern anyways. This makes your previa rotors a 1 off pair, and if you replace them later on, you will have to redrill the next pair. Just seems like too much expense to try and go cheap to me IMHO.

See below scare bird brackets, and 2 different scarebird kits. One for a 5 bolt 4" circle (what you currently have) and a scarebird kit for 5 bolt 4.50" bolt circle. About the only thing these kits do is allow you to use your existing drum brake spindles and lower ball joints. They certainly are not cheap either. Using your existing drum brake spindles is fine, if theres not a factory bolt on disc brake setup that fits your vehicle. I went this route on a 1960 chevy el camino i had, nothing later model in disc brakes that fit it. Plus the stock mopar caliper mounts are pretty heavy duty compared to these flat cut steel plates.

 

[66Dvert]

Did you have to install longer wheel studs?

yeah I did, I opted for the screw in studs instead of just longer studs. 1/4 longer was what I wanted to get and would have been perfect for stock rime,but couldn't fine any that were that exact length so I went 1/2" longer. I now have dual pattern holes on the rotors so I can run either SBP or LBP on the fronts. no stock 13" don't fit yes most 14's do (rally's and magnums for sure) I had the stock 14 SBP on but the narrow rims rubbed on the caliper top. I could have ground it down a bit to clear but decided against that since I had both SBP and BBP rally's.

 

[moparmat2000]

Description of scare bird bracket kit parts you need to source below. Including specially drilled rotors that they can drill for you for a fee. Light duty toyota previa rotors, that will need to be redrilled. Chevy celebrity calipers from a light duty fwd application, you will need to also grind on the calipers to make them fit.

I dunno more money for lighter duty parts, machine and grind to fit frankenstein setup, or factory bolt on mopar setup designed for that use. Its a no brainer. No offence Mr. 66dvert, but the more i looked into this setup the more i will walk farther away from it. Especially when i can do stock mopar stuff off an M body way cheaper, i can also slide on larger 12" cordoba rotors and caliper brackets on the M body spindles and have big brakes with 2.75" piston calipers. All direct bolt on, all mopar. No grind to fit, no drill to fit, no light duty mismatched parts from other makes, and no problems with factory swaybars not fitting. BTW what master cylinder do you use with chevy celebrity calipers? I do know a 1&1/32" bore M body master cylinder works fine with mopar M body 2.75" bore calipers, and its not metric, so the stock A body brake line fittings thread right on.

 

[moparmat2000]

I believe M body spindles will also fit early A 63 to 66 too. Dont get me wrong, i'm not knocking it, the scarebird kits are great for vehicles where nothing disc brake from later models are a bolt in fit. In this case their kits are designed to use late model components and install them on a drum brake spindle. If i had a 1950s dodge sedan or straight axle 1950s dodge truck this would a perfect option, however with junkyards full of diplomats, furys, and fifth avenues where its all a bolt on for your application, why not go factory mopar with everything thats a bolt in fit.

What some people dont know is when the A body was discontinued at the end of 1976, the F body volare aspen were its successors and came out in 1976 alongside the outgoing 1976 A body. A lot of pieces including A body spindles were used in the F body with some minor spindle geometry changes for use with new at the time steel belted radial tires. The F body also spawned the 1978 J body lebaron , and the 1982 M body fury, diplomat, fifth ave. The suspensions stayed essentially unchanged from 76 to 89. ALL of these cars from 76 to 89 used disc brakes. Thats a lot of cars. If you cant find a set of these FMJ brakes complete from the spindle out, inside a local boneyard, then your just not looking hard enough. Lol. Heck even the brake rotor is the same part number from 1973 A body to 1989 M body, and the brake pads, bearings, dust seals, and mounting hardware are the same part numbers from 1973 to 1989

 

[moparmat2000]

If using 73 up A or M body spindles and dont want to buy A body large ball joint upper arms , these adaptor spacers shown below from doctor diff are available. Allows use of your existing small ball joint upper arms on the larger tapered hole in the mopar disc brake spindles.

 

[moparmat2000]

Im here! Stupid life and job stuff has been getting in the way of my Duster today....
Im in Houston. Tons of pick a part boneyards around but I am struggling to find ones that have older cars....any ideas? Abilene would be a trek for me, but if the juice is worth the squeeze...
.

I would call every one of em. I just checked in your area. Theres a LKQ pick a part. I would head there first looking for 82 to 89 diplomat/fury/fifth ave M body brakes. I wish we had a pick a part out here. I would pick up the phone and call em all on that. Sometimes its just better if you just go and look for yourself. Most of these places have so much stuff they dont even know what they have. If all else fails you can get em out here in abilene from spindle out from $100-$150. I'd meet ya and take you to our 1 big yard thats got 10 acres of cars and about 2 dozen M bodies. The other mopar yard out here has about 8-9 M bodies. You dont live in the rust belt states finding one shouldent be a problem, i bet if i went down there i could find at minimum 12 M body cars in your boneyards down there.

Heck, check your local police auctions. You may be able to buy a complete M body for a couple hundred. 1982 up they are all 318 cars.

Pull out everything you can use, sell the rest of the pieces on evilbay, scrap the remainder. If you do it right everything you keep from the car could cost you nothing if you can sell some of rhe other pieces from it. They come 2ith 15x7 steelies that mopar dog dish caps fit. Not sure but i think their rear axle fits an A body.

Also, You said you have a 318. Do you have the transmission for it? The slant 6 trans wont fit a V8.

 

[pishta]

get yourself a drum/drum MC while you are at the drum rebuild, you got a drum/disc due to the larger reservoir for the front disk calipers that displace more fluid.

 

[moparmat2000]

9 inch drums use a different master cylinder than 10 inch drums. The 10" manual drum master cylinder is the same part used with disc brakes. He has not said what size drums his car has. His pic showed finned front drums. 10" drums ??

 

[Duster Captain]

So definitely drums on the front:

They look "finned" to me, does that mean they are definitely 9" or 10"? I will get into them this afternoon and can get a real measurement and some pics.

 

[moparmat2000]

Not sure. Get a tape measure on em. Good thing is if they are 10" drums, the master you need, can be used w a mopar disc brake conversion.

Not sure if you read thru my pros and cons of the mopar vs scary bird disc conversion yet. Its pretty lengthy.

Just did a google search of wrecking yards in houston area. Theres a thread talking about the best 30 wrecking yards in the houston area. 30!!!! **** we have only 5 and only 2 of em are any good.

 

[cdnEHbody]

My 9s are finned, tape forsure

 

[moparmat2000]

Well i let my fingers do the walking in houston area junkyards this morning. The websites are clunky and slow, the people i did call were rude to me, and when asked if they knew of a yard who had those parts, they said, no!!!

I guess i'm used to it here where people are friendly, and if they dont have what you need, they will happily point you in the direction you need to go to get what you need. If fhe rest of that town is that way, i will never visit.

I can see now why you would want to do a scary bird conversion. Duster captain, if you decide on mopar parts and M body brakes, come on out to abilene after my back is healed up, like late november, and i will take you out to our big boneyard for some M body brakes. We will have to pull them ourselves. I have a spare set of M body rotors that have been turned on a brake lathe, and coated with cosmoline so they dont rust, i upgraded to 12" cordoba rotors and caliper brackets so i dont need them. i can sell those to you fairly cheap, all you would need to do is clean and repack the wheel bearings in them and put in new dust seals.

We can pull the rest from an M body car in the salvage out here. Without the rotors they will probably want $50-$75 for everything. Calipers, caliper brackets, dust shields, spindles. Stop at my local bolt place and get the grade 8 bolts and nuts, or if you come up on a saturday, i can get the bolts and nuts ahead of time for you.

My local yard lets me drive my pickup truck up and down the rows and i work off the tailgate. Makes it easier when buying stuff especially when its 10 acres of stuff.

Let me know if your game to do this. If you get the parts now while you can, they dont go bad sitting in the corner of your garage or storage shed until you can rebuild and use them.

Pic of my truck below at the 10 acre yard, i'm pulling parts from a 71 valiant/scamp, and the warning sign

 

[Duster Captain]

Not sure. Get a tape measure on em. Good thing is if they are 10" drums, the master you need, can be used w a mopar disc brake conversion.

Not sure if you read thru my pros and cons of the mopar vs scary bird disc conversion yet. Its pretty lengthy.

Just did a google search of wrecking yards in houston area. Theres a thread talking about the best 30 wrecking yards in the houston area. 30!!!! **** we have only 5 and only 2 of em are any good.

I did read through your post on brakes, scare bird, 80's M body swap, etc. Holy cow there is a whole world of brake stuff that I did not know. Thanks so much for the write ups, they will be invaluable to my project. I expect I will need to read through them several more times.

Off the top of my head, I agree with doing the M body conversion for sure based on the scarebird limitations and problems. And I do like the idea of factory mopar stuff.

Well i let my fingers do the walking in houston area junkyards this morning. The websites are clunky and slow, the people i did call were rude to me, and when asked if they knew of a yard who had those parts, they said, no!!!

I guess i'm used to it here where people are friendly, and if they dont have what you need, they will happily point you in the direction you need to go to get what you need. If fhe rest of that town is that way, i will never visit.

I can see now why you would want to do a scary bird conversion. Duster captain, if you decide on mopar parts and M body brakes, come on out to abilene after my back is healed up, like late november, and i will take you out to our big boneyard for some M body brakes. We will have to pull them ourselves. I have a spare set of M body rotors that have been turned on a brake lathe, and coated with cosmoline so they dont rust, i upgraded to 12" cordoba rotors and caliper brackets so i dont need them. i can sell those to you fairly cheap, all you would need to do is clean and repack the wheel bearings in them and put in new dust seals.

We can pull the rest from an M body car in the salvage out here. Without the rotors they will probably want $50-$75 for everything. Calipers, caliper brackets, dust shields, spindles. Stop at my local bolt place and get the grade 8 bolts and nuts, or if you come up on a saturday, i can get the bolts and nuts ahead of time for you.

My local yard lets me drive my pickup truck up and down the rows and i work off the tailgate. Makes it easier when buying stuff especially when its 10 acres of stuff.

Let me know if your game to do this. If you get the parts now while you can, they dont go bad sitting in the corner of your garage or storage shed until you can rebuild and use them.

Pic of my truck below at the 10 acre yard, i'm pulling parts from a 71 valiant/scamp, and the warning sign

View attachment 1715093691

View attachment 1715093692

Now you feel my frustration. Houston is a gigantic city and a major hub for big business, shipping, etc. There are tons of auto parts yard and pick a parts.

But is it still hard to find older car stuff in those places. Its always a bunch of rough locals running these yard who only know about 1990 and newer parts for people replacing stuff on their cars. I have gotten the same blank expression "no idea" response when asking if they knew of yards with older stuff.

But dont let that ruin your view of Houston! I've lived here my whole life and the people are awesome! There are some classic car meetups I go to that are chock full of all kinds of different people who live and breathe old cars and love helping each other out. I think the guys that run the auto yards in the......rougher..... parts of town are just a bit salty and only care about making money off people that need new taillights on their Honda civics...they just dont know/care about anything else.

But again, its a huge city, Im sure I just have not found the right places. There are bound to be some "older" part yards on the fringes.

Thanks for the offer to show me around up there man, I really appreciate it! My plan right now is to get these drums refreshed and functional so I can drive the /6 around while I plan my next move. Pretty much what you said earlier.

Once I get tired of the /6 and want to go V8, I might take you up on your offer to help me find M body stuff up there, sounds like the price is right and I will bring my snake boots!

I have no real idea an a timeline for that. I have a freshly rebuilt 318 sitting around that I bought off another mopar guy but I know that's going to be a bit of a project. Like you mentioned, I need a v8 trans to replace the /6 904 I have now. And new engine mounts, driveshaft, accessories, etc....

I'd just like to get her driving good and functional for now so I can cruise.

 

[moparmat2000]

Cool, i hear what you are saying on just getting it to run and stop. Sometimes M body spindles and parts pop up on fabo from time to time. Currently i have these turned rotors with bearings, and a sandblasted clean set of M body caliper mounts i wont be using. Shipping a set of used and turned rotors is however cost prohibitive. At that that point your better off finding em new if you had to pay shipping.

However, I wouldent wait too long to head this way for a set of these even if to put aside for later use, when scrap prices go up they will clear out most of it, and smash it down, and it will be gone.

Your total cost for this stuff would be between $100 and $150. Borrow a buddies fuel sipper car to get here cheaply. Calipers rebuild cheaply. The stock phenolic pistons are problematic, get stainless steel pistons. Other than the 79 cordoba big 12" rotors and cordoba caliper brackets all of which bolt right onto M body spindles, heres the breakdown on new rockauto parts all on closeout i bought to do my sons front discs on his 69 cuda. Incidentally he is only 5 now, i am rounding up everything now for that future project while i can still get it cheaply.

84 Diplomat steel caliper pistons (bendix) $3.39 ea
84 Diplomat caliper rebuild seal kit $1.99 ea
84 Diplomat wheel dust seals (SKF) $1.25 ea
84 Diplomat brake pads (raybestos) $15.25
84 diplomat master cylinder $12.29
74 Dart front brakelines $9.96 each

Again those brakes wont go bad sitting in the corner of my shop for the next 10 years, neither will those new parts packaged up in their boxes to rebuild them. If you have the 10" drums the master cylinder you have should work for the M body discs, since its designed for disc and drum application.

 

[Duster Captain]

Cool, i hear what you are saying on just getting it to run and stop. Sometimes M body spindles and parts pop up on fabo from time to time. Currently i have these turned rotors with bearings, and a sandblasted clean set of M body caliper mounts i wont be using. Shipping a set of used and turned rotors is however cost prohibitive. At that that point your better off finding em new if you had to pay shipping.

However, I wouldent wait too long to head this way for a set of these even if to put aside for later use, when scrap prices go up they will clear out most of it, and smash it down, and it will be gone.

Your total cost for this stuff would be between $100 and $150. Borrow a buddies fuel sipper car to get here cheaply. Calipers rebuild cheaply. The stock phenolic pistons are problematic, get stainless steel pistons. Other than the 79 cordoba big 12" rotors and cordoba caliper brackets all of which bolt right onto M body spindles, heres the breakdown on new rockauto parts all on closeout i bought to do my sons front discs on his 69 cuda. Incidentally he is only 5 now, i am rounding up everything now for that future project while i can still get it cheaply.

84 Diplomat steel caliper pistons (bendix) $3.39 ea
84 Diplomat caliper rebuild seal kit $1.99 ea
84 Diplomat wheel dust seals (SKF) $1.25 ea
84 Diplomat brake pads (raybestos) $15.25
84 diplomat master cylinder $12.29
74 Dart front brakelines $9.96 each

Again those brakes wont go bad sitting in the corner of my shop for the next 10 years, neither will those new parts packaged up in their boxes to rebuild them. If you have the 10" drums the master cylinder you have should work for the M body discs, since its designed for disc and drum application.

Makes sense to me, I think I will try a bit harder to find some boneyards with some M body stuff around here before considering driving out, but if it becomes clear that is the best option I would do it.

The individual parts are nice and cheap as you pointed out with your list.

In any case, I really need to figure out if I have 9 or 10" drums before doing anything.

 

[moparmat2000]

I'm guessing and betting 10" drums. That master cylinder in your pix looks like its as old as the car, and it looks like the 10" drum, or disc master in the catalog pix.

BTW i am also going to order the upper and lower ball joints for his car soon too. All 74 dart disc brake stuff. Lower ball joints left and right K781, K783, and upper ball joints K772. Then 10 years from now when the price has gone up and the available amount is dwindled they will be waiting to go in the corner of my shop.

 

[moparmat2000]

I promise though i wont let the Aholes running the wrecking yards to be what i think of the houston area. Maybe its just that i'm used to small town Abilene.

 

[Duster Captain]

Well, I just pulled the front driver side drum and this is what everything looks like:

removed dust cap, nut, and drum, here is the bearing:

Here is the whole assembly in all its rusty glory:

And the big answer is.......9":

Shoes look like they've got some life left in them:

Drum is a pit scarred up but does not worry me. I do not feel a lip from a shoe wearing into it for too long..

Ok so whats next?

I plan on doing the air flush idea and then filling with new fluid and giving it a shot. I saw no evidence of leaks and the flex lines look and feel pretty solid. If I can get the brakes functional so I can do some gentle test driving that would be sweet.

I also need to pull the passenger side off and check for leaks. Stay tuned.

 

[moparmat2000]

For now if your just testing her out, i'd put all the drums back on if theres no evidence of leaks, power flush the lines with compressed air, bleed it, and (carefully) drive it. With it up on jacks after bleeding, have somebody press and hold the brake pedal, then go around the car and make sure each wheel thats up in the air doesnt turn with pedal depresssed. If somebodys pressing the brake pedal and you can turn a wheel or 2, then likely you have a frozen or sticking wheel cylinder at that wheel.

I recommend you do this check, and heres why.
Remember my buddy with the 68 el camino that we did the compressed air brakeline clean out i mentioned? We didnt do this check prior to a test drive, and one wheel cylinder was froze up. When he toed the brakes pretty strongly at 25 mph the car made a hard left because the right front side brake didnt grab. I had to check my pants after i punched him in the arm.

 

[moparmat2000]

When you get ready for real to drive this thing for awhile with those drum brakes at the very least change out all 3 flexable rubber lines, and the old master cylinder, and put some new shoes on it for safetys sake

 

[Duster Captain]

For now if your just testing her out, i'd put all the drums back on if theres no evidence of leaks, power flush the lines with compressed air, bleed it, and (carefully) drive it. With it up on jacks after bleeding, have somebody press and hold the brake pedal, then go around the car and make sure each wheel thats up in the air doesnt turn with pedal depresssed. If somebodys pressing the brake pedal and you can turn a wheel or 2, then likely you have a frozen or sticking wheel cylinder at that wheel.

I recommend you do this check, and heres why.
Remember my buddy with the 68 el camino that we did the compressed air brakeline clean out i mentioned? We didnt do this check prior to a test drive, and one wheel cylinder was froze up. When he toed the brakes pretty strongly at 25 mph the car made a hard left because the right front side brake didnt grab. I had to check my pants after i punched him in the arm.

I bet that one made you pucker up for sure. I'd like to avoid that ride if I can so I will be sure to test both wheels while its jacked up.

When you get ready for real to drive this thing for awhile with those drum brakes at the very least change out all 3 flexable rubber lines, and the old master cylinder, and put some new shoes on it for safetys sake

Agreed, I'll need to rebuild the whole drum kit if I want to drive a bit more seriously, but....

I think I found out why there is no fluid in the front brake system.

I pulled the front passenger drum. Everything looked normal:

I removed both front bleed screws and blasted the master cylinder hole with my compressor as discussed. Some fluid sprayed out of both bleeder holes then they both started spraying out air.

I went to put the bleeders back in so I could re-fill the system with brake fluid. The driver side bleeder went in fine but the passenger side felt like it was just spinning in its threads. I take a closer look and hear a piece of something fall out. This is what fell:

Its a chunk of the steel from the slave cylinder right where the threads of the bleeder screw are. If you look closely at this pic, you can see a chunk of the metal missing from the top of the bleeder hole.

So the passenger side needs at least a new slave cylinder. Which means I need to completely disassemble the passenger side brakes....

Should I just rebuild the whole thing while im here? New shoes, springs, hose, etc

Should I do the driver side also so the car does not pull to one side?

 

[moparmat2000]

The good thing is the lines are clear with no blockages. You need to do the rears the same way Wheel cylinders are cheap. At least on rock auto for some reason i think the RH one is.

Theres several ways to go on this one. If the left one bleeds fine and doesnt leak, you may want to concider leaving that one alone if its not leaking, and just change the bad one, install new shoes etc, however if it leaks later on, you have ruined a set of new brake shoes.

If they are not going to be permanent because you will be eventually going discs in a few years, id go bare minimum you need to have it safe. Change the lines, wheel cylinders, master cylinder, and shoes. Get the drums turned on a brake lathe. Repack inner and outer wheel bearings on the front, and reuse the return springs that you have unless spring hardware kits are cheap enough. With the new shoes set to the correct drag initially with the brake spoon , this setup would be ok to safely stop a stock 318.

Rockauto will help you keep it cheap.

 

[moparmat2000]

Drum brake parts are cheap on rock auto. The key word is closeout, and try to get everything shipped from the same location to save on shipping.

Wagner #2330 front $5.57 closeout
Wagner #2329 rear $5.57 closeout

Carlson H7130 spring hardware kit $4.44 closeout (same kit fits front and rear 9"drums)

Front wheel seals National 41257 $0.64 each

Raybestos C washer 2 reqd W6477 $0.02

Etc etc by the time the smoke clears with wheel cylinders brake hoses, and master cylinder, your prob going to be into it $75 - $85. But it will be safe to drive, and you can use that brake system for 5 -7 years as a daily driver with a /6 or a stock 2bbl 318 , while doing any other stuff it needs and building up the funds and parts to do a disc conversion and a more powerful V8