A-body Disc brakes

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POPS6T6

POPS6T6

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There is a ton of information out there on this swap, and to me for safety sakes; it seems to be the best upgrade I can do with the car. I have a 1966 Barracuda that I am 3rd generation owner of, and I found disc brakes from a 1972 Duster and my question is, will those fit? They include: Spindles, Calipers, Rotors, Rubber brake lines, Master cylinder, Proportioning valve. All for around $200.

Is that a good deal, and what else will I need to complete the swap?

Thanks,

John
 
pops6t6 i am no expert here, but i think you can do that. the one problem to consider here is why a 72? the 72 is a small bolt pattern so you will be no better off with wheel choices. secondly the 72 is a 4 piston setup disc. this is fairly expensive to buy parts for and maintain. here is a link that you should check into before you do anything. it will explain everything you need to know and then some....good luck

http://cars.rasoenterprises.com/Mopar-Brakes.htm
 
Now that is an informative website! Wow, almost to much information for me.

I had asked what size bolt pattern, and he told me that they were 4.5, so it seems maybe they have been upgraded to the larger bolt pattern and also he said that these are single piston calipers???? Seems like a pretty good deal, and I am leaning towards buying them.

Any more input would be appreciated.

John
 
well if they are single pistion they are not from a 72. it has to be 73 and up. bigger bolt pattern as well has to be from 73 and up. you will need to know exactly what they came off of in order to not go crazy and have to figure out what brake lines you will need to get to fit them......anyone else here with any thoughts?
 
Hi POPS6T6:
Tom Condran has detailed almost everything you need to know plus many more related topics see:

http://www.moparpages.com/suspension_book/ .

It cost 30 bucks and is worth the money if you have never done this before. I disagreed with him on one point and that you can reverse the steering knuckles so you can install a front sway bar, he was adamant that it causes Bump Steering.

Even MOPAR Action disagreed, when they recently reposted there disk brake swap article.

Go to http://www.moparaction.com/tech/archive/disc-main.html and read that too.

I believe I paid much less at my local auto wrecker for the parts.

Good Luck
 
$200 isn't a bad deal for all the parts. You will also need to eventually get the rear swapped over so that the bolt patterns match. There's also nothing wrong with the early four piston brakes if you decide to go that route. Yes, they are more expensive, but they are a great brake and parts are still fairly easy to find (IF you know where to look).
 
I just found out that he confirmed the Duster is actually a 1973. So all the parts should swap fit with no modifications correct?

Thanks,

John
 
He does not have the upper A-arms...are those something hard to find? My fear is to get involved in this project and not have all the neccesary parts on hand, or find that they are impossible to get.

Thanks,

John
 
You need those, because the disk brake spindles take a bigger ball joint than the upper control arms that you have.

I done this swap back in 96. You'll be glad that you did this when you get all the parts. So for $200 buck what do you get then?

Lee
 
Lee is right; it was the first thing I did when I began modifying my Barracuda and you need the upper control arms. They were easily obtained at the junk yard but 70s era cars are getting scarce. I did the job 3 or 4 years ago and the cost of the donor parts was under 100 dollars. Plus, having never done it before, removing the parts from the donor car was invaluable experience. Tom’s suspension book goes into great detail about how to get this job completed properly. The MoPar Action article has a real good parts list and easy to follow sequence pictures, but its important to plan ahead. Most of the suspension bushings are worn-out and rebuilding the front end now makes sense. If you plan on adding a sway bar later on, the stock caliper location will cause interference but you can swap them to orient the caliper in the rear.
Good luck
 
Blues65 said:
If you plan on adding a sway bar later on, the stock caliper location will cause interference but you can swap them to orient the caliper in the rear.
Good luck
Click to expand...

Yes, I put them in the rear on my car, but didn't realize that they would would hit the sway bar. That's good info to have(thanks), I'm not running a sway bar as of yet. I put them in the back cause my hard brake lines were in the back.

Lee
 
I struggled with that decision but Mike Ritz (Team Starfish) mentioned it to me. When I discussed it with Tom Condran at our MoPar Alley meeting he got furious and insisted it would cause bump steering but a few issues back MoPar Action reissued there Disk Brake swap article and stated the knuckles were symmetrical and reversing them has no adverse affects. Check out the ADCO sway bar from summit, 1 1/8 inches and uses one of the stock holes in the K-Member. By the way Lee, sweet looking car.
 
Blues65 said:
I struggled with that decision but Mike Ritz (Team Starfish) mentioned it to me. When I discussed it with Tom Condran at our MoPar Alley meeting he got furious and insisted it would cause bump steering but a few issues back MoPar Action reissued there Disk Brake swap article and stated the knuckles were symmetrical and reversing them has no adverse affects. Check out the ADCO sway bar from summit, 1 1/8 inches and uses one of the stock holes in the K-Member. By the way Lee, sweet looking car.
Click to expand...

Personally, I would follow Richard Ehrenberg's advice over anyone else's. He is a member of SAE and can actually explain why something will work (or won't work). Ehrenberg cautions against rear-mounted calipers due to brake hose routing issues. I haven't done this swap yet, but I am gathering up all of the parts to do it. I will have to address the sway bar clearance issue since I have a 1 1/8" bar on the front, which is mounted in the stock position and will most likely hit the calipers. I may switch over to the Firm Feel front bar, which clears the calipers, according to their website.

Lee (another one)
1966 Barracuda, 340, 4 speed
 
I drove my car with them in the back and worked flawlessly, but to each his own.

Mopar Muscle did an acrticle on it also and showed that the F body style wouldn't cause bump steer either. Do have any personal experience with those, no.

Anyway Blues65 thanks for the compliments. I was checking your car out last week I do believe, checking the interior out. You've got a nice car also.

Lee
 
My advice was read everything you can on this procedure and I pointed him to two good sources of information. Performing brake work of any kind is potentially dangerous and the best advice I can give is, read everything you can on the subject before starting the procedure. I wasn’t advocating he install calipers to the rear, just pointing out areas to consider and adding that I struggled with that decision for days before did it.
 
POPS6T6 said:
They include: Spindles, Calipers, Rotors, Rubber brake lines, Master cylinder, Proportioning valve. All for around $200.
Click to expand...

John, since you confirmed the parts to be from a 73 you will also need to have the upper control arms. The Ball joint is larger so the ball joint in your current ucr will not fit the spindle and the new ball joint won't fit into your ucr either.

FWIW, when I did this conversion I used the doner calipers and master cylinder as cores to get rebuilt items. I tossed the rubber brake lines and rotors and purchased new. I also popped for new wheel bearings, ball joints, rubber lines and suspension bushings.

Basically when I was done the whole front end was either new or rebuilt.
 
I will add a small piece of info here that may be of interest. If you seek out a 77-79 B body or a 79-81 R body and get the cliper adapters from one of these with 11 3/4" discs ( I got mine froma 78 Magnum if I recall correctly) the adapters will allow you to use an 11 3/4 inch rotor with the exact same calipers and pads that you would use for the smaller 10 1/2" rotors, and gives you huge bullet proof fron brakes. It is what I currently run on the front of my 73 you see pictured here. Rotors are also still available brand new also, as they are the heavy duty parts that all the taxi's, cop cars, etc. came with. I will try to dig up my reciepts for my rotors to give you a source but I am pretty sure I bought them at Pioneer Rim and Wheel here in town. Like I said, you can still use the same calipers and pads so no searching for that stuff.

There is a little info on this on the BB Dart web site, but I rarely suggest that site to people as I feel the majority of those guys have serious attitude problems, something to do with the belief that because they have a BB in their Dart they are the only ones who know anything about these cars and they generally behave like children in my expierences with them, BUT their is some good tech their. Here is a link to the specif page I am refering too, ---->BB DART brake tech page

I know there are other sites that cover this info but if anyone wants more info about it or needs a picture that shows the difference between the caliper adapters to make it easier to identify them when searching for them, just let me know and I will be glad to send you what I have on the subject.
 
It seems the more questions I ask, the more answers I get which makes for more questions!

Wow, that didn't even make sense.

Anyways, I have another question, I read above that I needed the upper a arms from a 73-75 a body, so my next question is, would the parts out of a 76 Duster work? I found a 76 fairly cheap and was wondering if the rear end, and disc brakes would work on my 1966 Barracuda?

Thanks for any input!

John
 
Yes I do believe so. If the 76 as disk brakes already I do believe it will all work. Isn't 76 the last year of the A-bodies? The rear end would be a direct bolt in also and you would have the big bolt pattern all the way around. You would also have bigger brakes in the back also.

Originally that's what I did. I put an 8 1/4 rearend with the big pattern so that I would have the same lug pattern. Since then I put an 8 3/4 out back.

Lee
 
Lee,

That was my original plan, to use everything from this car to get the bigger bolt pattern, plus a few parts off the engine to get my car running and out on the road, it has sat WAY to long!

Do you know what rear end the 76 Duster would have came with? 8 1/4? I am trying to find that, and the guy who is selling it does not know what is on it and to be honest, I am a bit hesitant to ask him as he may realize it might be worth more, or the fact that I am going to scrap out his car might make him a bit shy to sell it to me.

J
 
I'm not really sure which it will have the 7 1/4 or the 8 1/4. If you look under the back of the car and the inspection plate in oval and has 10 bolts then it is an 8 1/4.

I now what you mean about sitting way too long. I haven't drove my car in 10 years. Long story.

I hope you get it going quick. That's cool that you're keeping the car in the family and you like it.

Lee
 
Lee,

Thanks for that link, I had it before but had to reformat my pc and lost all my favorites and all.

The only problem is that the car is about 3-4 hours away, so I am trying to narrow down what it will have before I make the trip.

John
 
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