Dusterbingthepeace
Active Member
Will a disc brake set up from a 73 challenger fit on a 73 Duster? If not, what mods will be needed? This is a factory set up from the challenger.
Challenger Brakes on a Duster?
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Dusterbingthepeace
Active Member
Thank you cudamark
Dusterbingthepeace
Active Member
One other question, would I meed to replace the upper and lower control arms for a disc conversion?
1970Duster
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You'll need the 73+ upper disk brake/big bolt pattern arms from an A-body. You'll also need the disk brake spindle from a 73+ a-body.
blackbomber
Raging Member
I love my stock disk setup on my '73. Even without power assist, it is great to drive. Then again, my last car was a '67 Dart with the 9" manual drums.....
Your '73 duster has drum brakes up front? Is it a big bolt pattern car? I know they were supposed to be, but I've heard of some of the later drum brake cars still having the 5x4" bolt pattern.
If you've got a big bolt pattern car, the Challenger brakes will fit. If you've got a small bolt pattern car they won't fit.
If you've got a big bolt pattern car, the Challenger brakes will fit. If you've got a small bolt pattern car they won't fit.
FYI.
All 6 cylinder, 73 76 A body cars, with Drum brakes, kept the small 4 inch bolt pattern.
No 4 1/2 inch bolt pattern, drum brake, 6 cylinders were "supposidly" ever been built.
Dusterbingthepeace
Active Member
The car was originally a slant 6 but has the BBP up front. It also has aftermarket centerline rims. I bought it from a kid who didnt really have a clue about the car. HE purchased it from a guy who spared no expense on the project. It has all new brake lines, shoes, drums, emergency brake cables and master cylinder. I believe He was setting it up for a disc conversion.
cudamark
Well-Known Member
If you have the stock upper control arms, they will fit either drum or disc brakes for that year and any other year and model with the BBP brakes. The only cars with the small upper ball joints were the '72 and earlier A-bodies.
Dusterbingthepeace
Active Member
Thanks Mark, That will save me some cash. This is my first mopar, and its definitely a learning experience as i go.
Map63Vette
Well-Known Member
I've got a set of E body calipers at least on my 67 Dart (were there when I bought it). They fit fine, but the location of the port for the brake line isn't really ideal. I found out they were E body when I went to buy new lines for them (tried to move them from the front of the spindle to the back for sway bar clearance but couldn't get a brake line with enough bend in a banjo fitting to clear stuff, even tried a custom place). If you keep them on the front though you can probably find a better line solution than the stock E body stuff.
Dusterbingthepeace
Active Member
So if the control arms are essentially the same, then the only real difference would be the spindles between disk and drum? So in theory i can do my own disk conversion?
cudamark
Well-Known Member
The control arms of an A-body and E-body (or any other body) are not the same! It's only the ball joint stud the is the same size so it will fit the tapered hole in both spindles. Drum and disc brakes don't share any common parts that's why it's best to get the whole setup off one donor car if possible.
DusterKrazy
Well-Known Member
I have disc brakes from a '70 Challenger on my Scamp. It also has rotors from a Fifth Avenue that were modified to fit.
'70/2 rotors are two piece and $$$$$$$$!!
This is good advice to a neophyte for the most part, but mixing a variety of stock parts from different donor sources to come up with a working system is very doable and sometimes necessary. Depending on what parts you are mixing, it's also the easiest way to screw up if you don't know what you're doing.
Case in point; I used '76 Cordoba rotors, calipers (sliders), and master cylinder with '73 up Dart uprights (spindles), caliper brackets, proportioning valve, power booster and it's under hood linkage (monkey motion) and bracket, when I converted my drum brake '67 Coronet. Using the proportioning valve from the Cordoba would have meant modifying or changing out various brake lines, while the proportioning valve from the Dart was a direct exchange for the existing Coronet drum brake distribution block and fit all the Coronet brake lines without changes to any. It also mounted up to the fender exactly like the removed distribution block with the same bolts!
I also used flex lines from an unknown source I had laying around because they fit the calipers and the fittings on the hard lines. As it turned out, those brake lines were just short enough that if you hit a bump while negotiating a sharp enough turn, the one that was stretched tight would loosen on the caliper. This resulted in spraying brake fluid the next time you stepped on the brake and little brake force. At this point use of the parking brake was usually necessary to stop. It also resulted in getting out immediately to tighten the offending line and replenishing the now down on fluid master cylinder was the order of the day.
Needless to say, the flex lines were replaced with longer ones that wouldn't loosen before the car became my daughter's back and forth to high school transportation.
The 383 I installed about the same time as the change over to disc brakes sounded meaner than it really was, causing her to complain of being challenged all the time by boys at her school, but that's a story for another thread.
Rick Ehrenberg's Mopar Action article is still a must read on this subject and the good news is the complete article is still available at http://www.moparaction.com/Tech/archive/disc-main.html
ironracer1
Gearhead
To fo sho, the conversion that a previous owner had done on my 66 Sat was from an F body (everything E Booger don't like) sliding, rear hung calipers, ect,but w/ a front swat bar, the only thing I can do is get braided lines made a bit longer, if you jack the frt end up, and turn the wheel to full lock, there is a chance the stock line will be ripped apart (they are way too tight) I know of no other solution. Not trying to hijack, but , any input? Thank you m9in advance, Chuck
I'm going through this very thing on a 64 Fairlane to Granada disc brake swap because the flex lines coming out of the Fairlane drums point in the opposite direction compared to the Granada disc brake caliper (effectively the same as moving a caliper from front to rear or visa-versa).
My solution is to replace the hard lines from the proportioning valve to the flex lines with longer ones I've formed to point in the opposite direction at the end, and moving the bracket at the flex line joint on the engine box rail from one side of the spindle to the other, but the same distance from the center (of the imaginary axle center). This allows me to keep the length of the flex lines about the same as the ones that were going to the original drums and gives me some assurance they won't rub on anything when the wheels are turned. I was going to use stock Granada flex lines (which I still have new), but a local company, Oil Filter Service (www.oilfilterserviceco.com) offers high quality braided ones to order, and is quite reasonable on price, so I've decided to go that way.
No reason that same solution (reversing the hard line direction and moving the brackets) wouldn't work when swapping the disc brake calipers from front to rear on the spindle of a B body to keep the flex lines a reasonable length and prevent binding up or rubbing on anything.
inkjunkie
Well-Known Member
Our 64 Fairlane has Granada spindles........ready for some bumpsteer?? If the day ever gets here that I get around to the Fairlane I will be putting the drum spindles back on and just doing a SSBC conversion on it......
The amount of bumpsteer the thing has is down right scary.....
Thanks for the heads up, I'll check it. If I find it's a problem, perhaps just a little bending of the steering arms will bring it in. If that doesn't fix it I guess fabbing up brackets to use the original hubs and uprights with Fox4 PBR calipers and discs will have to be done, it ain't going back to drums!
Dusterbingthepeace
Active Member
The problem I have is that the previous owner started some form of conversion. Its BBP but originally a slant 6 car with a v8 conversion when I bought it. My car is a 73 which came with disk from the factory. My local parts store had everything in stock for a 73 listing disc brakes. If I change from drum to disk spindles, everything should bolt up correct?
I've read and reread all your posts in this thread and I'm still confused here.
Do you have large ball joint upper control arms on the vehicle you want to install the disc brakes?
If you do, the 73 to 76 A body, and the later F, M, J, and B body uprights (spindles) bolt in. The later ones are slightly taller (3/8") and if you use them attention should be payed checking for possible ball joint binding at the extremes of travel with stock upper control arms (currently not thought to be a problem).
Any rotor or caliper from one of the above named vehicles with work, but you must match the caliper bracket to the combination of rotor/caliper used (large or small rotor, pin or slider caliper). Brake bias concerns can be addressed by caliper diameter (2.60 on 73-75 A bodies, 2.75 on the rest), rear wheel cylinder diameter, and proportioning valve used. There may be other vehicles beyond these that carry rotors that work, but these will for sure.
Again, as stated above, reading the E-boogers comprehensive brake article on the Mopar Action website should answer most of your questions. We can fill-in the rest here, but we need to know exactly what parts you are trying to use and on what vehicle.
Dusterbingthepeace
Active Member
Sorry, I reread my last post and realized i left out some info. The car was converted to a v8 with the font end having BBP and big ball joint as well. (i can only assume this was converted as well, without going to disc brakes yet). Being that it was a / 6 car originally, and came with drum brakes, the information Im getting is that it was a SBP at one point in time. My local parts store lists all disc brake parts including proportioning valve, brake hoses, master cylinder, rotors, bearings, calipers (loaded) for a 73 v8 duster, AS WELL AS drum brakes for the / 6 version. From what Im understanding, all disc 73 dusters were BBP cars, so with that bring said, and from what i can tell on my car, at this point only the spindles are different. The real problem is the previous owner (younger kid) didnt know much about the conversion or the car in general. He bought it but realized he was in over his head and sold it, which is where i got the car. So as long as i get (for instance) 73 spindles, and all the disc parts for a 73 listing, everything *should* bolt together, keeping the year consistent in ordering parts.....
cudamark
Well-Known Member
So the car was converted from factory disc to BBP drum (from and unknown source) and now you want to go back to factory disc using a '73 Challenger as a donor? As long as the control arms are the stock '73-up A-body, the '73-6 A-body and '73-4 E-body brakes are a bolt-in stock application. All the factory '73-6 A-body upper and lower control arms and lower ball joints are the same.....drum or disc. You just need everything from the spindles out.
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