How far should i go with swapping stuff out in the front end?

[junkyardhero]

i have a question, why are you so insistent on keeping 13 or 14" wheels?

anyway... if you want to be a dedicated cheapskate and do the absolute bare minimum here's what i'd suggest.

73~73 spindles with the factory 11" brakes, these are widely available and cheap. to run these you'll need the large upper balljoint so either source some 73~76 upper a arms, again widely available OR you can get the ball joint adapters from dr. diff and run your stock small joint upper arms.

you'll need new lower ball joints for the disc spindle, but beyond that you don't need anything else unless you're planning on rebuilding the front end. which, you're planning on rebuilding the front end, right? right?

from there, stock 14" big bolt steelies will fit and again, are widely available. they're not going to take a tire much bigger than a 205, but that's no matter because there really isn't any good tires in 14" anyway.

and no, you don't need power brakes. just size your master cylinder appropriately. and don't forget an adjustable proportioning valve.

 

[DumpsterFire]

8.8 will work, A body rear brakes were 10x2, you could use other sizes, but you will need to add a rear adjusting valve to keep rear brakes from locking up, you can go to Dr diff and look at his info and call him to double check what you need, if you need to save cash just keep looking for deals local to you to save on shipping.

Yeah the thing is made of mostly local trash.

 

[DumpsterFire]

i have a question, why are you so insistent on keeping 13 or 14" wheels?

anyway... if you want to be a dedicated cheapskate and do the absolute bare minimum here's what i'd suggest.

73~73 spindles with the factory 11" brakes, these are widely available and cheap. to run these you'll need the large upper balljoint so either source some 73~76 upper a arms, again widely available OR you can get the ball joint adapters from dr. diff and run your stock small joint upper arms.

you'll need new lower ball joints for the disc spindle, but beyond that you don't need anything else unless you're planning on rebuilding the front end. which, you're planning on rebuilding the front end, right? right?

from there, stock 14" big bolt steelies will fit and again, are widely available. they're not going to take a tire much bigger than a 205, but that's no matter because there really isn't any good tires in 14" anyway.

and no, you don't need power brakes. just size your master cylinder appropriately. and don't forget an adjustable proportioning valve.

Just want a stock looking thing with hubcaps. Pulled it out of the woods and intend to keep it looking that way. I can always put better wheels and tires on it later if I feel like it.

 

[junkyardhero]

Just want a stock looking thing with hubcaps. Pulled it out of the woods and intend to keep it looking that way. I can always put better wheels and tires on it later if I feel like it.

fair enough. but know going into it that 13 and 14 severely limit your tire choices-- both in size and availability as well as compound/performance options-- and what disc brakes you are able to run.

 

[DumpsterFire]

fair enough. but know going into it that 13 and 14 severely limit your tire choices-- both in size and availability as well as compound/performance options-- and what disc brakes you are able to run.

Yeah I don't really care. That's easy to change later stuff. I like a shitbox sleeper

 

[roger buetow]

SORRY MY BAD I meant hub not spindle.

 

[RustyRatRod]

There are lots of 14" wheels that will work with disc brakes if you want to add them.

 

[Kern Dog]

Wasn't even gonna do power brakes on my garbage but it might be smart to make it be able to stop

I've never driven a disk brake car with out power. I thought they required more force than drums

I have a few nuggets for you.
First off, a manual front disc/rear drum A body can be a really impressive thing. I own 3 of them. They stop better than my '70 Charger with power 4 wheel discs. Pedal effort is great. The fronts skid before the rear like they are supposed to do. What helps is that the A body cars I have are a good 700 lbs less than my Charger.
Secondly, you have options.
You could use a 10" or even an 11" front drum/spindle/knuckle from a 66-70 B body car. You can even do it with your original upper control arms using the ball joint spacer that Dr Diff sells. These front drums would have the 4.5" bolt circle you want. You'd need everything between the control arms though...Drum, hub, spindle-knuckle and lower ball joint. Using these will require adjusting the tie rod sleeves because the B body lower ball joint steering arms in the lower ball joints are angled about 3/4" further toward the center of the car than the A body drum lower ball joints are. This same thing happens when you do a 1973-76 A body front disc swap into a drum brake car.

 

[65TerrorCuda]

The stock 9" drums on my 64 dart stopped great, but after putting the v8 10" drums on it's even better. Either one is fine, I only went 10" because of an article Rick Ehrenberg wrote in Mopar Action years ago about the tiny knuckle bolts(?) shearing off on the 9"

 

[DumpsterFire]

I would convert to stock 73-76 bbp disc setup which can be run with 14” bbp steelies. You will need upper arms, spindles, and the brake parts. At the same time I would do strut rod, lca, and uca bushings as well as ball joints.

Discs will do wonders for your car. There is simply no comparison.

Do these parts bolt on?

 

[remytherat]

Effectively yes. Well sort of.

The bushings require some creativity but generally yes everything will bolt up with no grinding or welding.

 

[JDMopar]

Do these parts bolt on?

Yes. Just find a 73 and up A body with factory disc brakes. Get all of the brake parts from the brake pedal out, all of the lines and proportioning valve, upper and lower control arms, and spindle assemblies complete with all the disc brake parts. When you go to buy new bushings and ball joints, buy them for whatever car you took all those parts off of. It will all work in your Dart. Unless the car you rob everything from is a power brake car and you want to retain the power brakes, buy a master cylinder for a manual brake car.