Disc Brakes

[Thunderhead]

I have a 65 Sport Fury and want disc up front. I read on another board that the 73-76 A-body brakes would work. I looked up the balljoints for the two applications and they are serviced by the same #. I posted this question awhile back but had no replies. Anybody have ANY ideas??? Thanks!

[451boy]

The 73 to 76 A body stuff is the best solution although you can use any B body disc brake setup on there if you want. Absolute best factory brakes use the A body spindles plus the 11.75 rotors from the '76 or later B or R body. I have that setup on my '65 Coronet 500 and they work great. (I also have the Wilwood calipers as shown in the Dec 2000 Mopar Action article but that is a different topic)

[Thunderhead]

Thanks for the reply 451. Finding info for this swap has been hard to find. If you have anymore ( or anyone else ) I would love to hear it! Thanks a million! Thunderhead

[Old hippie]

T'head....Did the Fury move up to the "C" body in '65? If so you may be running into some spindle problems. There was an article in the Tech. section of an old Hot Rod magizine that outlined the "C" body drum to disc brake swap. I will dig it out when I get home from work in the morning and go over the high spots or you can Email me and I will go into it deeper.

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The Old Hippie Hisself
Ohippier@aol.com

[Thunderhead]

OldHippie, my Fury is a C-body. The only thing I know for sure is the balljoints are the same. If you can find the article that would be cool. Thanks for the input!
Thunderhead

[Thunderhead]

Old Hippie, are you out there?
Thunderhead

[Old hippie]

Yep....just a little brain dead. I will try to remember to get the basic info out to you tomorrow. You might give me a promp on my E-mail so I will remember. I was going to suggest that you call me but I see that you live in Tucson. If you can send me a snail mail address I will Zerox a copy of the info and mail it to you.

[This message has been edited by Old hippie (edited September 04, 2000).]

[Old hippie]

OK, Thunderhead and anyone else that is intrested, here is the info on swapping early "C" drum front brakes for disc's. This is plagerized from the December 1997 Tech Talk section of Car Craft Magazine.

Generally speaking, you will need everything from the steering arms out, including the lower ball joint. You will likely want to stay away from the 1965 thru 1968 Budd 4 piston calipers. This design used a unique lower ball joint that is no longer serviced and the drum brake lower ball joint will not work. This pretty much leaves the 69 thru 73 Kelsey Hayes single piston calipers, which are much better for street use. These calipers use the same ball joint and steering arm assemblies as the same year drum brake cars and are still serviced by Moog and Federal Mogul (as of 12/97). Please note that the aftermarket BJ/S is listed as fitting both the 65-68 drum brake applications and the 69-73 drum and disc applications, but it may not fit the early ball joint applications correctly. Play it safe and go to the later ball joint design, its a no-brainer.
You will need to use a disc brake compatible master cylinder, period. The most common ones that will work are listed as Hollander exchange #485 which was used on the following disc brake equiped cars.
71-75 full size B and C bodies
71-73 Imperials
71-74 E bodies
72 d-100 pick ups 2x4 only
Power Brake boosters are another area of concern. Usually, you have to use a disc brake compatable P/B. Sometimes you can get away without this. If your master cylinder is attached to the P/B with two bolts you will need to change to a P/B with a 4 bolt mounting face. If your existing P/B has the 4 bolt mounting face you may be home free. If the brakes lock up when the pedal is depressed just shorten the intermediate rod between the P/B and the master cylinder, it is adjustable.
Since most of the 65 thru 73 "C" bodies came with power brakes there is no need to change the brake pedal assembly. Also, grab the factory disc brake porportioning valve from the doner car or use an adjustable porportioning valve to get the correct front to rear brake balance.
This is not a word for word verbatum rewrite of the article. Like I said in a previous post, if you can get me a snail mail address I would be more than happy to Zerox (TM) a copy of this and send it whom ever needs one


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The Old Hippie Hisself
Ohippier@aol.com

[This message has been edited by Old hippie (edited September 05, 2000).]

[Thunderhead]

Old Hippie, thanks! I will E-mail my address tommorrow. Thanks a million!!!
Thunderhead

[SportFury413]

Thunderhead,


I just did this swap for my '66 Fury 3 this spring...I used a '73 Fury for a parts donor...

Old hippie has it bang on...spindles, rotors, calipers, proportioning valve, mastercylinder, the rest is the same between the drum brake c-bodys and the '69-73 disc brake c-bods...

I also swapped to manual steering and ditched the power booster, more room to adjust those valves... !

Since your gonna have it that far apart why not put in new control arm bushings, along with the rest...

For sure you will have to run 15" rims for the front to clear the calipers.

I havn't had it on the road yet (still in the bodyshop) and its looking like it'll be next spring before i get a chance to try them discs out from a 100 mph plus...


Dana