Front disc swap for my '69 Coronet

[Dr. Righteous]

My front drum brakes started making some crunching noises recently. I took it in for a brake job and sure enough the front drums were badly eat up. The drums can't be turned and they would be expensive to replace if I can find them.
NOW would be a good time for a disc brake swap. what doner car should I look for to find a set of front discs that would work on my car?

[birdistheword]

Originally posted by Dr. Righteous:

My front drum brakes started making some crunching noises recently. I took it in for a brake job and sure enough the front drums were badly eat up. The drums can't be turned and they would be expensive to replace if I can find them.
NOW would be a good time for a disc brake swap. what doner car should I look for to find a set of front discs that would work on my car?

another b-body car that came with disc brakes

[djswwg]

I'm not sure on a B body, but on my 70 Cuda I pirated everything off a 79 Dodge Aspen. Everything works as if it was designed for it, and the car stops SOOOOOOO much better. djs

[Mopardad]

If the F body parts work on the E body,they will work on a B body

Dad

[PRO]

73-76 A body spindles,75-79 b body rotors and calipers and mounts and hoses,these are bigger than the a body rotors etc and cost the same.......PRO.....

[451boy]

F body stuff doesn't work on a B body regardless of what people tell you. The F body knuckles are 3/8 of an inch taller than the B body knuckles and that alters the suspension geometry.

Get either B body disc brakes or go for the '73 to '76 A body knuckles. The A body knuckles are great since then you can use the late model uni-cast rotors which are easy to find and fairly inexpensive. If you have a anti-sway bar on your 69 Coronet then you're going to have problems with disc brake swaps unless you use the original '69 discs. (those are a pain to find and rebuild) There are some solutions but none of them super easy. There is a ton of information on this swap written, get Tom Condrans book for starters or find the Mopar Action articles that cover this swap.

[amoparguy]

For anyone considering a swap to disc brakes, here's a link to a site that covers it in detail.


1962 through 1978 Mopar "B" Body Disk Brake Conversion
http://www.hotrodder.com/nick/diskbrakes.htm

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my 2¢ worth...
amopargu

[djswwg]

In response to 451boy's post, I don't know if the F-body brakes will work on a B-body or not, but I promise you they work great on my E-body and have for the last 9 years. Just so ya know!! djs

[451boy]

Well then your suspension geometry has been screwed up for the last 9 years. The Chrysler engineers designed the E body knuckle to be 3/8 of an inch shorter than the F body knuckle. Unless you know more than they did about suspension design, you have the wrong parts on your car.

[djswwg]

Well then I've got the wrong parts on my car! Luckily it goes straight as an arrow, does not wear tires unevenly, or do anything else it shouldn't. I sincerely doubt I know near as much about steering and suspension geometry as the Chrysler engineers, but I do know this works. BTW, front end alignment was set up right after the installation 9 years ago, and has not had to be touched since. Ain't it great!!!! djs

[Duffys Ramcharger]

My dad is fixing up a '67 cornet. We went to a salvage yard and picked up everything we needed for $40. We took the old spindles with us and found another set that matched, which happened to be a '73 cornet. We would have gotten a set from a wagon if could have found one, I those are a little bigger and heavier roters.

[ZIPPY]

'73 Coronet spindles are also slightly longer than stock, and also give improper suspension geometry on an earlier B body.

Just like the F body spindles, the '73 B Body spindles---being very slightly longer than stock--will overstress the ball joints at the ends of the suspension's range of travel (full compression/full rebound).

The upper ball joint in particular is put under alot of stress that it wasn't really designed to take.

Everything might be fine initially, but doing the swap that way makes the upper ball joint at least twice as likely to
fail---with little or no warning.

I'm not saying it won't work at all---it will all bolt on, and it can be aligned just fine----in the center of the range of
travel---also since there is enough range of adjustment.

But if you were to plot the amount of camber change you have at full compression and full rebound, you'd find it to be way out of whack. Alignment shops never do that, though.

You're far better off with late A/E body spindles, they are a far safer way to go.

The only parts from late B bodies of F/M bodies that interchange (once the late A/E body spindles are bolted on to the early b body)are the caliper adapters, calipers and rotors.

[Duffys Ramcharger]

I'm not positive as to what for vehicle it was, but that's why we took the old ones. We measured and compared them side by side, they both were identical but one was for discs.