64 Dart brake conversion

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chrisrip

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I'm sure this question has been beat to death, but I'm not real familiar with mopars. My Dad recently bought a 64 Dart, and we would like to upgrade to a better rear end, and front brake setup. (also to get the bigger bolt pattern). He would like to just find a newer A body donor car, that would hopefully get all the parts needed to do so. Can you tell me what year range, and models would work?
 
What rear is in it now? What sort of brakes up front will you need? Brakes should be up to snuff for whats under the hood and theres loads of aftermarket stuff as well as stock stuff you can swap in.
 
originally was a 273 4 speed....keepin the 4 speed,and putting in a 360.....was hoping to find a donor with disc brakes and an 8 1/4 rear
 
I used the front disc spindles and upper control arms from a 73 dart. 73-76 dart front discs will work on you 64. Also, an 8-1/4" rear from the same car will also work. That being said, these parts are becoming hard to find. I think a 95-2000 explorer rear could be made to work without much trouble, and you would gain rear disc brakes and almost all of them are 3.73 ratio, which is great on the street. Plus they are plentiful in junkyards. For front discs, I think Scarebird makes a kit to retofit but I am not familiar with it.
 
There are lots of fm,m,and j body brakes that will bolt on with a ball joint change and an upper control arm change. Some donor cars like cop m bodies will give you a big 11.75 rotor and a large single piston caliper.

4 piston kelsey hayes will bolt on as well but they give you sbp.


Heres some good info for you.

http://www.bigblockdart.com/techpages/dbconversion.shtml


Do you want rear disc brakes? Thats a whole nuther post,lol!
 
dont forget 73-76 valiants and scamps. well make sure they are v8's. my 75 scamp had the disc brakes, but it had a big bolt pattern 7 1/4 instead of the 8 1/4.
 
ANY 73-76 disk A-body donor car will have what you need. Up front, you want the brakes, spindles and upper control arms off the donor car. Out back, it's not that simple. First, your 64 most likely has a 7 1/4" rear end, which has 2 strikes against it. First, it's not a durable piece behind a V8, and second if the car was originally equipped with 9" drums, later brakes and axle shafts won't interchange (housing too wide). The 8 1/4" rear was optional from 73-76 so keep your eyes open for one of these.

As somebody stated above, these parts have been out of production for nearly 35 years, and aren't as cheap or plentiful as they once were. But, they're still out there.
 
chrisrip said:
I'm sure this question has been beat to death, but I'm not real familiar with mopars. My Dad recently bought a 64 Dart, and we would like to upgrade to a better rear end, and front brake setup. (also to get the bigger bolt pattern). He would like to just find a newer A body donor car, that would hopefully get all the parts needed to do so. Can you tell me what year range, and models would work?
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Been there, done that!! PM me and I'll give you the complete listing of what you'll need.
 
If you find a '66-72 A-body with disc's and/or 8 3/4 rear, that would be a straight bolt-in and will keep the small bolt pattern wheel. You'll need to shorten your driveshaft and use the 8 3/4 shock plates.
 
Commando66 said:
Just a warning, the 73-76 front brake conversion moves the track width out. I think its 3/4" to 1".
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That is correct. That's why I stuck with the KH conversion. Kept the same track width as the 9" brakes
 
I'll be putting the Wilwood discs on my 9" spindles. According to Wilwood, they only move out 1/4". Gotta make the wagon a safe family cruiser.
 
Commando66 said:
I'll be putting the Wilwood discs on my 9" spindles. According to Wilwood, they only move out 1/4". Gotta make the wagon a safe family cruiser.
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My problem with that setup is the wimpy little wheel bearings....
 
Commando66 said:
Just a warning, the 73-76 front brake conversion moves the track width out. I think its 3/4" to 1".
Click to expand...

I'm planning on doing this with my 64. What issues or problems will the increased track width cause? I'm also planning on getting the 8.25 rear.
 
No offense intended to anyone - but .... I converted my 66 to discs using the 73 -76 dart set up. No change I detected in the track width on the front, but maybe I missed something. Chrysler widened the engine bay in 67.
 
Depending on what wheel/tire combo you're running, you may run into tire to fender clearance problems. Choose your wheel/tire combo after you put the late model discs up front.
 
I found a 72 Dart that I think could be bought....it's a 318 car less the motor/trans. Will any of the front suspension work? If so what will interchange, and what else will I need to find?
 
chrisrip said:
I found a 72 Dart that I think could be bought....it's a 318 car less the motor/trans. Will any of the front suspension work? If so what will interchange, and what else will I need to find?
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Just about all of the front suspension will swap over. The notable exceptions are: k-member; steering linkage, idler, pitman, and sway bar. If your donor car has disc brakes, transfer the whole system. You can keep your old control arms if you want or swap those too if the donor's are better. Check the torsion bar numbers too. You may find some heavier duty ones than what your '64's got.
 
I just did a swap on my '65 drum car to a 67 4 piston setup. I got off light. All I used was the disk spindles on out. I even was even able to use my original (NOS) drum lower ball joints! All you need to do is enlarge the 2 bolt holes in the lower ball joint from 1/2 to 9/16. Use a drill press at about 600 RPM and cutting fluid (not WD40, itll cook and dull your bit very quickly) as the pieces are forged. I used wire pulling lube as recommended by a machinist and it saved my bit the second time. Everything bolted up nicely. Later years needed the larger upper control arm ball joints. Going to a dual cylinder disk drum M/C, the larger reservoir goes to the disk as it consumes more fluid when the pads wear but you can use the more common drum/drum M/C if you just keep the disk side fluid monitored AND remove the residual valve behind the flare fitting of the disk side (if you can, some M/C's are different). You run the rear through a proportioning valve (variable or new combo valve) and the fronts tee off the common side of the combo valve. The older brake cylinders needed the residual valve to keep pressure on the seals, the newer or replacement cylinders dont need this valve due to a redesigned lip seal. good luck.
 
66dartman, mind shedding some more light on the 95-00 explorer rear end being compatible with the early A?

do you happen to remember what it was that needed to be modded? or where you found that info?
 
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