73-76 drum brake q's

[68darrt]

i recently purchased a 73-76 disc brake set up for my '68 dart that origionally had 9 inch drums. i have a fewquestions:

1. Is there a special trick to removing the ball joint from bottom of the old spindle off of the lower control arm? Its crazy tight, and i wondered if there was a proper way to remove a ball joint.

2. Do i need a new master cylinder? b/c i really dont want to have power brakes on my car

any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[71DartGuy]

I had to whack the piss out of the lower ball joint with a BFH to get it out of the LCA. I was buying new so I didnt care about marring the threads. You will need a master cylinder that has the larger rear tank b/c front disks will require more fluid. You may also need a proportioning block depending on what your car has now. Someone may tell you that it is a must, but my 71 dart came with 9 inch manual drums all the way around and for some reason it has the disk brake prop valve already.

 

[68darrt]

hey how does a disc brake prop valve look? i do have a proportioning valve on my car but how do i know if its the right kind?

 

[71DartGuy]

It should look like the one on the left in the front.

 

[2 Darts]

1. Is there a special trick to removing the ball joint from bottom of the old spindle off of the lower control arm? Its crazy tight, and i wondered if there was a proper way to remove a ball joint.

To separate the lower ball joint from the lower control arm, you need a ball joint separator tool and a bfh as someone mentioned before.

To separate the lower ball joint from the spindle, you need to remove the brake drum to get at the heads of the bolts that hold the backing plate to the spindle.

The lower ball joint and the steering arm are a single assembly. There is nothing to be gained by trying to separate them.

 

[Badawg]

For $35 you can get a ball joint/u-joint press from harbor freight. I dont have a large press so it comes in really handy even for stuff like removing and re-seating control arm bushings. With an impact driver that things worth its weight in gold!!!

 

[SpeedThrills]

FWIW, In a situation where you have to pop a ball joint or tie rod on the car, the best way I know is to use the aforementioned BFH; only don't hit the threaded stud. Hit the side of the piece the stud goes through. Someone posted on here once that you can hit each side of the piece at the same time w/ two BFH's. Just make sure you have a jack in the right spot or leave the nut on a few threads, so you don't get hurt. The biggest problem is getting a good swing w/o wacking your fender! Pickle forks damage grease seals.