Disc brake upgrade

Thanks Andy. Pretty comprehensive article. Lots of good info all in one place. I plan on making the disc brake swap for my 74 Duster an up coming winter project. I really like the authors approach - using existing parts when possible. Even here in the Phoenix, Az area finding 70's and early 80's stuff in the local bone yards is becoming a challenge. Gotta start by doing some measuring on my existing 74 ( originally a /6 car - all drum brake ) Duster. Per all I have read, car should have the larger ball joints and spindle bearings as OEM. Looks like the spindles gotta go anyway. I have been through the entire brake system as it is and with the added weight of a small block motor up front, they aint too good. This car also came with NO sway bars, so I have installed addco bars front and rear. The added bars along with some offset upper control arm bushings ( to get the camber in spec ), the car handles great. Don't want to mess it up by changing the spindle ball joint dimensions. I will probably go with an adjustable proportioning valve, as this car also came with the small 7 1/4" rear axle - which will be another upgrade I will make after the brakes. Thanks again for the article. John

You can ignore everything Ehrenberg said about using the FMJ spindles. Literally everything. Ehrenberg let his imagination run wild and never actually checked the suspension geometry. Needless to say, FMJ spindles work just fine, there’s no “ball joint over angling” and the bump steer change is minimal at best. Depending on your set up, the FMJ spindles may even work better. Which will help your cause in finding a set of spindles, because all the F/M/J/B/R cars are fair game.

If you want to see the suspension geometry numbers, they’re published here

Swapping Disc-Brake Spindles - Mopar Muscle Magazine

Ehrenberg’s article is great for parts identification, but his suspension geometry “analysis” was just made up garbage.