'65 Valiant Convertible: Mostly ignored for over 20 years
The front....
9 inch drum brakes !
It has been a little while but just to recap:
When switching from 9 inch drums to the 1973 and later disc brakes, several things change. Upper control arms do because the upper ball joint is larger on the newer cars. The lower ball joints are different, spindles/knuckles, about the only part that stays is the lower control arm.
Left side:
New KYB shocks....Not my favorite but they were in the stash of parts so we used them. 11" discs, the spindle/knuckles are from a Diplomat/Gran Fury/Fifth Avenue. I like running the calipers to the rear and using the later model brake hose. With every car I have done, the UCA cams are always set to max caster as a starting point. The stock torsion bars will be kept in place for now.
Rebuilt manual steering box, courtesy of Firm Feel. NEW Idler and Pitman arms, V8 center link. The tie rods are junk but for now, they stay.
I hit a bit of a snag on the right side. The lower ball joint had some damaged threads so the owner decided to order a new one. It came in a few hours later but was the wrong side. I decided to take a file and a grinder to the threads to clean them up since nobody around had a 9/16" fine thread tap to clean the threads.
It took several attempt to get the threads cleaned enough to thread a nut all the way down.
We used new strut rod bushings.
The front....
9 inch drum brakes !
It has been a little while but just to recap:
When switching from 9 inch drums to the 1973 and later disc brakes, several things change. Upper control arms do because the upper ball joint is larger on the newer cars. The lower ball joints are different, spindles/knuckles, about the only part that stays is the lower control arm.
Left side:
New KYB shocks....Not my favorite but they were in the stash of parts so we used them. 11" discs, the spindle/knuckles are from a Diplomat/Gran Fury/Fifth Avenue. I like running the calipers to the rear and using the later model brake hose. With every car I have done, the UCA cams are always set to max caster as a starting point. The stock torsion bars will be kept in place for now.
Rebuilt manual steering box, courtesy of Firm Feel. NEW Idler and Pitman arms, V8 center link. The tie rods are junk but for now, they stay.
I hit a bit of a snag on the right side. The lower ball joint had some damaged threads so the owner decided to order a new one. It came in a few hours later but was the wrong side. I decided to take a file and a grinder to the threads to clean them up since nobody around had a 9/16" fine thread tap to clean the threads.
It took several attempt to get the threads cleaned enough to thread a nut all the way down.
We used new strut rod bushings.
