Large ball joints, small ball joints, & Aussie spindles & brakes

I'm assuming it is standard

Upper balljoints small
lower balljoints same size as US but angle of arms different. you can use US lowers if you cut down the track rod sleeves by 1/2 an inch to achieve proper toe in/out.
This was the, keep your USA export Right hand drive 67/68 barracuda on the road "hack" for uk owners in the 80s.

Easier to just get Aussie Joints part numbers BJ-36 and BJ-35 presume BJ stands for ball joint in this case :)

brakes will be kelsey hayse pin sliders using a vf vg size front rotor which is smaller than the later ones but not the same as the VC VE solid one with the fixed caliper

if he has girling-lockheed "Girlock" calipers then they will be claw slider 1 pot rather than pin slider 1 pot calipers and are off a VJ valiant from 73-75 no problem with this, it is or was an upgrade in the past to cater for the fact that you could not get pins and bushes to recondition the earlier calipers, you can now.

the stub axles and hubs. you have stub axles that take the small inner hub bearing
the hubs will be small PCD

idler and pitman are unique to Australia
all other front end is same as US just buy 67 dart stuff

If money was no object
id buy aussie rotors and some new pins and bushes for what you have caliper wise,
you can use US wheel studs to put hub rotor back together

OR upgrade

id buy short US 73? onward caliper bracket
id buy US 1 pot slider calipers the FMJ body ones i think...cheap 1 pot recon calipers rockauto
and id buy aussie rotors

OR to potentially try to keep it cheap

id buy US rotors or rotor and hub in 4inch pcd if i could find them, and if the inner bearing prooved to be too big i'd use the inner hub bearing size conversion sleeves that Dr-Diff makes.

the caliper bracket mounting on the sub axles uses the same 3.5 inch centers in both countries

what i can't tell you is if the later US calipers and brackets fit his Aussie 14 inch wheels
but more likely with steel than with alloy which tends to be thicker in the problem area

The late 70s US short bracket, for claw slider 1 pot calipers and the Aussie VJ 73-75 set up are the same design but they differ by 1/8 inch at the bracket slider mounting, so you can't run an Australian caliper on a US bracket, it would fall through.... Nice... :(

Options
Big balljoint US arms
Big balljoint US stubs
US disc rotors re drilled for 4 inch PCD hub and hope it fits within the wheel and the caliper can accommodate offset.

Original Arms small balljoint
Original stub small balljoint
Original caliper and bracket
US hubs and rotors ideally 4 inch PCD
or Aussie Hub and US 4 inch pcd rotor OR re drilled 4.5 pcd US rotor (small)
any inner hub bearing mismatch and the bearing sleeves from dr diff will be needed or a trip to a bearing supply shop


you have more chance of a claw slider caliper accommodating any peculiar rotor offset than a pin slider caliper

If you have no thread exposed to put the spindle nut on or it runs out of thread when done up you have a bearing size or bearing taper mismatch in your hub...

Summary
Australia is small balljoint
Australia is small inner hub bearings
Australia is predominantly 13 ('61/62 valiant) or 14 inch (62-at least 1976) wheels so rotors and caliper Brackets are smaller of the US sizes

Australia has drum and disc in small and large pcd even though they stuck with small balljoint and small inner hub bearings through out. 70/71 is cutover for PCD size but it doesn't match with a balljoint or stub axle change like in the US
i.e you can get a 70/71 VG with small PCD or large PCD but you don't get a late 71 VH with a small PCD.

Australia had left hand thread wheel studs on one side of some 60s cars they have an L on the end
Australia uses the same mounting point and specification for its caliper/caliper bracket 3.5"
Australia uses the same bolt pattern for disc rotor backing plates (or throw them away and pretend its a race car)
Australia uses the same upper arms and the same small BJ as the US (i have all US stuff in mine apart from the Unique to Oz/Right hand drive stuff)
Australia uses unique ish tabs for sway bars on lower arms but the lower Arms are the same as US and the link arms are the same rod/bush/washers
The bottom arm pins and bushes same as US
Australia uses slant 6 and "slant 6 with aircon" and 318/340 torsion bars. they never had the big block in an A body Bar. any of the bar sizes below that you can find. all boots and retainers the same.
all balljoint seals were plastic rimmed top-hat style seals like US, not boots with steel spring clip in rim
upper and lower bumps stops same as US
Drum brakes are 9 inch until at least 76 both PCDs as mentioned

1 piece and 4 piece strut rod bushes were used and the strut rods went through the threaded with a split pin and castle nut, to threaded without split pin and nylock nut change just check for early or later thread/collar dimension and buy the moog bits

if you do get the brakes working well a brake bias unit is worth it
even with the tiny 9 inch drums on the back, they are early style duo servo and lock-up easily
master cylinder is unique VG VH, only rebuild kits available. can be honed or bored and lined

if it wasn't so expensive Aussie disc brake set up would be perfect upgrade for all early A bodies in the US, you could choose 4 inch PCD or 4.5 inch and a range of 4 different calipers that work with 14 inch wheels.

plan a holiday with a big suit case :)


Dave