67 Dart disc brake conversion

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duster360

duster360

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I have a 67 Dart that I am converting over to front disc brakes. I have upper control arms and spindles from a 73 Duster. My question is which lower ball joint do I use. The parts places around here list 2 different ones. One for front drum brakes and another for front disc brakes. I am not sure which to use because of the conversion. I would assume the disc ones but I am not sure. The front end on this thing is going to cost me a small fortune to rebuild because it is an oddball year. And now this.
 
What about the tie rod end? The 67 is a different size than the 73. I have a complete 73 front end that I could swap in or I have access to a 70 front end also on the cheap, about $50 or so. Just not sure which direction to go.
 
If it was mine I'd use all the parts from the 73 assuming you have the steering box and motor mounts to go with it. The 67 stuff is not that great because of the idler arm (which is expensive and not as strong) and the motor mounts (which aren't bad just not as good as the 73 and up style). If your going to keep the 67 k frame use the upper arms and spindles from the 73, the centerlink and idler arm from the 67, get the larger disk brake lower ball joints, new upper ball joints for a 73 w/disk brakes, as for the tie rod ends I thought there was only an inner and outer style but I could be wrong.
 
Lower tie rod ends have different part numbers. I think the 67 not only has a different size ball on the end but also a different thread size for the adjusting sleeve.
 
I updated my 67 Dart Gt front drums to disc using 75 Dart Sport uppper control arms and
spindles - didn't change lower ball joints. Everything hooked up fine, just had to flip the spindles around so the disc caliper was on the back instead of front - they hit my front sway bar when on the front. Also used 75 brake hose - had to bend it a little to get it to fit correctly. After install my turning radius was shorter because calipers were hitting bottom spindle bolt - just cut off the exess treads sticking out of the bolt on each side.
Your wheels will stick out a little bit more due to the disks but I put 205x70x14" on Ralley
wheels OK. Also put on a 75 master cylinder(manual brakes) and still am running off of the original porportiional valve.
 
actually it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. My biggest issue was replacing
the upper control arm bushings with the PST Plastic/teflon ones -- can tell you about that one if you decide to do that. I live in Mass. and coverted mine in my car port with a portable heater blowing on me(makes you work faster). Oh, forgot to tell you, I also used new tie-rod ends that were for a 67 also. And just think - now that you have the LBP on the front, you will want to convert the back also - that'll cost you for the axles and drums. I still haven't done that yet. Since I only have a 273 auto I am going to call and see if I can have them drilled for LBP - I don't want to spend the $500 for the moser axles, green bearings, and drums quite yet.
 
I started with the rearend first. I put an 8 3/4 in and bought all the axles and brakes already. Now if I can just get the frontend finished the reat is all down hill. Thanks for your help.
 
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