Disc brake conversion 64 Dart GT

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Claydart

Claydart

MOPAR to the very bones
FABO Gold Member
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Location
Brockton, Ma.
Well I just received my disc brake conversion kit from Classic Ind. yesterday and was nervous because the box was all torn up and opened and re-taped by a toddler. I opened the box this morning and was shocked to see that all the parts were in fact, in there. So at noon time I took the car out of the garage and jacked it up and put it on jack stands. I then proceeded to remove the whole drum assembly from the drivers side first. I remember seeing a post or article about early A-body conversions, so I went in and got my computer and set it up in the garage to read through the article. It was a great article, lots of tips and stuff about using this same kit, which is a great kit. It appears that ABSpowerBrake must have read the article as well, because most of the tips involved grinding down small areas of the spindles and calipers for clearance issues, and the kit that I received already had those places ground down. So I worked on getting the drivers side done and it took me approximately 2.5 hours with all the reading and a very small amount of grinding. Then I moved all my tools over to the passenger side and started there. I was ready for brake bleeding in about 1 hour after I moved to that side. I am very pleased with the kit, because I did not have to change spindles, upper control arms, or anything else that most other kits would need. It is a true bolt-on kit using my original 9" drum spindles and my 14" Cragar SS wheels still fit with plenty of clearance. My only regret is that I did not document the job with pictures. Just thought I would give a shout out to ABSPowerBrakes and Classic Ind. for such a hassle free kit well worth every penny that I paid.
 
Hey was on classic Ind. web site, which product number did you get ? Would like to do the same for my 64 dart thanks.also you mentioned an article you read on this site how can I locate this as well. thanks for posting this article.
 
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I got #PB40011, But I went on EBay and looked for a similar kit and the one I picked was actually Classic Ind. selling it. When I called the regular number prior to finding this kit they told me that the wait was about a month for them to get it from the vendor. So I went on Ebay to see what else there was. When I inquired about delivery, I was told that it would ship as soon as I paid for it. It came from their warehouse too! I guess I just lucked out! The article was in Hot Rod magazine and I tried to put a link to it on here but I couldn't. If you google "Hot Rod How to convert Mopar A-body to front disc brakes", by Dan Foley on March 1, 2019 you should find it.
 
Claydart said:
Well I just received my disc brake conversion kit from Classic Ind. yesterday and was nervous because the box was all torn up and opened and re-taped by a toddler. I opened the box this morning and was shocked to see that all the parts were in fact, in there. So at noon time I took the car out of the garage and jacked it up and put it on jack stands. I then proceeded to remove the whole drum assembly from the drivers side first. I remember seeing a post or article about early A-body conversions, so I went in and got my computer and set it up in the garage to read through the article. It was a great article, lots of tips and stuff about using this same kit, which is a great kit. It appears that ABSpowerBrake must have read the article as well, because most of the tips involved grinding down small areas of the spindles and calipers for clearance issues, and the kit that I received already had those places ground down. So I worked on getting the drivers side done and it took me approximately 2.5 hours with all the reading and a very small amount of grinding. Then I moved all my tools over to the passenger side and started there. I was ready for brake bleeding in about 1 hour after I moved to that side. I am very pleased with the kit, because I did not have to change spindles, upper control arms, or anything else that most other kits would need. It is a true bolt-on kit using my original 9" drum spindles and my 14" Cragar SS wheels still fit with plenty of clearance. My only regret is that I did not document the job with pictures. Just thought I would give a shout out to ABSPowerBrakes and Classic Ind. for such a hassle free kit well worth every penny that I paid.
Click to expand...

I also have 14" Cragar SS wheels that I'd like to retain. Did you use their power booster too? Worried about that clearing my headers but I definitely need to get rid of my single reservoir master cylinder. I suppose I could just use the brake kit and install my own dual reservoir master. What di you end up doing? Any other tips with this kit? Thanks in advance for your help!

Also, do you happen to have a link to the article you mentioned? EDIT. I am in idiot and didn't scroll to read your entire post.
 
I did have to do a tiny bit of grinding on the caliper bracket to fit by one of the bolts on the knuckle. I think that if I were to do it again, I would powdercoat the bracket after I filed it to fit, and probably the calipers also.
 
a bit of grinding also had to be done with my original parts

i fitted new old stock brackets and slider calipers to mine, i lucked out on an australian job lot, and the brackets needed grinding because they rubbed the rotors and that's all OEM kit for my model of car, with standard 2 piece Hub/rotors, and good wheel bearings, properly adjusted.

sometimes you just get a tolerance stack up. presume the brackets were sold NOS because they were recognised as rubbing. i.e a bit rough cast and too fat in 1 area, at some point in their 50 year life :)

they cleaned up nice i took the slight webbing out of the 90* angles and a bit off the face below the slider head and all was well.

if i have to do it with factory parts i can easily understand the odd issue with aftermarket
 
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