Rear or front mounted calipers! Whats the difference???

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FDNY340

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In respect to front brake calipers, Ive seen calipers mounted to the front of the wheel and to the rear! Whats the correct position on a 1970 A Body?? Thanks
 
FDNY340 said:
Any issue if they are rear mounted?? Thanks
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They should be on a stock setup. I'm not sure you can even mount those in the front. The way they bolt to the lower ball joint would prevent that I think, unless you drilled them out and used different hardware. I don't know for sure.....never saw a reason to try it! :D
 
The stock KH calipers for the SBP brakes should be mounted to the rear. From the '70 service manual
Screenshot 2023-03-25 at 11.41.36 AM.png


You can swap the spindles side-for-side which would put them on the front, there's no issues doing that with the spindles and it changes nothing except the position of the caliper. But then you'd have to get longer brake hoses and check the sway bar clearance.

The later 73+ disks put the calipers to the front, so if you've done a 73+ swap for the larger bolt pattern the factory put them to the front. But, on a 67-72 car with the stock sway bar and sway bar tab locations the front mounted brakes interfere with the bar. So they need to be rear mounted like the 67-72 calipers were and not front mounted like the 73+ calipers were. Unless you don't have a sway bar, or are willing to make some minor modifications to make sure the calipers clear.

And like the article said, make sure the bleeders on your calipers are at the top. If they aren't, you have the caliper on the wrong side of the car.
 
Old age catching up 73-76 up front 65-72 rear. I will let my wife know I was incorrect.
 
For me Chrysler made it rear mount. Why screw up a good thing. Shorter rubber line, less likely to contact moving suspension parts. Less likely to be struck by road debris.
My advice… do whats best for your own car.

B9814FB0-93D1-40DB-B39E-678213E7678B.jpeg
 
Dfr360cuda said:
For me Chrysler made it rear mount. Why screw up a good thing. Shorter rubber line, less likely to contact moving suspension parts. Less likely to be struck by road debris.
My advice… do whats best for your own car.

View attachment 1716068520
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Lol. Not for the 73+ disks like those, calipers to the front right from the factory.
 
I actually my 73 Scamp had rear mounted calipers. Sure looked to be original and don't know why anyone would have changed them on this car. May have been an early built car, I'd have to check the tag. All of my others 73-up had front mounted.
 
moparmarks said:
I actually my 73 Scamp had rear mounted calipers. Sure looked to be original and don't know why anyone would have changed them on this car. May have been an early built car, I'd have to check the tag. All of my others 73-up had front mounted.
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It wouldn't shock me, but the hoses changed over so they would have been pretty long for rear mounted calipers. People do a lot of weird stuff, so many years later it's hard to know if it was a factory thing or changed by someone else unless you've got the entire history of the car. I'm assuming of course that it was originally a BBP car, and that someone didn't make that swap.
 
It was this thing. Looked to be a pretty original un-messed with car. Was a 318 power disc car. I have a pic of the brakes before I removed them but it is trapped in a crashed hard drive. I used the brakes on my green 72 Dart.
1679772826101.jpeg
 
72bluNblu said:
Lol. Not for the 73+ disks like those, calipers to the front right from the factory.
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When I brought my 68, the previous owner included the disc brake setup. It was all together, upper control arms, spindles, rotors, calipers, one assembly. I put the whole assembly on and the calipers were in the rear. This is how it came from Detroit and it was correct for me.
 
My bb pattern from a 74 A has the single piston calipers in the front.
My 71 Demon has the KH calipers at the rear.
Just sayin.
 
moparmarks said:
It was this thing. Looked to be a pretty original un-messed with car. Was a 318 power disc car. I have a pic of the brakes before I removed them but it is trapped in a crashed hard drive. I used the brakes on my green 72 Dart.
View attachment 1716068544
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Right. So how many decades had passed from '74 since you bought it? Somebody could have swapped the spindles side for side decades ago, it would look the same. The car is 49 years old, assuming something is the same as it was when it left the factory shouldn't be the default. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. All the manuals say they were to the front '73 to 76.


Dfr360cuda said:
When I brought my 68, the previous owner included the disc brake setup. It was all together, upper control arms, spindles, rotors, calipers, one assembly. I put the whole assembly on and the calipers were in the rear. This is how it came from Detroit and it was correct for me.
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Well, somebody swapped the spindles side for side at some point. And it can't be "correct", you've got 73+ disks on a '68. Nothing original about it.

And regardless, it doesn't matter. The factory did in fact put the calipers to the rear in 67-72, and in the front from 73-76, so you can't say the factory way was best because the factory did it both ways depending on the year. Even if '73 was a transition year, they were to the front on the majority of the 73-76 cars.
 
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It's clear what the difference is.... one is mounted towards the front and one is mounted towards the back.
 
I’ve run them both ways on my Cuda. No difference.

I had to move by pin type caliper to front mount because the Hotchkis UCA have a bend in the rear those particular calipers interfered with. I have a 73-76 K-member and sway bar setup, so no issue mounting them frontward.

Functioned 100% completely same for me.
 
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Thanks for the info all! Im not dealing with a period correct car so I guess the answer for me is whatever works for my set up!

PS Looking for a brakelight switch and bracket if anyones got for a 1970 A Body. Thanks!!
 
Whichever way you go be aware 64-72 lower ball joints are different than 73-76. 64-72 cannot be swapped side to side 73-76 can. What’s more there is a difference between disc and drum in 72 and earlier. 73 up were all the same.
I am using 67-72 b body 10 inch drum spindles to mount 13 inch Wilwood and the spindles are identical.
 
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