Can someone help me identify what brake calipers are on my ‘71 Duster 340? I’m new to mopars and the NAPA clerk said I should have a 4 piston calipers. The the calipers sure don’t look like 4 piston calipers. I need to identify them so I can replace them. The car was sitting for several years. Any help will be appreciated.
What kind of brake calipers on my ‘71 Duster 340?
- Thread starter Hiduster
- Start date
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SLIDER Type calipers.
Most likely from any 73-76 A body car.
They are single piston, Kelsey Hayes.
Most likely from any 73-76 A body car.
They are single piston, Kelsey Hayes.
Buy parts for a 73 or 74 dart you should be ok.
1WildRT
Well-Known Member
Your lucky, the single piston stuff is easier to get parts for, the parts are much cheaper & they work great... Also they should have the larger 5x4.5 bolt pattern vs the original 5x4 bolt pattern.... Might want to figure out if the rear axle is also the 5x4.5 pattern
Dale Davies
Well-Known Member
Are the pistons seizing? If the pistons retract easily and apply without sticking, I would clean all moving surfaces with a file to get rust off and lube all sliding surfaces with a disc brake grease. This will not get hard later. Dielectric grease is one option. Check the pads for even wear. Use a sanding disc with 120 grit emery while lightly sanding the disc surfaces with the calipers off. Helps if a friend can turn the disc to evenly sand the rust off. Then bleed the brakes to get the moisture infused brake fluid out.
Any sign of the piston seizing is definately grounds to replace them. Those were a very common caliper used by Ma Mopar in the '70's.
At this time it is also probably wise considering it sat for a few years to replace the brake hoses front and rear just to be on the safe side. The cloth weave in the hose can deteriorate over time and they will fail. Any cracks in the outer rubber are a sign they need to be replaced.
Keep an eye on the rear axle seals as they may have deteriorated due to sitting. When they start leaking the rear brake shoes will get soaked. If it is just starting to leak, a good dousing with brake cleaner can deal with most of the oil and the rest will cook out. That is just a bit of oil on the edge. When they get soaked the shoes tend to grab and not release until you back up a bit.
Any sign of the piston seizing is definately grounds to replace them. Those were a very common caliper used by Ma Mopar in the '70's.
At this time it is also probably wise considering it sat for a few years to replace the brake hoses front and rear just to be on the safe side. The cloth weave in the hose can deteriorate over time and they will fail. Any cracks in the outer rubber are a sign they need to be replaced.
Keep an eye on the rear axle seals as they may have deteriorated due to sitting. When they start leaking the rear brake shoes will get soaked. If it is just starting to leak, a good dousing with brake cleaner can deal with most of the oil and the rest will cook out. That is just a bit of oil on the edge. When they get soaked the shoes tend to grab and not release until you back up a bit.
Joe Mc
No Car Like A MoPar!
Not sure if available at NAPA or ???, but back in 79 or 80 on my 73 340 Duster, which sat a while, I got caliper rebuild kits - basically new pistons, inner o-rings & boots. Got (at NAPA) a honing tool (correctly sized for calipers) that goes into standard hand held drill (variable speed drill is best) lightly honed bores, etc. The hardest part of the job was getting the new pistons back in the bores & installing boots. Consider keeping & rebuilding what you have, most likely better metallurgy & quality than new ones. Thoughts; disassemble, inspect, bring old piston with you to check size of new in rebuild kit. Sandblast or glass-bead old calipers = without seals or boots place old pistons back in bore, seal outer edge of piston to bore with blue goo or caulk, to keep out media. Get high heat caliper paint, perhaps Eastwood might have "metal colored" caliper paint. After calipers are; cleaned/media blasted, bores are honed, new parts (oh, be certain to get new bleeder valves...) installed, paint prep done, tape off boots & blenders then paint. Tip = use a little anti-seeze on bleeder valves, keep away from tapered end of bleeder so as not to introduce anti-seeze compound into fluid cavity. Doing this last step (anti-seeze) will do two things: 1-help prevent valves from breaking next time you bleed and 2-prevent false bubbles, in clear hose on bleeder when initially bleeding, from weeping in around bleeder to caliper surface. A bit of overkill but worth every extra "moments" taken. Have fun.
67Mungo
Active Member
I recently went through the exact same thing on my 67 Barracuda knowing nothing about the disc brake conversion. These look exactly the same as mine. Found out it was the same calipers as on a 1980 Dodge Diplomat (M body). If you check out Rock Auto you can see in the pics they provide and almost certain these are the same ones. No idea where The parts store is coming up with foot piston calipers (at least stock). Heads up those two nuts over the metal spacer are what hold the calipers in place. Don’t do what I did and take off the caliper mounting bracket bolts in the rear! Just a friendly heads up.
A word of caution regarding the lug bolt patterns. When we converted the manual brakes on my 71 Duster to power disc we learned there were 2 different lug patterns dependent on the original engine installed. The slant 6 and 318 had the smaller 5X4 pattern while the 340 had the larger 5X4.5 pattern. As long as you have an original 340 you should have the larger lug pattern all around which will work okay when installing a new conversion kit. If you do have the smaller lug pattern you will have to find axles with the correct lug pattern or do as I did and replace the entire rear end. We did find during the process that SUMMIT could build the axles I needed but would not do so because they could not guarantee them.
Dale Davies
Well-Known Member
The 4 piston are Kelsey Hayes. Mopar used some 4 piston and some 1 piston. Ford also used the KH 4 piston for some applications.
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