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1966/67 Dodge Charger Front Drum Brake - to - Later-Model Disk Conversion
(...with an added segment for upgrading the rear drums as well)We have two submissions for this feature.
Please don't miss out on all the info offered here.The following info is submitted by:
Andy Markiewicz ( chargerandy@hotmail.com )
Gold/Gold 66/383
Wentzville, MOI did this conversion on my car and found a 1974 Duster for the donor. I used it's prop[ortioning] valve and put 11" brakes on the back at the same time from an E body. The valve works very well with this combo. One thing to consider is that if you wish to use the factory Charger hubcaps you must use the smaller A body discs. The factory Charger rims will not clear the calipers, not enough relief in back. You will need the deep 14" rims off the same Duster or Dart. These also are on some other bodies too. They are deep enough in front to accomodate the deep Charger cap without hitting the rim, and will clear the brakes.
Okay, Here's my novel Ralph. I hope it doesn't ramble too much, but I'll try to cover all bases with this. There are many possible ways to fit a slantback Charger with discs in front, this is just the way I did it and know it to work.
My car was originally a single circuit power brake car with drums in front. First thing I did was locate a '74 Duster for all the needed parts. ('73 thru '76 will work) I got the rotors (measure 11"), calipers, spindles, proportioning valve, and front brake hoses for fitting purposes. I bought new brake hoses later. You don't need to change upper or lower balljoint type. Cars with larger discs ( 11 3/4" ) rotors can be found, but you must run 15" rims. I did not want to give up the factory hubcaps so I also got three rims from the car. These are 14" x 5.5" rims with a relief in the back to clear the brake caliper. The original Charger rims do not clear the caliper, they have a slanted rear section of the rim. When you look at one of each, you'll see what I mean. These rims accomodate the deep dish spinner hubcap. They can be found on other cars too. I just brought along a hubcap to test the rims before I bought them. Get three so you can replace your spare tire with one.
When taking the proportioning valve off, label the ports, or make a sketch so you can plumb it into your system correctly. A brake warning light can be added to your car with this switch to alert you of a pressure drop in one brake circuit. The part numbers (there's two) stamped on the brass body of the proportioning valve I used are 3258924 and 3423936. One thing you'll want to check is which type, if any, swaybar is on your car. If you have none or have the first type that mounts on cradles sticking down off the front framerails, and the ends of the bar clamp to the strutrods, this will be easy. The later style of swaybar is mounted to the K frame with triangular mounts. This sytem uses a mounting tab on the lower control arm and a link to connect the end of the swaybar. This tab will get in the way of a caliper mounted in the front of the spindle. The duster will most likely have the calipers in front. This can be overcome by swapping the rotor-caliper-spindle assembly side for side to get the calipers in back. This does not affect alignment geometry at all. The problem this does create is brake hose bind. The brakeline tabs on these Chargers are behind the front spindle on the framerail. With the caliper on the backside too, it crunches the hose or stretches it depending on which way you turn. Not a good thing. I had this problem and decided to solve it by cutting off the tabs and rewelding them forward of the spindle in a good location. This also requires you to custom bend a forward set of steel lines. Minor bending of the steel section on the Duster's rubber brake hose may be needed to get clear routing of the hose. I chose to do this since I was redoing the whole car at the time. An alternative is to find a longer rubber hose that can be looped to avoid kinking and stretching. Since I had the torsion bars out, I tested the hose routing with the front at a fully extended, typically loaded, and fully compressed heights. This was done by putting a jack under the lower control arm, with everything assembled, ( the tab and hose were clamped to the framerail ) and turning the wheel back and forth at each height. Put the shocks in too. Either way you do it, be expressly sure that the hose will be OK and not rub to wear a hole over time. You may even want to get some of that spiral plastic wire loom jacketing and wrap it around the new line to be sure. If you don't have a swaybar, or have the first type, you don't have to worry about this fabrication. You're lucky! Just put the caliers in front, 'nuff said.
I purchased a new '67 disc style master cylinder which fit my '66 booster just fine. The disc style has a larger reservoir for the disc circuit of the dual system ( usually the back cavity ). The dual circuit drum master has equally sized reservoirs. To add to braking performance, I found a set of 11" x 2.5" finned drum rear brakes off of a '70 Challenger and swapped those in as well. Change everything, backing plate, all hardware, and drum. The original 14" Charger rims will just squeak over these finned monsters. There is about 1/2" clearance all around.
The Duster proportioning valve works very well with this combination. If you want you could substitute a MoPar Performance prop valve. As I said, there are probably many ways, maybe better, to do this. This is just how I did it in a weekend for under $200 in used and new parts. There is absolutely no problem shutting this car down now! I converted my sytem over to silicone brake fluid when I did the system rebuild. One thing to consider if you do this is that this stuff WILL find a way out of the fittings. Your master lid and many of the fittings will look to be leaking ever so slightly. No fluid drop will be noticed but the fittings will gather some dust. The benefit of silicone is, no boil, friendly to paint, and won't absorb water. I do still recommend it.
The following info is submitted by:
Barry Richards and the main information for this article comes from an excellent article by Richard Ehrenberg of MOPAR ACTION magazine (p. 54), December 1989. Rich writes most of the tech for MOPAR ACTION and all articles I've read to date are excellent. For a subscription or to acquire back issues, write to:
Harris Publications, Inc.
1115 Broadway
New York, NY 10010.
TRIVIA QUESTION:
When did Chrysler shift from single-reservoir master cylinders to dual-reservoir master cylinders, and why?TRIVIA ANSWER:
The year was the 1968 model year beginning in late 1967. Beginning in January 1968, the Government mandated a number of sweeping safety requirements including the dual brake system, safety glass in all windows, and strengthening ribs inside doors to resist side crashes, etc. This, plus later emission requirements, is the main reason why you cannot import foreign cars to the US manufactured after December 1967 unless they meet all safety standards.As discussed in the previous paragraph, we are looking at two things, swapping and upgrading. We'll look at the more complex swapping first. Of critical importance when converting from drums to disks, is the need to follow some very important guidelines:
- Ensure that all components match to work together.
- Get as many of the parts from one donor car as possible.
- When in doubt as to condition, REBUILD.
Once these little points are understood, we can continue. First lets talk body/chassis letters. From 1965 to 1968, C-bodies offered the Lockheed-Wagner 4-piston caliper disk brakes. These are rare, hard to find, and harder to adapt. From 1965 through 1972, MOPARs had a two-piece rotor that is prone ] to overheating and warping during hard braking. It can be used quite well on a "driver" but is not recommended for modified cars. All MOPARs from 1970 and up used the single piston calipers. The one-piece "Unicast" rotor surfaced in 1973 and is available in two sizes. The 10 7/8-inch dia. rotor will work on cars where you need to keep 14-inch wheels. The bigger 11 3/4-inch rotors are best, but require a 15-inch wheel for clearance.
Next we need to consider interchangeability of these parts. All B and E suspensions and brake systems are interchangeable. A-body cars will be covered separately. C-bodies can use later C-body stuff, but the smaller B/E stuff is questionable. Stick to like body types for a source of parts.
B AND E BRAKE SWAPS
NOTE:
There is a master list of parts at the end of the article that contains all part number, other sources for new, etc. Refer to this parts list for availability of called out parts.I don't remember hearing of disk brakes on B-bodies before 1968 or 1969. So if you have a 1962-68 B it probably has either the 10-inch or rarer 11-inch drums. This part of the article applies to all 62-72 B-bodies and all 70-72 E-bodies. To swap disk brakes in place of drums or to replace the two-piece rotors with a Unicast rotor requires new steering knuckles, also known as the spindles. These can come from any 73-74 E-body or 73-76 A-body (that's right, A-body).
In addition to the spindles, you'll need to get the correct caliper adapter for the Unicast rotor (large or small) you're using and a set of calipers. You'll need a dual reservoir master cylinder made for disk brakes. You'll also need proportioning valve. MOPAR Performance makes a great adjustable unit for about $60-70. The stock 3-way valve with the existing dual lines from the donor car can be used, but front-to-rear braking will be non-adjustable. I highly recommend new wheel bearings, flexible hoses and other age and weather deteriorated parts. All MOPAR dual master cylinders have the same bolt pattern and are very similar, if not the same as the 62-67 single-cylinder. By all means, switch up to the dual system. Some older cylinders have two studs and two holes while later duals usually have four holes for mounting. Sorry, no free lunch here. I've adapted my 65 Fury and it's not too difficult.
Remove the old drums or calipers and rotors following the procedures in previous articles. Remove the spindles following the procedures in your shop manual or the previous articles on suspension rebuilds. HINT -- If your jack or safety stand is under the lower control arm, supporting the car's weight, you don't have to unwind the torsion bars. Put the adapters on the spindles. Install the disk brake spindle to the old ball joints (Now's a good time to replace them if they need it). Install the rotors and don't forget the new grease seals, bearings, and grease. Get the rotors checked for thickness if they're used, and turned if necessary. New ones should be ready to use, but make sure the bearing races are installed. Install and torque the bearing retaining nut as per previous brake articles. This should be done on both sides of the car.
If your car has power brakes, replace the master cylinder with one from the parts list. If the car doesn't have power brakes, Ehrenberg doesn't feel you need a booster. It's up to you. When shifting to disk/drums from drums only, you'll need to replace the master cylinder with a correct one.
NOTE:
MAKE SURE YOU BENCH BLEED THE MASTER CYLINDER USING CLEAN FRESH FLUID BEFORE INSTALLING IT. Whether you have 10-inch or 11-inch rear drums also doesn't matter. Just make sure they are in good shape or rebuild them. Now comes the tricky part -- plumbing. All brake line joints require a double-flared end to match the fitting. The front brakes must be fed by separate lines, so we'll do this based on whether you use a factory 3-way valve or adjustable valve.
If you opt for the donor car factory set-up, you need to use the dual master cylinder-to-3-way lines. Install the 3-way valve beneath the master cylinder on the frame rail. Get the rest of the hard lines from the donor car and run them where the donor car had them. Use the correct flexible hoses between the calipers and the hard lines.
NOTE:
ENSURE YOU USE BRAND NEW COPPER WASHERS BETWEEN THE HOSES AND CALIPERS.
Connect your existing rear line to the back of the 3-way valve.
If you don't use the donor car factory setup, then plumb from the large master cylinder reservoir to a T-fitting and then to both front brakes. Run a hardline from the smaller master cylinder reservoir to the rear frame kick-up over the rear axle. Get some screen door springs of the correct size from the hardware store and fit it over the hardline wherever it's exposed to things thrown up from the road. Install the MOPAR adjustable valve to the inside subframe rail and bolt it in. Run a line from the valve to the chassis bracket to connect to the flexible hose to the rear brakes.
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