5,000+ pounds of classic American steel requires substantial authority to both start and stop. The massive 13″ drum brakes that came from the factory were up to the task when the car was new. Today is a different story, unfortunately. The braking was actively scary, with the car pulling badly to one side.
Yes, rebuilding and adjusting the brakes would make a big difference. But you would still have the factory single master cylinder. So I decided to upgrade to front disk brakes and a dual master cylinder.
Fortunately a disk brake conversion kit is available from AAJ Brakes. They recommended getting the basic kit and buying the standard parts locally – it seems that shipping for ~50 pounds of hub, rotor, calipers, and other assorted pieces gets expensive. The basic kit includes a pair of massive caliper brackets along with assorted bolts, spacers, installation instructions, and a parts list for sourcing everything else from your local parts store.
The parts list calls out an interesting collection of parts, including 73-74 Ford F100 rotors, 71-76 Impala calipers, and 76 Monte Carlo brake hoses. I purchased all of the parts and put them on the shelf.
After getting the rest of the front suspension assembled, the new caliper brackets installed easily. That should have been my clue that things were about to go sideways…
I pulled the F100 rotors off the shelf, opened the box, and noticed that they were removable rotors. Which is great, except that you need a hub to go on the spindles. So, back to the parts store to get a set of hubs to go with the rotors.
Open up the new hubs, position them over the spindles, and have immediate questions. The inside of the hub is huge – there is no way that the bearing and seal will fit it, and it doesn’t seem to match the spindle at all. Also, there are a set of splines inside the hub that don’t seem to match anything on the car. After staring at this for a minute, the light bulb clicks on: these look like 4wheel drive hubs!
So, back to the parts store. The counter guy says that these are the only hubs listed. I ask him to check for 2wheel drive. His next words were “Would you look at that! As soon as I specify 2wheel drive it brings up a completely different listing.”
The 2wheel drive hubs were an integrated hub/rotor assembly that fit perfectly. Actually installing them was a 15 minute job, with 10 minutes of that spent packing the wheel bearings with grease.
Here you see the new caliper bracket, rotor, and caliper. You can also see the rough routing of the brake line. A future article will cover routing and installing the brake lines and finishing off the stopping system.
Next: Stop It! Part Deux