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C-Body Disc-Brake Conversion

With Some Help From Stainless Steel Brakes, We Eliminate The Big Mopar “push And Pray” Syndrome
By Randy Bolig
Photography by Randy Bolig
Disc Brake Upgrade
With any project, making sure you have all of the parts before you start is a good idea. Here is our kit from Stainless Steel Brakes for the C-monster, complete with everything but hand tools and elbow grease.

Disc Brake Upgrade
We put our very large '66 Monaco on the heavy-duty Stinger four-post car lift to make this job a little easier. Jack stands are a must if you do this in the driveway at home. Once supported, drain the land yacht's brake fluid before beginning.
Disc Brake Upgrade
With the front wheels removed, we could see that the stock drums were in good shape, but once they get warm, it doesn't matter how they look. Disc brakes make sense because when the drums get hot, they fade (which means that you don't stop so good). Now remove the drums by taking off the dust cover (arrow) and then removing the cotter pin. Next, unscrew the spindle nut and remove the drum and bearing housing off of the spindle.
Disc Brake Upgrade
The only thing we noticed during the disassembly was that the lower control arm is under pressure from the torsion bar. They don't mention this in the instructions. We decided to put a bottle jack under the control arm to support it. Better safe than sorry.
Disc Brake Upgrade
With the lower control arm supported, disconnect the flexible brake line where it connects to the metal line, and then remove the four bolts (arrows) that hold the brake backing plate to the spindle and remove the plate.
Disc Brake Upgrade
We see here that the lower control arm has indeed separated from the spindle with the removal of the four bolts, hence the need for the bottle jack. With the drum and backing plate out of the way, take some brake cleaner and rags and remove that 30-plus years accumulation of grunge that was just revealed.
Disc Brake Upgrade
Once the spindle surface and area is clean, install the caliper brackets on the proper sides using the supplied bolts. In this case, the calipers are towards the front of the car. Put the top two bolts in finger-tight from the backside.
Disc Brake Upgrade
Now use the bottle jack to lift up the lower control arm far enough to push the bottom bolts (arrows) through both pieces. A hammer is not required; if the holes are not lined up, and you try to beat it through, the result will be stripped and damaged threads on the bolt. If needed, use a line-up bar to help you. At this point, slide the rotor spacer on the spindle shaft.
Disc Brake Upgrade
We are showing you this picture because we have seen people put the rotor on first and then fill the empty space between the bearings and hope it gets in the bearings. Don't do this! It may be a little messy, but if a mechanical bearing packer isn't around, cup your hand and fill it with grease. Now force the edge of the bearing into the grease until grease comes out the top edge. Any wheel bearing not properly greased will fail quickly; if you don't have time to do it right the first time, you sure don't have time to do it twice.
Disc Brake Upgrade
Since the SSB rotors already have the new bearing races installed, just set your new inside bearing in the race and then place the new seal in position and lightly tap it in place.
Disc Brake Upgrade
With the rotor on the spindle, pack the other bearing the same as the first one and place it over the spindle and into the rotor. Now put the washer and nut on the spindle and torque to 17-25 ft-lbs while spinning the rotor. Back off the nut after this (which set the bearing into place) and re-torque the nut to 10-15 ft-lbs. Now lock the nut in place with the new cotter pin supplied. Don't forget the new dust cover.
Disc Brake Upgrade
With the rotor installed, we decided to check out our run with a magnetically-mounted dial caliper. The quality of the kit was evident with only 3/1000 run-out.
Disc Brake Upgrade
The only problem we had with this kit is with the supplied flex-hose. As we began routing the lines, we couldn't mount the caliper on the bracket because the hose fitting hit the spindle mount and subsequently the holes on the caliper would not line up with the holes on the bracket. While this could be remedied by taking a hand grinder and removing a small amount of metal from the arm, we opted to call Stainless Steel Brakes and they suggested using their braided flex line.
Disc Brake Upgrade
When we received the braided line, we still encountered the problem of the hose against the spindle, though not as significantly as before. If a banjo-type fitting were utilized on the stainless line, it would eliminate the problem altogether.
Disc Brake Upgrade
Here you can see the difference in the two lines. Where the wrench fits the rubber line is where the line hit the spindle. With the smaller braided line there is more clearance. Still, a banjo fitting on the stainless line is probably the best way to go.
Disc Brake Upgrade
On to the master cylinder. Looking at the pot on the firewall, you gotta wonder how this little thing ever stopped our large-by-huge driver.
Disc Brake Upgrade
With the help of our trusty Corvette-weaned assistant ("Hey, it's your car, YOU climb under the dash"), we removed the arm from the brake pedal that connects to the master cylinder.
Disc Brake Upgrade
With the old cylinder removed, get the brake cleaner ready, because you will need to reuse the retainer clip, spring, dust boot, and arm on the new SSB master cylinder.
Disc Brake Upgrade
There are no holes to fasten the boot assembly to the new master cylinder, but the spring and clip will hold it in place.
Disc Brake Upgrade
After the master cylinder has been "bench bled" (if you don't know how, read the instructions and call someone who has done it), it can be installed on the firewall and reattached to the pedal. The lines can also be reconnected at this time. Under the master cylinder (arrow), you can see that we fastened our proportioning valve to the frame next to the factory distribution block (which needs to be retained).
Disc Brake Upgrade
Remember when you attach the brake lines from the cylinder to the brake system, the front reservoir is for the REAR brakes and the back reservoir is for the FRONT brakes.
Disc Brake Upgrade
With all of the wheels bled of air, we buttoned up our master cylinder and tried out the new stoppers. Aye, aye, Captain.
Stainless Steel Brakes
www.ssbrakes.com
Stinger Lifts
Highway 177 North
Council Grove
KS  66846

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