One day, while out for a cruise in our red '63 Fury ragtop, someone three cars in front of us slammed on his brakes to avoid hitting a bus. We locked 'em up too-for a split-second. Then, the brake pedal went to the floor, sending us smack into the back of the minivan a few car lengths ahead. Definitely not our finest moment!
Luckily, no one was hurt, and the damage to the front of the Fury was minimal-a bent bumper and grille and a few tweaked brackets. If the same thing had happened two days earlier when we were doing 70 mph on the interstate, it might have been a fatal accident. Frankly, the factory drum brakes were marginal, even for the slower-paced world of the '60s. With today's crowded highways, people talking on cell phones, and modern cars that can stop on a dime with their four-wheel discs, most of our earlier rides can use some serious help in the brake department.
The Master Power Brakes kit...
The Master Power Brakes kit for the early B-Body includes everything shown here. Even inveterate parts scroungers like us must admit there's a certain appeal to placing an order on the phone and getting a box full of nice new parts that don't need cleaning or refurbishing. It's also easy to see why the replacement of the old rusty drums with new rotors and calipers is so satisfying from an appearance standpoint. Of course, it's the resultant stopping power and reliable operation that is the real goal here.
Time being of the essence, we chose to forgo the usual parts hunt and go with a prepackaged kit. Mind you, we have nothing against used parts. In fact, for us, a sunny day in a junkyard qualifies as time well spent. But when we saw the ad for Master Power Brakes' B-Body front-disc brake kit, we thought it would be nice to open a box of brand-new parts for once and do the job from start to finish. We decided on the manual discs, as we weren't sure whether we were going to go small- or big-block with our next engine, and clearances get really tight in that corner of the engine compartment with the added bulk of the vacuum reservoir. We placed our order, and before we knew it, UPS showed up at our door.
We took the car to our good friend Carl Solko, who has a well-equipped shop complete with a lift at his disposal. He was especially interested in this swap because he recently installed a Max Wedge in his '63 Dodge wagon and found the factory drums to be woefully inadequate for his new power levels.
After we put the car on the lift, the first order of business was to completely back off the torsion-bar tensioner bolt. The wheels, brake drums, and all of the brake lines and hoses were removed. Then, we separated the ball joints and tie-rod ends from the spindle using an air hammer with a pickle-fork attachment. The Master Power Brakes kit included spindles and caliper brackets that were bolted together and mated to the lower ball joints. We bolted the assemblies to the upper control arms. The bearings were greased by hand for maximum lubricant penetration, and the seals were installed on the rotors. The rotors were then mated to the spindles, and the rotor surfaces were cleaned with brake cleaner. It's always a good idea to clean the rotors before mounting the calipers to remove any grease or factory coatings that keep the rotors from rusting. The crusty old single drum-o'-death master cylinder was removed at this point and given the heave-ho.
Early B-Bodies had single-reservoir master cylinders, so new lines were fabricated in order to hook the dual-reservoir master cylinder to the disc calipers. The factory frame-mounted distribution block was retained, and the two ports that originally fed the front brakes were blocked with threaded plugs from NAPA-PN 131-X-3. The new dual-line master cylinder was bled on the workbench. Then, we installed the master cylinder/proportioning-valve assembly to the firewall. We were able to reuse the original brake line for the right-front brakes (see diagram) because it was already correctly positioned and had the right fitting.
There's not much good to be...
There's not much good to be said about the rusty old drum setup on the car. At the time of its introduction, the hydraulic setup was a significant improvement over the old mechanical systems. But the single-reservoir master cylinder was an accident waiting to happen. One leak or failure anywhere in the system, and you had no brakes, front or rear. In our case, a mechanical adjuster came loose on one wheel, and that was enough to make us lose our brakes completely.
Whether you're working on...
Whether you're working on a 9-second race car or a street piece, it's vital from a safety standpoint to remove tension from the torsion-bar assemblies prior to attempting any disassembly. Failure to do this can result in severe injury or even death. They are, after all, just as powerful as any coil spring, and we all know what damage they can do if they shoot out at you. The torsion bar may be somewhat subtler in appearance, but it's just as potent. Make sure to support the weight of the car with good jackstands under the framerails.
The right tool for the job...
The right tool for the job makes a difference. An air chisel fitted with a pickle-fork attachment is useful in separating the tie-rod ends and upper and lower ball joints from the original drum-brake spindles.
The spindles and new caliper...
The spindles and new caliper brackets supplied with the kit are assembled, as shown, and then mated to the lower ball joints. The resultant assemblies are then attached to the upper control arms. The original spindle nuts can be re-used, but new cotter pins are recommended.
This view from the rear of...
This view from the rear of the spindle shows the spindle/caliper bracket assembly (with lower ball joints attached) prior to being mounted to the upper control arms. The caliper (left) is also shown mounted in its installed location for reference purposes.
Sometimes, a proper installation...
Sometimes, a proper installation requires state-of-the-art equipment or cutting-edge techniques. But, more often than not, the basics make the difference. Although there are automated methods, we prefer to grease the bearings by hand. It's by no means a white-glove process, but doing it this way insures the grease penetrates completely and lubricates every bearing surface. This, in turn, helps assure reliability and long life.