Wilwood's A-Body Disc-Brake Conversion - A Binding Option

Although disc brakes were commonplace on compact Mopars from 1973 onwards, owners of earlier A-Bodies will typically find drums behind the wheels. It is true the Kelsey Hayes four-piston disc setup was offered as an option on some models, however, the vast majority of A-Bodies rolled off the line with drums on all four corners. Such was the case with our '68 Barracuda fastback. We had a functional set of 10-inch drums at the front end of this little A-Body, but, with an infusion of underhood power on its way, that just wouldn't cut it. At the rear, we had swapped the factory 7 1/4 rear for an 8 3/4, fitted with custom Moser axles to accommodate large B-Body 11x2 1/2-inch drums.

There are a variety of approaches to converting an A-Body to front discs. A popular choice is to scrounge the boneyard for a setup from a '73-and-up A-Body. This can be a cheap route, if you can score the spindles, caliper adapters, and upper A-arms at a true junkyard price, allowing the late unicast '73-and-up 11- or 12-inch rotors to be installed. The first problem with this setup is, though the conversion is cheap in theory, the parts have all but been hustled out, and if you can find them, typically you'll pay a premium. The late A-Body setup has enough braking capacity, particularly when outfitted with 12-inch rotors and sliding calipers, but the system is heavy-not what we were after for our project. The '73-and-up A-Body disc brakes were a classic example of parts-bin engineering by the factory, essentially adapting the E-body brake system (a derivative of the '70-and-up B-body system) to the A-body. While that may seem like a good thing, the spindle/ball-joint assembly used added about 3/4-inch per side to the width of the front suspension. the A-Body already carries a wider track at the front than the rear, so adding that extra 1 1/2 -inch span between the wheels cramps already tight tire clearance. Not a problem for a drag application with skinnies, but for our Barracuda we wanted to avoid the orthodontically impaired overbite look.

For A-Body applications, the aftermarket offers some viable alternatives. We were after lightweight and easy installation in a quality kit. We had firsthand experience with the Wilwood's A-Body disc-brake conversion, and our current project seemed like the ideal candidate for this upgrade. The Wilwood kit would bolt directly to our original drum spindles and would not materially affect the front track width. The Wilwood conversion proved to be a quality product, complete, and easy to install. Unlike a swap to the later stock disc brakes, the upper control arm and spindle need not be removed or replaced.