New question - my '69 cuda has original k-frame, LCA's and sway bar but the '73-76 style front disc caliper hits the sway bar when I turn hard. So adding front discs helped breaking but limited my turn radius. Moving calipers to rear mount position helped but still had interference. Can anyone give me a tip on what after-market front sway bar will clear my front discs? I'm thinking that upgrading the sway bar is a better option at this point than swapping out to '73 style k-frame, LCA's, and sway bar. Thanks,
Bill Gasser
'69 cuda
Hillsboro, OR

Swap sides with the knuckles so the calipers go to the rear. You'll need custom brake hoses but Oil Filter Service downtown Portland can make those for you. With the calipers to the rear of the knuckle there isn't anythng for them to interfere on. Best calipers for a rear hung setup are the late model FMJ units. Somewhere in the 80's the factory moved the calipers to the rear and designed a special caliper with a bottom hose inlet and a top mounted bleeder. Slider only though so if you have pin type calipers you would have to swap brackets.

Thanks Andy! The calipers are already rear-mounted and still interfere slightly with the sway bar (the threaded stud from the spindle hits the swaybar). I ground off most of the extra threads to reduce the interference but it still bumps up against the stud/nut. I figured the problem was due to mixing a '69 k-frame, LCA's, and sway bar with '73 style Disc brake spindles. Are you saying that the F/M body calipers are different enough that they won't interfere like the '73 style a-body calipers do?

You lost me somewhere along the way. If the calipers are rear hung how are they interfering with the anti-sway bar? You said the threaded stud is hitting the sway bar, what is that stud attached to? Only thing I can think of that might hit a sway bar would be one of the lower ball joint bolts? But those don't have anything to do with the caliper. Maybe post a picture?

I haven't seen an "early-mid" sway bar set up. I thought on the late ones the studs point down out of the LCA tabs and the bar is close to the ground...are the early ones the other way, they mount "up" with shorter studs? Given I just saw that the early steering link mounts differently than the 73-76 verison I expect there was a change in sway bar UCA mounting points after '72 also?

-D.Idiot

Sorry for the confusion, my description should have been more accurate. I'm working on getting a good picture posted but basically this is the situation: The contact is between the sway-bar TAB on the LCA, and the bolt that attaches the lower ball joint to the spindle. When I installed '73 front disc brakes, the turning radius became somehwat limited because of that interference. So I guess I can either live with it as is (handles well but has a slightly limited turning radius)... or remove the '69 sway bar and tabs, or upgrade the works (LCA's, sway bar, etc.) to '73 style. Appreciate your ideas and suggestions? Thanks,
Bill

Bill,

The later ball joints have a nub to contact the lower control arm at full steering lock. The later lower control arms are flat in this contact area while many of the earlier control arms have a raised area. When you put these two parts together it restricts the turning radius. I've ground down the nub on the ball joint to restore the full, normal wheel angle.

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Joshua

First time trying to post a pic (hope this works!) of the contact between lower ball joint bolt/spindle to sway bar tab. Sorry again for the mislabeling of the contact areas in my first post (it was not hitting the caliper). I upgraded those parts to my car shortly before deploying for a year in S.W.Asia. Recently got back and had just forgot exactly where it was hitting. Thanks for the tips guys,
Billl

I guess if your lower ball joint to spindle bolts are hitting the sway bar tab you'll could put hardened washers under the head of the bolt to move it outboard.

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Joshua

I saw the picture you sent me. I guess the late model ball joint has the bolts in a different location than the stock setup? That is the only reason why I can think the ball joint bolt would be hitting the LCA. The late model ball joint must have a wider bolt spacing?

I can't say I've ever seen this problem but I'm not that familiar with this exact swap. Maybe there aren't that many A body cars with the factory anti-sway bar or something.

It looks to me like you need to change the anti-sway bar mount. Probably need to find some different LCAs and then a different anti-sway bar. Maybe aftermarket or maybe the late model A body stuff. Dick Ross up at Firm Feel might have some answers for you.

Hello I dealt with this swap when putting 73-up Parts onto my 68 valiant with the stock SBP lower control arms.


You have to grind down / cut off the small Cast Bump on the lower ball joint - it's the steering stop. Same goes for the mounting bolts - Cut em off flush with the nuts on the lower ball joint. This quick fix will get your full 5 1/4 Turns lock to lock back in the steering wheel.


Sorry I do not have a pic of this to post.

Also My car did not have sway bars, so that could be another factor I do know that the sway bar was re-desigined for the 1973- up model year with different mounting points.


Greg

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Follow-up: I talked to Dick at Firmfeel and he confirmed that '67-72 LCA's WITH factory sway bar tabs do interfere with the '73 and up spindle. The fix is either to cut off the sway bar tabs on the LCA, or swap out to later style LCA's. I won't mess up a good set of sway bar LCA's so will go second route. Don't need to change the old k-frame, just go with later style LCA's and buy a '67-72 sway bar kit for mounting without factory tabs. Thanks everyone for your input - much obliged!
Bill

Some guys have had success by reversing the spindle. This puts the caliper behind the centerline of the front wheel. It reduces airflow over the caliper a little. That should only be a problem for the autoXers or road racing.

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You can't fix stupid. - Ron White