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| Are Better 9" Brakes Possible? https://slantsix.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=62554 |
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| Author: | SpaceFrank [ Fri Jul 13, 2018 9:00 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Are Better 9" Brakes Possible? |
If you need to replace a bunch of hardware anyway, I agree you should save for money for a front disc upgrade. It makes a huge difference in stopping power (especially with repeated heavy braking where drums will fade), reliability, and maintainability. Like others have said, make sure you upgrade your tire situation if you actually want a real improvement in peak stopping power. That being said, (properly adjusted and functional) four-wheel 9" drums are not going to kill you if you're not in the mountains and you drive the car like the 50-year-old heap it actually is. I daily-drove my '64 Dart with 9" drums for years; the only incident I ever had was when a taxi cut me off in Houston traffic while I happened to be paying to much attention to my stereo. |
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| Author: | Danarchy [ Fri Jul 13, 2018 9:24 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Are Better 9" Brakes Possible? |
Quote: Houston traffic  like you even need to say those things together! Is there ever a time when there isn't traffic in Houston?The Moffittman- I bought pieces here and there, some from RockAuto, but mostly scrounging Old East Texas auto parts stores, local salvage yards and the internet. Crossover parts helped alot too. |
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| Author: | SpaceFrank [ Fri Jul 13, 2018 1:24 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Are Better 9" Brakes Possible? |
I got the disc brake spindles and caliper brackets from a junkyard M-body ('84 Chrysler Fifth Avenue). That was the only thing I could find in a Houston pick-n-pull that was anywhere near old enough. That being said, FirmFeel appears to have new ones for a surprisingly reasonable price... I assume they're disc-brake type, but I'm not sure without comparing some pictures. Upper control arms are harder to find since they can only be from a later A-body. If you don't find any on the used or junkyard market, the expensive solution is to get aftermarket tubular arms from FirmFeel or others. The cheap way is to order the large upper ball joint sleeves, find a friend with a cutting torch to remove the smaller threaded sleeves from your existing UCAs, and then weld the new ones in. All the other parts (upper and lower ball joints, rotors, calipers, hoses) are parts store/RockAuto items. More details on the swap can be found here. Of course this gives you the larger bolt pattern up front. The ScareBird kit is the only setup I know about that lets you keep the small bolt pattern. |
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| Author: | DusterIdiot [ Fri Jul 13, 2018 4:45 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Are Better 9" Brakes Possible? |
Quote: I assume they're disc-brake type,
Drum brake front spindles dried up in the 1976 model year when they went to single piston discs after Jan 1...
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| Author: | SlantSteve [ Sat Jul 14, 2018 4:52 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Are Better 9" Brakes Possible? |
Out of interest did you guys have the finned 9” drums on the 1960 era variants like these? The ones in the link are rear drums but the fronts were the same fin design. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Chrysler-Va ... 2750414626 They were the V8 front drums. We ended up with optional solid disc rotors in around 1967. They were marginally better but being a solid disc and having a pretty small pad area they were never as good as a vented disc. 1970 Saw vented sbp discs, they all had 14” rims but they would not retrofit the earlier models due to different wheel centres. The old finned 9” drums weren’t bad for a cruiser or a resto, they run a lot cooler than the non finned variety and with a booster they did a decent job, but any significant performance increase would certainly be beyond their capabilities. |
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| Author: | Danarchy [ Sat Jul 14, 2018 9:15 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Are Better 9" Brakes Possible? |
SlantSteve- I ran Finned drums on the front but not the back, mainly due to what was available. |
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| Author: | SlantSteve [ Sun Jul 15, 2018 12:11 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Are Better 9" Brakes Possible? |
Quote: SlantSteve- I ran Finned drums on the front but not the back, mainly due to what was available.
Thanks, I was just curious what you guys had over there compared to the Australian models. Did you guys have finned front drums with circumferential fins like the one in the link? Over here it appears they only make repro standard non finned front drums these days but not the front finned drums from what I can see. I assume they only do the repro finned rear drums with the assumption everyone has gone front disc which is fair. Whenever these finned front drums wear out there is no way I’d go back to standard drums. Its a resto car so I’ve got a set of the non vented discs to run.
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| Author: | slantzilla [ Sun Jul 15, 2018 8:57 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Are Better 9" Brakes Possible? |
Dr. Diff makes tapered sleeves to go on the small ball joints to make them work with the late model spindles. |
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| Author: | valiant_200 [ Tue Aug 28, 2018 3:34 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Are Better 9" Brakes Possible? |
I have been told that the larger drums from `74-`76? (correct this if I am wrong) are an improvement and should bolt right in, if you can find them. That gives you 10" drums on the front. I snagged a set from a `74 Duster in the boneyard, back when you could still find such things. I hope to eventually clean them up and install them on something to see if they make any difference. Meanwhile, I installed a `74 Dart Disc Brake front end, including V8 torsion bars, in my `62 Valiant and it now stops on a dime and handles much better. That is the good news. The bad news is, I now have a mis-matched car! 4.5" circle on the front, 4" stock on the back. I installed a Wilwood valve to control the grab of the rear brakes. I am still trying to figure out the proper setting for that. The worst of the Disk Brake swap was making the rims match. I had to go with 14" steel wheels, two from a `74 and up A-Body, Volare', Aspen, et al, with disks, and two stock 14" Valiant rims. Otherwise, the appearance of the car would have been mixed! Finding those rims was a challenge. I finally found a junk yard in Illinois who had them. I strongly recommend that if you go for the stock Disk Brake front end swap, you go all-in and plan ahead. Have a suitable rear end ready to swap in when you do your front end so that your rims all match when it is over. |
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| Author: | Charrlie_S [ Tue Aug 28, 2018 5:32 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Are Better 9" Brakes Possible? |
Quote: I have been told that the larger drums from `74-`76? (correct this if I am wrong) are an improvement and should bolt right in, if you can find them. That gives you 10" drums on the front. I snagged a set from a `74 Duster in the boneyard, back when you could still find such things. I hope to eventually clean them up and install them on something to see if they make any difference.
Spindles are different between the 9 and 10 inch brakes. You cannot put 10 inch drums on 9 inch spindles. However you can swap to the 10 inch spindles, and use the 10 inch drums (along with all the 10 inch brake parts)
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| Author: | valiant_200 [ Tue Aug 28, 2018 4:15 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Are Better 9" Brakes Possible? |
I should have clarified that I took the entire front end assembly. I see the way I wrote it that it appears I took only the drums. Anyway, it is supposed to be an improvement that keeps drums and also the 4" bolt pattern. Has anybody else tried this? |
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| Author: | slantzilla [ Tue Aug 28, 2018 4:28 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Are Better 9" Brakes Possible? |
I went from 9's to 10's on the front of my '66. It was an improvement, but still not that good. |
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