front spindle

[64 kiwi boni]

Wow that’s not good mate 

have you and the boss had the COVID jabs ? 

Edited August 27, 2021 by 64 kiwi boni

[Old guy44]

Yes, 

We were both vaccinated but so was our daughter. I am not feeling real comfortable about this particularly for my wife who is diabetic.

[64 kiwi boni]

1 hour ago, Old guy44 said:

Yes, 

We were both vaccinated but so was our daughter. I am not feeling real comfortable about this particularly for my wife who is diabetic.

i feel for you Dwight. but i am also super pleased your vaccinated,👍 i am sure the out come will be nothing more than a mild cold... if that. fingers crossed.. 

truly a bloody nasty virus and i bet the one your dealing with is the delta version... which has shut the whole of my country down!!

Now i am going to worry about you both !! AND your daughter and Her family !!!

We have done what the health pros have told us to do and really thats ALL we can do. 🙄

 

[Old guy44]

Thank you for your kind thoughts. I was feeling like I had been run over by a truck last night and was understandably concerned, but apparently it was just a reaction to working on an old Chrysler that belongs to a friend in Australia. She left it with me the last time she was here and I have been fixing things on it ever since. The master cylinder kept going dry so I replaced it, not the fix. Yesterday I replaced the wheel cylinders, the rears were both leaking. At my age doing brake work on a jack is a painful experience and apparently my body decided to scream at me that I am no longer 25. 

Bottom line is that I had a really good nights sleep and woke up feeling great. If the testing comes back negative I can drive out to Wilwood pick up the parts and get moving.

[Old guy44]

TEST RESULTS NEGATIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Old guy44]

Just got back from Wilwood. With brake hoses I have 2K in parts in my trunk. I want to do a quick mock up before I post pictures and numbers. Will try to do that this afternoon. I know the rears will fit because the kit is made for the 9.3 drop out but the fronts at this point are a crapshoot. 

Something occurred to me while I was sitting at Wilwood. To put the rear brakes on I will need to pull the axles. It would be the perfect time to drop out the carrier and put in a posi. Anyone know of one sitting around getting lonely? I found someone that makes a new posi but for a daily driver being retired and on a fixed income 800+ is just a bit rich for my wallet for something that I really do not need but would like to have.

[Old guy44]

OK got home and drug out a rotor and caliper. Bolted the rotor to the hub put it on the spindle and set the caliper on looks like the bracket will not be too difficult. Everything lines up pretty well. I did drop the rotor and caliper into the spare and everything clears so maybe in a day  or two. I will lay everything out and take pictures and I will post the receipt with all the part numbers so there will be no question what I am using. 

Kitchen faucet broke so I had to stop and put on my plumbers hat.

[Old guy44]

Now it begins. Spent all day roughing out the two brackets. Only had to throw away half of the first attempt. Turns out that two pieces is the way to go. If you look at 1264 I still need to do some detailing but once all the extra is cut off a piece of half inch solid square is just the right size for a filler. The caliper bracket was drilled and tapped and just to make sure I welded a grade 8 nut on so there is about a half inch of threads. With a grade 8 bolt it is not going anywhere. Once I get all the excess off and clean them up I will lay them on top of a piece of 1/4 square graph paper and it will be easy for someone to transfer the picture onto a clean piece of graph paper and duplicate the final product. 1266 is where the caliper bracket bolts onto the spindle. A 1/8 inch spacer centers the caliper perfectly. I am using the original hub out of the brake drum. I will need to replace the studs with something that does not have any shoulder sticking out of the mating face. I had to drive them back to get the rotor to mount properly. It seems that it will be a lot easier than I anticipated. Once I get these tailored it should not take more than a couple of hours to duplicate them, another hour or so to weld everything up and they should be on the car by this weekend. 

Barring more plumbing problems or who knows what the next disaster will be I should have them ready to install tomorrow. since the spindle fits either side the brackets are mirror image of one another.

[64 kiwi boni]

that looks bloody good Dwight 👍

 tell me how did you determine where to mount the caliper circumference wise ... looks like you have mounted it at about 2 oclock 

[Old guy44]

No reason in particular I just mounted it as High as I could to get it as close to the metal line as possible

[Old guy44]

OK guys here is a template of the two brackets. I also showed the final mock up to make sure that everything fits and clears. It is ready to weld in the morning, this old body is tired. These brackets are not something you want on your show car but I guarantee that they will be the last thing to fail on the front brake system (depending on your welding ability) The 9/16 bolt that screws into the top of the spindle will need to be ground down for rotor clearance as will the nuts welded onto the caliper bracket.  with two brackets you can fit and shim. The only thing I needed to shim was the caliper bracket which is held on with the 9 1/6 bolt. you need to shim it so the rotor sits in the middle of the caliper. The caliper is a solid mount and you only have about .080 to work with. With everything fit and tightened I plan to weld it bolted to the spindle and let it cool in the atmosphere to hopefully reduce warpage.

Just for giggles I took  picture of my Fred Flintstone working conditions. Out here you don't  just run out and buy another garage. This is So CAL where three hole outhouses are in the low six figures. I would love to have a beer but I used up my lifetime supply of alcohol by my 25th birthday.

Should have the front brakes on by this weekend so will be able to see how they work. I am going to poke around a couple of places and see if I can find a posi somewhere before doing the rear.

wilwoodtemplate.pdf

[Old guy44]

Forgot something. I planned to knock out the studs and replace them but they had been swaged and were expanded. With out the benefit of a press they were not about to come out. So I bought a good 5/8 hole saw which has a 1/2 in ID and put it in the drill press. it took about 5 minutes to cut the shoulder down to size and another 15 minutes to run a die over them and thread them down to the mounting surface. Problem solved

[Old guy44]

OK guys got the front brakes on and discovered a minor modification On the caliper bracket you should move the 9/16 bolt hole about 1/4 inch further out. That is an additional 1/4 inch between the 9/16 hole and the closest caliper mounting hole. I needed to do a little grinding on the spindle support on the left spindle because the caliper would not bolt down. had to grind clearance so an additional 1/4 inch would be advisable. Also those calipers are a little bitchy to bleed. I spent at least an hour and a half trying to get a brake pedal on it last night. I thought about it all night and today I unbolted the caliper on the top and swung it out so it was completely vertical. I took one of the old style oil cans, the one with the pump handle on it cleaned it out and filled it with brake fluid. got some clear plastic hose that I could hook to the oil can and to the brake bleeder. I opened both top bleeders connected the oil can to one and a hose to the other that drained into a clean jar. I just kept pumping fluid through the caliper until all the bubbles disappeared. When the oil can got low I just poured the fluid from the jar back into the oil can. Took a couple of minutes of pumping for all the bubbles to disappear. closed the bleeders and did the same thing on the other side. Bolted the calipers back down and had a full solid brake pedal. That is what I plan to do when I install the rear kit. 

I still have not done the rears but with the fronts done my pedal pressure is less than half of what it used to be and I believe that with slightly more pressure I could lock up the fronts. Something that the cheapo kit I had that was based on the single piston GM floating caliper would never do.

The two chassis modifications I have done that have made the most difference in the car were the Alden coilovers in the front and the Wilwood brakes. Of the two I have to put the Wilwoods in the number one slot because I think it is more important that I can stop better than the car in front of me rather than out handle him.

[Old guy44]

OK guys I am back, finally got the park brake cables on and all is done. As you can see from the pictures I just connected the hard lines into the caliper. It just takes a 1/8 pipe to 1/4 inverted flare fitting. I would rather have used a short flexible line but could not find what I needed so figured it could wait. I needed to replace the studs as the originals were about two threads from full penetration. These dormans are the closest I could find to what I needed, just had to cut down the shoulder. Not having a lathe I used a drill press and a 5/8 hole saw. If you bend the teeth in so they are snug over the threaded  part it makes a really clean cut. 

The cable connections are at the top of the backing plate and I secured them to the control arm to keep them out of harms way.  The right cable is a tiny bit short and you can see from picture 1290 that I needed a slight extension to reach the original connector. I strung the cable as direct as I could keeping it out of the way of exhaust and driveshaft and was still a couple of inches short. But it works so what the h.....

The brakes require a burning in which in the big city can be a challenge. Repeated stops from 65 to 25 not many places around here to accomplish that. There are places that I can but it is about an 80 mile round trip. They are coming along, the more I drive the better they get but the first block out of the garage cold I will hold the brake pedal down to warm them up. Reminds me of the old velvetouch shoes if any of you go that far back. If you are planning to drive hard I would recommend up grading to the 6 piston calipers. but for a daily driver it appears that once these completely run in they will be more than adequate.

Now for the parts list:

140-11397 complete rear brake kit with parking brake

330-9371 park brake cable kit

120-13846 front caliper

150-8850K front pads (rear pads are in the rear kit)

160-15516 front rotor

220-8763 front brake hose 220-6956 fitting 220-13124 fitting

I am into it for about 2200 but remember I have no shipping, they are only about 30 miles away from me.

Hopefully I have adequately explained everything if not the floor is now open for questions.

[64 kiwi boni]

looking great Dwight 👍 do those back calipers have bleed screws top and bottom like the front ones you showed ?

[JUSTA6]

Missing a cotter key next to the spring in the last pic.  Quite an achievement, well done.

[Old guy44]

Kiwi, 

Yes the calipers all have bleed screws on both ends. as previously stated the easiest way to bleed them is to open both top bleeders and pump brake fluid in one until it runs clear out of the other one. Using clear plastic tubing makes it easy and you can collect the fluid coming out in a clean container and not on the shop floor. The way the caliper is made it needs to be vertical to get all the air out.

A6,

Darned if you are not right. I also see that I did not tighten the jam nut on the adjustment bolt. What can I say, the end of a long day. The duct tape is wrapped around the cable connector to keep it from rattling on the crossmember.

[Old guy44]

Update on brakes. I did not want to take an 80 mile round trip to burn in the brakes so as I was driving I did everything I could to heat up the brakes and finally got them "burned in". I am driving it harder since I know that I can stop and found myself in a panic stop condition. I reacted by jumping all over the brake pedal. No tire squeal no diving just excellent stopping power, just what I was looking for. I would imagine that I could put enough pressure on the pedal to lock up the tires but the fact that they are not inclined to lock is a good thing. 

The one thing I did not go into in the narrative was the booster and master cylinder. They both came with the "Disney animation" front disc system I previously installed. It is about an 8 or 9 inch double booster with a 1" master cylinder. With the cam that is in the engine it develops around 20" of vacuum at idle, probably more decelerating. I would like to be able to say that I engineered the hydraulics but the truth is that it was just dumb luck. Normal stopping requires more pedal pressure than any of my other rolling stock but I would not change a thing because it would take a lot more pedal pressure than my normal reaction under panic conditions to lock, and you can push harder and stop faster without wheel lock. Almost as good as antilock without all the hardware.

This thing just keeps getting better.

[64 kiwi boni]

good Work Dwight it will make driving the 63 justA that little bit nicer !!!

[Old guy44]

With the engine and trans change it goes, the Alden coil overs cured the boat in the water ride and now it stops. What more can you ask for. Maybe this thing will see me out. Just wish I had this combo when I was cruising Van Nuys Blvd in the 60's

[64 kiwi boni]

4 minutes ago, Old guy44 said:

With the engine and trans change it goes, the Alden coil overs cured the boat in the water ride and now it stops. What more can you ask for. Maybe this thing will see me out. Just wish I had this combo when I was cruising Van Nuys Blvd in the 60's

hahaha, i wish they had efi back when i spent sooo much time dicking with worn out holly carbs on 327 chevs in my 56s !!

[Frosty]

Let's face it - these old cars did two things very well. They looked good going fast in a straight line.

Cornering, braking, handling, and good radios and sound systems? Pfft.....what were you thinking / drinking ?

Now days our SUVs have more horsepower, out handle, out brake, out corner, and have better sound systems than these things did. Oh the shame, the shame, the shame....

That's why resto mods give us the best of both worlds!

Way to go Dwight!

Edited October 25, 2021 by Frosty

[Old guy44]

Frosty,

Thanks for the thumbs up. You did miss one thing, you did not need to look at the nameplate to know who built the old stuff.

My wife drives a 15 year old Lexus hybrid that looks very much like most of the suv's on anybody's lot. Problem with it is that it needs a battery tender because if you don't drive it for at least a half hour a week the starting battery will go dead from all the onboard computers. Says so right in the owners manual. 

Also I could drive a Bentley suv into a parking lot with barely a ho hum but I almost never pull into a parking lot with the Indian without at the very least a comment.

I will be happily driving this thing until I can no longer drive and I don't see it ever going out of style. I may however have to convert it to running alcohol and build a large still in the back shed to be able to drive it.😁

[Frosty]

Dwight thanks for the support.

If you need the number of a 'shiner, I know an FP member who might know a thang' or two about shine. I have two Mason jars of his granddad's stuff in my basement cabinet. Not sure if I should pour it into my gas tank as octane boost or use it as a topical hair remover. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

This good ol' boy happens to be getting married this weekend too. Gawd. 

[JUSTA6]

3 hours ago, Old guy44 said:

Frosty,

Thanks for the thumbs up. You did miss one thing, you did not need to look at the nameplate to know who built the old stuff.

My wife drives a 15 year old Lexus hybrid that looks very much like most of the suv's on anybody's lot. Problem with it is that it needs a battery tender because if you don't drive it for at least a half hour a week the starting battery will go dead from all the onboard computers. Says so right in the owners manual. 

Also I could drive a Bentley suv into a parking lot with barely a ho hum but I almost never pull into a parking lot with the Indian without at the very least a comment.

I will be happily driving this thing until I can no longer drive and I don't see it ever going out of style. I may however have to convert it to running alcohol and build a large still in the back shed to be able to drive it.😁

Most don't even nameplate/badges anymore.  We Justa got back from a weekend color tour to northern part of the state.  Wife asked me a number of times, whats that?  DON'T KNOW. Guess if you have to ask...it Justa doesn't matter??

2 hours ago, Frosty said:

Dwight thanks for the support.

If you need the number of a 'shiner, I know an FP member who might know a thang' or two about shine. I have two Mason jars of his granddad's stuff in my basement cabinet. Not sure if I should pour it into my gas tank as octane boost or use it as a topical hair remover. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

This good ol' boy happens to be getting married this weekend too. Gawd. 

Thought you were going?