who all is still running drum brakes up front?

If you really want to get to know your car my suggestion would be to take it to a NASA event or local road race course when they have an open track day. That way (assuming you either read about braking/apex....etc., etc., or attend their short course) and go out and have some fun and see what the "ole girl" will do without running into someone else or crashing and burning. A lot of these open track days also have a short course on when and how to brake, entering and leaving a corner.......................etc. It can be a lot of fun and you can get a good handle on how your car performs....or like some of the guys on here take it to an autocross/solo even near you......................................................IMHO

 

I hear ya and sure glad you pulled it out. Always nice to get a nice adrenaline rushed reminder(good for the glands, you know..lol) without any major consequences being involved.

And imagine how many people have flipped these cars when the rears become "old and saggy".

 

Legality aside.. besides.. what's worse?.. a ticket for racing around a lot.. or crashing?.. I usually just use the clear end of large parking lots as playgrounds every single year to aquaint myself with any newer tires/suspension mod's. And as I get older.. the very first thing I do in ANY car I drive in snowy conditions is to race, skid, and drift around to get a better feel for where all the limits are. If you notice at first snows.. most drivers have to have a few near misses or even crash to get reaqainted with winter driving again. lol

I also taught my sister and 1 neice and 2 nephews to drive in snow and ice in similar fashion. And my kids will never be allowed to drive until I know they can handle an emergency skid and turn it into a controlled slide as well. Or at least be able to decide which direction and where the car ends up when it comes to a stop. That last skill alone can mean the difference between fender bender and major injury or death.

 

I've actually wanted (for years) to take an instructor led racing course or get some real track time to get a better feel for it, but life gets in the way.

 

Well, you've got a couple of tracks out there................I think the best racing school is with the SCCA. It's not cheap, about $600 for the 3 day course........you need to have full racing SFI gear, preferred one piece suit, nomex underware, helmet, gloves, shoes, and some type of next brace although it doesn't have to be a HANS type. Then you will need to rent a certified race car........when I got my license I rented a Spec Miata for the 3 days. You start out with 1/2 day of class time, then you are given an instructor........usually 4 people are assigned to one instructor....my instructor was a National winner in his 914 Porsche. You follow him around the track at slow speeds as he shows you the correct line/apex/etc. You come back in........more class time........go out on the track and gradually increase speed with the instructor leading you..........then you go out on your own in small groups gradually increasing speeds but not passing anyone. Second day you start racing and by the Third day you are going flat out with 29 other drivers. My first couple of days I placed at the end of the pack...........most new drivers were less than 30 years old..........and come race day I started at the back and worked my way to mid pack....it was a really fun time..................and I learned a lot.........and had a ton of fun. Well worth................IMHO
One thing to keep in mind................brake before the turn..........never in the turn...............and if you come into a turn at 105mph...........you leave the turn at 105mph..................Should be on everybody's bucket list.

 

I'd also recommend Skip Barber, been to a few events over the years. Safety, theory and prac-app, they are top notch in my book! If I remember right, they covered disk brake theory in relation to scrubbing speed on turn in.

 

Is there a front disc brake kit that would allow me to keep my stock steel wheels?
The ones I have looked into say they are incompatible with many stock wheels.

 

Stock, '75-up.

 

would they fit on a "74?

 

Like Eric mentions, you have to use later wheels with the larger hole for the hub. And use the disc brake steering knuckle with later outer tie rod ends. You may have to reposition the brake hard lines, some do some don't. I'm running '76 Maverick discs on my '70. Oh yeah, and replace the master cylinder with a disc/drum unit. Some folks don't but for $30 you can get a more modern '89 Ranger unit that's lighter in weight and has a plastic reservoir so you don't need to open it to check the fluid level.
The big thing is the steering knuckle and dust shield, everything else can be bought new for cheap.

 

I want to keep the stock look so swapping the wheels probably won't work as I would need to swap to a different style hub cap. I've read some have used the swap kit #2 from discbrakeswap.com, I looked at the site and they say that you reuse the original spindles so I'm guessing that this means I can keep my wheels.
I've never liked monkeying with brakes, I might need to see if a local brake shop would take this on for me.

 

The five lug wheel hub size increased with the 1970 models. AFAIK from that point, using factory brakes, all wheels, disc or drum will interchange. The 1969-earlier(Mustang, Torino etc) do have a smaller hub and those wheels will not fit on '70 up models. Again that's either disc or drum. The drum hubs on my '72 Comet were larger than the '69 Torino disc brakes I installed.

I used the Torino brakes as I had a pair on hand, these were used on '68-'71 Torino(yes '70-'71 use the larger hubs), plus '68-'73 Mustang. Rotor size is just slightly larger than the Maverick/Granada brakes but fit with 14" wheels, as those were stock size. Using these spindles required using a '69-earlier tie rod end.

 

I noticed that the AutoKrafters conversion kit uses existing spindles. But it says it needs 5 lug, 8 cylinder spindles.
I have 5 lug wheels but my car came with a 250 engine. So were there two different 5 lug spindles, one for a 6 and one for an 8 cylinder in '74 ?

 

Maverick drum spindles were all the same, same part number as 70 Mustang.