As I mentioned earlier I just bought a pretty wild 72 Grabber...It's got a LOT of GO and not much WHOA. It's factory 4 wheel drum brakes. And i'm afraid to get on it because she doesn't like to come to a stop.... I'm looking to upgrade the front to Disk. I live in the Orlando Area. Anybody have any ideas where I can look. I'm not real familiar with Salvage Yards around Orlando. I know Granada, Monarch and Versaille brakes will fit. I've looked at some of your websites and they look really helpful. I was just wondering if anybody had a set of Front Disk they would want to Sell. If so email me at My Email and let me know how much and how you want to arrange payment. This will be my first attempt at a brake sawp so any info is appreciated too!! Thanks
Quote: "And i'm afraid to get on it because she doesn't like to come to a stop...." I support your decision to go disk brakes whole heartedly, however (here it comes).. No, I have no way of knowing, but I'd venture to guess your current brakes haven't been tended to (if there's no "whoa"). People in the 70's didn't have to have disc brakes to stop their cars at 'above normal' driving speeds....... or even when they were repeatedly doing 130+ at the end of a 1/4 mile track. Granted, if you can find disc brakes at a reasonable price and have the means to have them installed, you'll 'probably' have better stopping power (there are porportioning issues to deal with). I'm guessing there are hundreds of thousands of new cars sold with drum brakes. If the safety benefits of having disk brakes outway the risks associated with drum brakes by such a huge margin, then I think the gub'ment (or Nader) would've put a stop to any automobile manufacturer offering cars with drum brakes years ago. Until you get your disc brakes, you may want to have a look at your existing ones in the meantime to 'whoa' that Mav. 'Wouldn't want to hear of you having an accident waiting on disc brakes. There....I got it off my chest about the ever popular disc brake search (right or wrong) :confused: I'm not trying to initiate any arguments (please don' t think that). Just my humble o.
About the only benifit you will gain is more fade resistance. You better take a look at what you have. There not that bad when working properly.
There IS a big difference and disc brakes perform WAY better than drum. I converted my '73 to front disc over 12 years ago. You can use the front spindles from a '75 to '77 Maverick, or any year Granada or Versailles. There are a few others that will work too. Just get the spindles and front brake lines from the donor car (you need to change the pedal as well OR use a shorter push-rod on the master cylinder-- otherwise the pedal will be WAY too high), then buy everything else new since the parts are not that expensive anymore. You can get new rotors, calipers, pads, wheel bearings, seals, and disc brake master cylinder from any auto parts store. If you are only converting to manual disc brakes, you DO NOT need to use a proportioning valve (more of a headache), just retain the original distribution block. The sole purpose of a prop valve is to limit rear-wheel lockup. That's IT. You'll then just need to re-flare the two short brake lines and put on the correct fittings for the disc master cylinder (they're a different size). **Note: You should probably use the prop valve if you convert to power brakes, but then you'll also need a whole mess of other parts for that swap and it's a P.I.T.A.** Front drum brakes will make the car pull to one side if one side is adjusted differently than the other, or if the brakes get wet. Not fun. I remember going through a puddle in a rainstorm and when I hit the brake, the car kept going! Scared me. Discs rule...
