73-87 disc brake help!

[calvinator]

sorry to keep pounding you guys with questions. my buddy and his dad did this same swap with his 69. But from the donor truck, all they used was the spindle/disc brakes. They bought new upper and lower ball joints. kept the 69 crossmember, upper/lower A arms, springs, and steering linkage/tie rods. Id have to replace the ball joints anyways (whether or not i swap the entire crossmember) so it would be a lot simpler to do it this way. Have any of you done this before?

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by calvinator

sorry to keep pounding you guys with questions. my buddy and his dad did this same swap with his 69. But from the donor truck, all they used was the spindle/disc brakes. They bought new upper and lower ball joints. kept the 69 crossmember, upper/lower A arms, springs, and steering linkage/tie rods. Id have to replace the ball joints anyways (whether or not i swap the entire crossmember) so it would be a lot simpler to do it this way. Have any of you done this before?

I did the 73-up disc swap on my 68 & it is much simpler to re-use some existing parts.

I used my existing 68 crossmember, 68 upper/lower a-arms, 73 spindles, 73 upper/lower ball-joints, 73 inner/outer tie-rods, 73 drag-link, 68 idler arm, 68 pitman arm, 73 rotors, 73 calipers, 73 rubber brake lines, 73 hard brake lines, 73 prop valve, 73 master cyl, 71-72 power booster, & 71-72 power brake firewall brackets. I combined my 68 brake pedal 'push-rod' w/one from a disc brake truck to get the proper length/ratio.

I chose to use the 73 drag-link (center-link) because they're easier to find in wrecking yards. I also used the 73's hard lines & prop valve for that reason too. It required relocating the prop valve to the splash apron in front of the motor (between the framerails) but the lines only required slight bending to align everything so it looked factory. I spliced the 73 hardline into my existing 68 rear brake line under the cab @ a factory union fitting. The front hard lines route to the frame where there were pre-existing holes.

[70GMCer]

Originally Posted by calvinator

sorry to keep pounding you guys with questions. my buddy and his dad did this same swap with his 69. But from the donor truck, all they used was the spindle/disc brakes. They bought new upper and lower ball joints. kept the 69 crossmember, upper/lower A arms, springs, and steering linkage/tie rods. Id have to replace the ball joints anyways (whether or not i swap the entire crossmember) so it would be a lot simpler to do it this way. Have any of you done this before?

I did......Did you read #4 part of this thread that I wrote?

[calvinator]

thanks guys. do i have to use 71/72 control ends and tie rods? or can i use them off my 84? or does my 70 have them? sorry... little uneducated with mechanical stuff like this. thanks

[calvinator]

today i removed my drum brakes and ball joints from my '70 and replaced it with the 73-87 upper and lower ball joints and the spindles and discs from an 84 parts truck. i put the new 5 bolt wheels on (just to move the truck) and realised that the wheels are slanted in a lot. i understand i need to use the inner & outer tie rods and/or drag drag link from my 84? (what IS a drag link by the way) Will these parts even fix the camber of the wheels?

on the 84 spindles, the two mounting points (where you bolt them to the upper and lower ball joints on each A arm) are at least 1" longer than the distance from the original spindles' mounting holes. this will obviously mess with the camber, correct? we took a rough measurement of the 84 and 70 upper and lower A arms and they seemed to be very similar, if not identical.

How can I fix the camber of my wheels!?!?

[Ford Assassin]

Bump.....

[caminokid]

Heres my old thread about when I installed my 87 GMC front end on to my 69...

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=292762

Heres where you might run into problems with the 73 to 87 rear axles

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=295832