My 68 Charger is a heavy car. Add a big block to that and it gets heavier. The factory 10-inch, 34 year old, non-self-adjusting and non-power-assisted drum brakes on all 4 corners are just not safe. They fade almost immediately and I've had the pedal go to the floor more than once. The car simply doesn't stop well and has gotten to the point of being no fun to drive. Disc brakes in the front are in order. Serious disc brakes. The rears will stay drums for now. But they can be converted as well in the future, like maybe if I ever have to change out the rear end and the axles are loose.
You have a few options when doing this conversion. You can go with factory disc brakes from a later model Mopar, or you can choose from the aftermarket selection and get all new stuff. I'm going aftermarket. I'm a big fan of all new stuff, and very light weight stuff at that. I'm all for reducing un-sprung weight. You can also choose to convert from manual to power-assisted. I'll likely stay non-power assisted, it works just fine and I won't be worrying about vacuum at idle, etc.
The major players in the Mopar conversion are Stainless Steel Brakes, Wilwood, Performance Suspension and Master Power Brakes. The prices are all similar, roughly $900-$1200 for a complete front disc conversion. The rear's are a bit cheaper, usually around $700.
These kits generally are "complete" and re-use your factory drum brake spindles. A kit generally includes:
I've decided to go with the Stainless Steel Brakes, Force 10, non-power front disc conversion. The extra $260 for the Force 10 system gets you some good stuff over the already excellent "base upgrade". You get better slotted rotors, light-weight aluminum 4-piston calipers and braided lines.
I decided to start tearing into the front brakes before the kit arrives, so I'll be ready and the swap will go faster, and so I can find/fix any potential problems ahead of time. I removed the factory drums and also went ahead and pulled off the factory spindles so I could clean them up and paint them. Now would be a good time to change my upper ball joints. My passenger side spindle was all chewed up on the bearing surface from a previous owner, so I grabbed a spindle from a local junk yard ($50) and cleaned/painted it. (Here's a tidbit of info I learned. For the Mopar B/E bodies there is no difference between the left and the right spindle, they are the same. How can that be? Well, the spindle only attaches to the upper ball joint, then the spindle bolts to what would be the bottom half of a "normal" spindle, which then attaches to the lower ball joint and the steering linkage as you would expect. So it's basically a two-piece spindle, with the top half being universal and the bottom half being side-specific.) So now I have new looking spindles, with perfect bearing surfaces, just waiting for some disc brakes.
March 10 2002 - So the kit arrived today. As promised the delivery was just shy of 2 weeks, directly from SSBC. Very exciting opening the 2 boxes. Everything is beautiful. The slotted rotors look ready for action and the huge calipers look serious and evil, and yet, weigh so little. I began the installation by mounting their adaptor plates to my spindles and tightening them to the proper torque. I also test fit the rotors with calipers inside my 15x7" wheel. It's pretty close but will certainly fit. I'll feel better once I have 16 or 17-inch wheels though. And of course, bigger wheels will show off the brakes even better, if I should choose to go down the "hey! look at my modifications!" route :) (see pics below) The instructions are good and complete although my kit was missing just 4 lock washers. Easy enough to remedy. The only thing I haven't really figured out is where I'm going to install the adjustable proportioning valve. Speaking of the prop valve, I was lead to believe that the Force 10 valve was upgraded over the normal one to include a gauge. Mine looks like the normal one. Oh well.
March 11 2002 - Today I finshed most of the mechanical installation. The physical braking components are on the car and torqued down to spec. That incudes the bearings, rotors, calipers, pads, etc. It actually looks like a proper braking system now. I next began working on the hydraulic system, bleeding the lines and draining the master. What's left is to remove the old master cylinder, bench bleed the new master cylinder, install it, install the new braided lines, install the proportioning valve, bleed the system and test drive. This entire swap could be done in a single day given the right tools and supplies. I'm going slow. I'll take 3 evenings. I had to make one run to the hardware store for supplies: brake fluid, brake cleaner, lock washers and cotter pins. Again, more pictures today, will end up here eventually. I only ran into 2 snags, and one was completely mental. The first was that one caliper bolt hole wasn't tapped completely and ate a bolt. The 2nd was trying to figure out which direction the directional slotted rotors are supposed to go. I eventually found this which set my mind at ease. The SSBC rotors do not appear to be marked "left" and "right" in any way that I could find.
March 12 2002 - After much cursing and bending into horrible positions, I managed to unbolt the old master cylinder which is held to the firewall from the inside via 4 studs (the same studs which hold the pedals). I knocked the studs out of the old master cylinder and installed them in the new master. Then I bench bled the new master cylinder and decided to let it sit over-night to get the tiny bubbles out. At this point, the only things left to do are; install the new master, install the flex lines from the calipers to the hard lines on the frame, install the prop valve and bleed the system. But I'm stuck on 3 things. 1) The brake pedal pushrod *refuses* to come out of the old master cylinder. 2) On the new master, there are no provisions for the 2 screws which hold the retaining plate. 3) The old hard lines refuse to let go of the old flex lines, better vice grips are needed. This car has to be on the road Thursday; if not, it doesn't get to go to Ocean City and I'll drive my Monte instead, and the Monte has already gotten to go before. I predict jealousy issues.
March 16 2002 - Finished the job tonight, and a good thing too since I'm taking the car to Ocean City (3 hours away) tomorrow! I'll skip most of the boring detail and just say that the system is done and it looks great and stops even better! The pedal is rock hard and very high. After a few serious whacks with a hammer the pushrod finally came out of the old master cylinder piston. I still don't see how it was held in there so well. I skipped the installation of the pushrod boot retaining plate and just installed the boot by itself. And with the monster vice grips, the old flex lines let go of the hard lines and allowed the new braided flex lines to go in. The system bleeding of the front went as planned and the rear was only slightly trickier because I did it without the aid of a second person. But once the system was bled it was time for a test drive and everything worked perfectly. I highly recommend this system. I went from having almost no brakes at all to having brakes that actually make me feel more confident driving the car at speed. Very happy.
March 20 2002 - Got the pictures from the install developed, just need to get my scanner working. The trip to Ocean City proved the Charger to be solid as a rock on road trips. And trust me, it got tested quite a bit :)
November 24 2002 - New scanner purchased, pictures below. :)
