Drop N' Stop brake conversion and drum update on my ranchero

[briney]

All,
Doing the front brake conversion on my ranchero was one of the easiest projects I have ever done.  I spent more time dong the research than doing the actual conversion! I had heard about Dick's site from a source on the web and did my research.  I know it would have been a little cheaper to source the parts and a honing tool myself to save some money, however I was also buying his technical experience in case I had encountered an unforeseen issue.  In the course of my research I found out about a whole lot of things NOT to do when doing a conversion from drum to disk.  The biggest thing I learned NOT to do was use any other spindle other than a Granada or Monarch.  I have read articles from others indicating that they were able to use spindles from Tornio's, Maverick's and other flavors of FMC product's.  The fact that they actually bolted up is one thing, correct geometry for alignment purposes is another.  Other then the spindles I listed, I have found no other that fit correctly. Even the Lincoln Versailles spindles visually are identical to the Granada/Monarch with one major exception, the lower ball joint!

In the course of doing the installation I also replaced the rear brakes and entire front suspension with a kit from Kanter Auto Products.  Kanter makes some of the highest quality reproduction parts I have ever seen.  I will show you some pictures along with descriptions of the conversion process below. Here is Dick's information if you are interested.

Drop'em & Stop'em Dropped Spindles & Disc Brake Kits
from D.C. ENTERPRISES
D.C. ENTERPRISES (805) 498-4420
564 Strauss Drive, Thousand Oaks, CA.  91320
Email: dick@dropnstop.com


1. The product came.  The shipper was a little hard on the box, but it was all there.




2. I disconnected the battery and jacked the car up on all 4's and removed the wheels.



3. Old drums off! Spindles on! Be sure to use new cotter pins! I put the front end kit on after the brake installation.  It would have been smarter to do it when I had the spindles off.



4.  Dust covers lying out.



5.  Dust covers mounted.



6.  Rotors in box.



7.  Rotors mounted.  Be sure to pack the bearing with plenty of grease.  Dick provides a document showing the caliper and Rotor assembly along with the correct torch specifications. Last pound the grease cap on the end of the assembly.  It?s funny, that I spent more time trying to get the grease cap on than installing the caliper and rotor!





8.  Calipers in the boxes.



9.  Be sure to use brake lubricant on the calipers.



10. Install the brake line in to caliper and then mount it to the spindle.



11. When connecting the hoses to the calipers and brake lines be sure to use new crush washers.  Dick supplied the ones to the calipers but did not supply the one for the Banjo block on the driver's side connection.  I also opted to purchase some new hose locks from NAPA see above.



12. At this point I followed the same procedure for the other side.  Be sure to use some brake cleaner to get the protective coating off the rotors before use. You will have to adjust the run out on your tie rods before you can take it to the alignment shop.



13. Next it was on to the rear brakes.  I removed the drums and found them to be way out of specification, so I had to order new ones.  They were a little pricey at just over one hundred dollars each.  Lots more parts to be ordered. See below.



14. During the rebuild I found fifty year old springs and manual star adjusters, one of which wasn?t turning to good. 



15. A rotted hose that was about worn through.



16. New wheel cylinders from C&G above.



17. While I was ordering things I also ordered and replaced the rear brake line going to the axle, wheel cylinders and shoes.  The picture of the rear brake line makes itself explanatory. 



18.  New brakes installed.  Note the shoes in the picture.  They look good but unfortunately the other side's rear E-brake cable was sticking and smoked them.  I replaced the rear E-brake cables too.  The front E-brake cable was OK and had been replaced in the recent past.

19.  I replaced the manual non-self adjusters with ones that were self adjusting.  The only issue encountered was with the driver?s side backing plate. The adjusting star on the self adjuster did not line up with the slot so some of the backing plate any longer and needed to be slotted to enable a manual adjustment if necessary.  If you look at the picture of the original setup above you will see the manual adjusting star is to the left and on the one below the star is on the right.  The kit came with the springs and hold downs for the shoes.  If figured if I was going though the brakes, I would do it all at one time. I used a 1968 Galaxy rear wheel self adjusters from NAPA as the drum diameter was the same, therefore the adjusting cables would work right.



20.  When I went to install the new drums I discovered something that I knew was a problem.  My car has American Racing Torque Thrust wheels installed and prior to the conversion there was not a lot of thread for the lugs to bite on, but was sufficient, or so I thought. See pictures below.





21. The old drum is above and the new drum below and you can easily see the thickness difference through the holes.



The new drum I ordered from C&G is not exactly up to OEM specifications. The inside diameter is correct; however the outside of the drum is cast thicker.  This is a good and bad thing.  Better heat distribution because of the additional metal, but bad due to the outer plate where the wheel mounts being just a little thicker.  The result caused me to replace the wheel studs on the back axle.  I used 1/2-2 x 1 -21/32 wheel bolts from NAPA, part number 641-2781.  If the car had conventional wheels then there shouldn't have been a problem with the drums. I chose not to remove the axle to replace the bolts.  I took a 5 pound hammer and knocked out the old wheel bolts and pressed the new ones in by hand using a scrap lug nut and some washers for spacers.  I got quite the workout cranking them in by hand.



22. The wheel bolts above worked fine for my application, there?s lots of thread to bite onto now.  Everybody?s wheels are different so I would measure before you follow me.



23. With the rear drums on and adjusted along with the E-brake.  It was time to move to the front firewall to remove the old master cylinder and install the new one. I chose to have a booster with my setup.  You could use 7, 8 or 9 inch boosters. I went with the 8.  I really like the bracket from ABS Brake that Dick supplied.  I had always wondered if it would clear my Newport wiper motor setup and exhaust manifold.  Well it sure did see pictures below.






24. I used a proportioning valve off of a 1986 mustang which was not supplied by Dick.  He does give you some plumbing hardware, but you will need to get some brake tubing to finish the job.  I plan to hook the proportioning valve's switch up to a light under the dash at some point. I mounted the valve where the old vacuum reservoir was for the original power brake unit.  I had to drill and additional hole in the inner fender well.  I was concerned that I needed to use a Granada valve, but after testing this valve works perfectly.



25. Below shows picture of the installed and plumbed brake booster. The vacuum is hooked up to the stock port on the intake manifold.



26. The picture below shows the petal assembly and pushrod under the dash.  If you had read some of Roger and my threads on another post a few months ago you will remember we both to swap out our brake arms to get these late model kits to work.  Both he and I had original factory power brake setups which use a completely different brake arm and the geometry is different than that of a manual brake arm.



There are some things I want to mention about the brake conversion.  You could easily source the parts and tools and save a few bucks if you want.  One thing I plan to change is the front brake hoses.  They are Granada hoses and originally came installed on those cars in front of the spring assembly.  These hoses really don't have a lot of room to move and come close to the front springs.  There are two ways that I know of the fix this. Either re-plumb and move the metal lines to the front side of the springs like a Granada, or use a different hose. Russell Performance has great braided stainless steel hoses that are available, probably special order at both AutoZone and O'Reilly Auto Parts.  I will probably replace them in the coming weeks. I think a banjo fitting would work better on the calipers anyway.  Below is the link to Russell Performance.

http://www.russellperformance.com/auto/brake/uni_brake.shtml

Doing the brakes was a fun project.  If anyone has specific questions or wants know what parts, or part numbers I used feel free to ask.

Patrick / Dallas TX   

[Frankenstein57]

Hey Briney, your updates look nice, nice work. The chassis makes me jealous,  is that a 50 year old daily driver? don't see that in Wisconsin. Mark

[cool57]

Great post! Thanks for providing so much detail, part numbers, and photos.

[shopratwoody]

Briney,
Nice installation and excellent photos. I need to install those self adjusters on mine
Ron

[JimNolan]

Patrick,
    I've got a question.  Dick didn't say I needed to change brake pedal swing arms. I've got a standard shift transmission and power brakes now. Will I have to change pedal swing arms also. Also, will 15" Cragar SS wheels work with this conversion.
Thanks, any help appreciated.
Jim

[briney]

Jim,

The Cragar's are fine.  I would have to see a picture of the brake arm to tell you. If you have to swap it for the conversion, it is not a big deal.  You just pull the retaining clip on the end of the pin and push the pin out, the petal will fall to the floor, assuming they are disconnected from the pushrod.

Take a look at the post from Roger and I on this.  I posted a diagram of the old factory power brake assembly.  If you have the original shop manual you will see the brake arms are very different.

I got a used non-power one for about $20.

Patrick / Dallas 

[292dual4s]

Nice info on this post. Thanks for sharing. Did you run dropped spindles or standard height?

[briney]

I ran the dropped ones.

Patrick / Dallas TX   

[292dual4s]

How much of a drop? and do you have any pics of the whole car since the swap? Just to get an idea how it sits.

[briney]

I'll have to measure the overall drop and I'll send a picture.

Patrick /Dallas TX 

[briney]

292dual4s,

I pulled the car out of the garage and did some measurements.  I also took a couple of pictures at a distance so you could see the ride profile.

Passanger side view.



Driver side view.



This is the measurement from the ground to the bumper bolt on the passanger side bumper.  It's right about 13.5 inches.



This is the measurement for the front center of the bumper. It measured right a 11 inches.



The ride height is pretty nice.  It's not too low and not to high.

I hope that helps you with what you plan to do.

Patrick / Dallas TX   

[292dual4s]

Cool, I'll use your measurements to compare, and then I'll have a good idea.
That is one fine Ranchero you got there! Now it stops as good as it looks 

[Marc]

Wow, nice post Briney! Nice Ranchero, too! Looks like a pretty straightforward installation. Of course, here I am about to install 77 t-bird spindles as soon as my control arms are done having bushings installed, so I wasn't thrilled to see you mention the alignment problems using anything other than granada spindles. Well, I'm this close, I'll give them a shot and see what happens.   

[briney]

Marc,

Thanks for the note on the post.  My ranchero is getting close to where I want it.  I need to spend about two more winters working on it and it will be much better than where it is today. 

As far as the post, I always try to let everyone know exactly what I did and did wrong. 

I sure hope you don't have alignment problems and can get it back to the stock specifications.  If it works correctly let me and the others know so that they can move the right direction in either case.  I have seen a lot of posts about steering geometry problems and in speaking with Dick at Drop N' Stop he confirmed the steering issues with other spindles other than the one's I mentioned above. You might call him just to ask him about the specific issues he has run across. It may save you some time and effort.

If you have to go back and replace the T-Bird spindles with Granada ones I know that they are getting harder to find and are getting pricey.  He is a link to a place making NEW reproduction Granada spindles, dust shields and selling calipers too, if you are going to have to pony up the money this may be an option.

http://www.discbrakeswap.com/body_index.html 

Good luck and let us know how it lines up, along with any bump steer issues you may encounter.

I personally hope they do work.   

Patrick / Dallas TX  75126   

[Marc]

Thanks Patrick. I sent a note to Dick describing my situation to see what he has to say. Also, thanks for the link to the granada spindle site. Good stuff! I'm going to hold off on the brake install until I know it's going to work right the first time. I really don't feel like doing this twice.