Anyone who has done the conversion personally ... smile.gif (no offence)

I could sift through the archives, but here it is. I'm going to CarQuest to order new spindles and rotors to begin modifiying my 1971 Malibu with 14 inch tires. I have a budget. What replacement/donor car year and model should I ask for?

It has a very clean 250 motor, so I don't need 30" rotors as you might on a SS.

I'd ask them for rotors for a 71 Chevelle. Those are replacement pieces and they should be able to get those. Didn't think CarQuest carried spindles, caliper brackets, or the backing plates.

If I ask for a 71 replacement, they are going to give me big hunking things for SS cars. I want to keep my little 14 inch tires.

I'm especially interested in knowing what donor cars will fit my ball joints when I get them out. Ask for Chevelle and I might get anything for an expensive price. "Special Order" will cost me an arm and a leg. Ask for front spindles for a 79 Impala and I'll pay a resaonable price for common parts. Yeah, I can read the archives and get all kinds of answers. But I want to exchange with people who did actual conversions - no offence.

Car Quest!? They got it all - at least here in Canada.

John,
What's with your pirate flag?
John

Originally posted by jtjohnston:
If I ask for a 71 replacement, they are going to give me big hunking things for SS cars. I want to keep my little 14 inch tires.

I'm especially interested in knowing what donor cars will fit my ball joints when I get them out. Ask for Chevelle and I might get anything for an expensive price. "Special Order" will cost me an arm and a leg. Ask for front spindles for a 79 Impala and I'll pay a resaonable price for common parts. Yeah, I can read the archives and get all kinds of answers. But I want to exchange with people who did actual conversions - no offence.

Car Quest!? They got it all - at least here in Canada.

John,
What's with your pirate flag?
John there are stock 14" wheels that work with the 71 chevelle rotors. which wheels are you wanting to use? i have factory plane 14" steel rims that came on wagons with disc brakes and still used the stock hubcaps.

If I were going to do it over again, and I am, the way I would do it is, use your existing spindles but machine down the top boss by the required amount and buy the repop caliper brackets from our sponsor, Ground Up. Buy a set of rotors and a set of stuffed calipers from your favorite aouto parts store. If you are concerned about machining the psindles yourself, take them to a machine shop and show them what to do. I did mine in about a half an hour a piece.

Cam

I would not use repop. Never. I do want to keep all original parts in a box, so I can still say it can be put back original. I don't want to hurt my spindles.

I'm especially good at conserving steel brake lines - kind of proud of not snapping them off just to make money. As for reporp, I don't beleive in it. I prefer good solid new parts, not rebuilt. I'm discouraged by the reproduction market.

Again, smile.gif to ask my question, what year donors, from your personal experience smile.gif would fit?

If I buy 71 spindles, it would be a special order, and at extra, unnecessary (rip-off) cost. I could try. Am I to understand that 71 wagons used discs, even with 14 inch tires?

Edited by John:
(Admin Al, didn't mean to annoy. Rules are rules. Ok. As I said, I promised to let sleeping dogs lie ... Good and bad experiences are important for everyone to know about to be able to make judgements. This hobby costs enough without making expensive, beginner mistakes. Help us help others. smile.gif )

(Admin Al, if you are reading, I did not think it was fair to erase the man's post in restoration last week because he complained about G-Up. I will not pass comment on G-Up - I promised to let sleeping dogs lie; read the archives (if they are not erased graemlins/angry.gif ). That is censureship. Good and bad experiences are important for everyone to know about to be able to make judgements. This hobby costs enough without making expensive, beginner mistakes. Help us help others. smile.gif ) You can voice your opinions publicly elsewhere if you so choose, but this forum is owned and operated by someone who has made a decision to not allow vendor bashing. It is clearly stated in the rules of conduct for this discussion board which you agreed to when you first signed in that vendor bashing thread will not be tolerated. The rules are very clear on this topic.

Al didn't delete that post, I did. Why? Because it violated the rules we all agreed to operate under on this discussion board.

ah, geesh....

The post was removed by the moderator per our policies, plain and simple. very dang simple. Why is that so hard to comprehend?

We don't have bashing of other suppliers and as a matter of fact the swings at ground up are left longer than any others just so it doesn't look exactly like what you keep implying.

Your feelings about good and bad experiences with suppliers (any of them, and saying they should be shared here to 'help' others) are incorrect. You got charged extra because of the danged import duties, shipping and such which as I recollect was for a wrong part? so now every chance that comes along you wish to warn others? I doubt any company is going to eat the shipping or duties imposed by something out of their control, even if the part was wrong. I don't remember all the details and really see no point in continuing this post after post.

Want $20 bucks for the shipping? let me know and I'll send it to you out of my own pocket if that's what it's going to take to end this.

I can't see posting all over again about why we don't have a whole bunch of 'these guys are crooks', I was ripped off, beware! type of posts, but it seems that I do.

They serve no end and for the most part are subjective. I've dealt with a lot of complaints about companies and individuals and there is always two sides to the story, many times it's the first version that is rememebered and not the followup correction after an error was discovered.

Sorry, JT, but this issue is one that I've had enough of. My mailbox gets this every day and after about 8 emails back and forth the details come out and usually both sides have retractions to make. There is simply no fair way to bash suppliers, which is why it's called bashing. It's one sided and shows zero chance of a resolution. It may go on for weeks without the company even knowing what is taking place here on our site, costing them money, good will and much more when the person who posted it could very well be anonymous, real or a competitor looking to slam them.

All of the above has already happened.
Al

anyway :eek: to get back on this poor guys topic, yes, you can get the common plane jane 14" wheel that fit over 70-72 disc brakes, i have a few i have been saving. they are easy to tell because the outward humps that would hold a dog dish hub cap on, have three instead of four. if you see three on a 14" rim it should work on front disc.

Yeah, looks like I stepped right in the middle of a fresh steaming one too. The guy wants budget, personal experiences for disc brake swaps, is to lazy to sift through the archives, hasn't done enough homework to realize that CarQuest doesn't sell spindles and backing plates, doesn't realize that all single piston calipers and rotors are the same and THEN when someone offers advice, he goes off the deep end. All, so he can put his 6 cylinder, four door car back to original. graemlins/clonk.gif

Sheesh!!!

... in the middle of a fresh steaming one too. ... hasn't done enough homework to realize that CarQuest doesn't sell spindles and backing plates http://www.carquest.ca/ What? You want me to post part numbers? We've bought rotors, calipers and other parts from them. Heck, I've got a wheel cylinder for my car on the desk next to me with CarQuest on the box. Hmmm ... smile.gif EW71211 'Wheel Cylinder Assembly' (Bar code 7 47730 27645 8) ... or smile.gif a 'sway bar bushing kit' K5241 ... graemlins/clonk.gif Why wouldn't they have a spindle for me?

The bushing kit, for example, was a special order and cost extra. That's why I hesitate ordering something for a 71 Malibu, when a 79 Impala might be an alternative (if it is?).

As for my poor 4-door that everyone likes to poke fun at, you don't have one graemlins/waving.gif too bad. Part of having one is being able to preserve its value, but getting some fun out of it. I don't like the drum brakes, and with a baby arring, I don't trust it. P.S. My evaluator has warned me to keep all its original parts so the car won't lose value in 10 years, if I want to sell it. But you don't have an 'antique' car Sweety Cam, so you wouldn't know. ... I've been flamed enough this week thank you.

Getting back to my post ... FO_FDYFO, I'll push a bit of snow away form the garage door and have a look at my rims. Thanks,

John

Wow, we need a moderator in the B&S forum?? :confused: What is this place coming to :rolleyes:

Back on the subject my fellow chevelle-aholics!

Joe

I have three, John, thank you very much. A 64 El Camino, a 64 2dr wagon and a 63 NovaSS. Now that you have dazzled me with the part number for a wheel cylinder, how about one for a spindle???

Cam

You know John, I'm going to look past the name calling and post a response here to try and help you out. Which, by the way was my original intent. The local aoutomotive parts houses, sell expendables or parts that wear out and are frequently replaced. Spindles, caliper brackets and dust shields are not frequently replaced and as such, will probably not be available from a parts house. Granted, they could probably order them if need be. I suspect that GM no longer stocks them and if they did, it wouldn't be part of a budget conversion anyhow. In about 72, I think, all Chevelles came with factory stock disc brakes. In 71 all the way up to 66 or so, it was an option. I suspect that the option for your car was probably less than $100 at the time. I'm surprised that they weren't ordered. None the less, I suspect that a nicely installed front disc brake conversion would probably only add to the value of your car if it was done with original equipment. I have used the reproduction caliper brackets and they are a nice piece. I'm sorry you have had problems with Ground Up, I have only ever received great service from them. Fortunately the caliper brackets are available from other resto-shops but GU was the least expensive I could find. Now for the spindles. The modification that I described is FREE if you can do it yourself and only maybe twenty bucks or so at a machine shop. Hell, I'd do it for you of you wanted to send them out here. Now, if you scoured the junkyards for the front disc brake assemblies off of any 67-72 GM A Body, skylark, tempest, cutlass etc (to name a few) you could do it that way. I'd bet by the time you rebuilt the calipers and found that the rotors had been turned too many times and had to be replaced anyhow, the lure of new parts are pretty appealing. With as many guys as are doing the aftermarket front disc brake conversions, I'm surprised that there aren't some drum spindles out there for free. Maybe there are, you just may have to hunt a little. Hope this helps.....

Cam

JTJohnson:

Chevelles (and other GM A-bodies) used the same basic disc brakes from 1969-1972. These years will ALL interchange. The Chevelle was NOT available with 15" wheels until 1971, Therefore, these factory discs will work with 14-inch wheels. The wheels, if stock will have to be specific for discs (has nothing to do with rotor size, but rather caliper clearance with the wheel). All SS and non-SS cars (even other A-bodies: Cutlass, LeMans/GTO, Skylark) used the same disc brakes, when equipped (they were optional on non-performance cars.

I am not sure, but around 1970/1971/1972, the stock steel wheels should/might accomodate the factory discs...


I also question the availability of a NEW, stock spindle for a 1971 Chevelle... These have not been in production for years, and if CarQuest had them, I KNOW that at least some of the US resto suppliers would also have them...

There are aftermarket spindles (repops) that are available, and that is probably what CarQuest has, as is likely the case of your wheel cylinders mentioned, probably repops and not genuine GM (and therefore a repop), especially from CarQuest. I am sure that Carquest will call those "new", but they might not even realize they are not GM pieces...

Calipers are another area where NEW pieces are probably not available. Usually these are rebuilt calipers...

So to answer your question, Chevelle disc from 1969-1972 models years will fit stock 14-inch wheels, but not all stock 14-inch wheels...

You might have to go find other stock 14-inch wheels and put your current ones away with the stock drum spindles, etc...


P.S. My
evaluator has warned me to keep all its original parts so the car won't lose value in 10 years, if I want to sell it. I think you should look into a new evaluator (appraiser?) while at CarQuest... That one obviously doesn't know what he is talking about...

I think that wheel issue for a '72 is not a big deal. GM probably used the disk brake wheel on everything to reduce part number proliferation. I changed my '72 drum brake car to disks and kept the original (truly original) wheels with no problem. As for calipers, I got rebuilds for $13 each last year and one was made from an all new virgin casting (Checker). The other was what I expected. The surprise was some really huge core charge, but I used some $5 calipers from a swap meet as cores. As Cam said, the idea of finding new spindles at a parts store would be unusual, as these do not usually wear out.

ok, i took a look. here is the poop :D the left is the 14" wheel that fits over the disc brakes, the other 14" wheel does not. i hav all kinds and the 3 or 4 knubs that would hold the dog dish hub caps on has nothing to do with how to tell them apart. the way you tell is the slot holes. the one on the left has straight edged holes and the one on the right has oval slots. but the reason the one on the left works is because it has much less back spacing. http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/FO_FDYFO/wheels.jpg

front disc brake assemblies off of any 67-72 GM A Body, skylark, tempest, cutlass etc (to name a few) you could do it that way. ... Hope this helps..... Yes smile.gif Thanks.

FO_FDYFO: thanks. We had quite a bit of rain today. I'm hoping to get through the feet in front of the garage door tomorrow smile.gif Bizarre, I just came through a snow storm 1 hour east (and north) of here. smile.gif Not to be too cheeky, but our guy at CarQuest is optimistic about finding something. But thanks to Everyone.

I used 79 olds cutlass steering knuckles,rotors,calipers,etc. and a 70 chevelle disc master cylinder and a disc brake combination valve . the only mods needed to the steering knuckles were to tapered ream the ball joint holes in the knuckle to use my 72's ball joints. or you could take the 79 olds ball joint and turn the part where it goes in the lower control arm down to fit in the chevelles control arm. If I remember correctly I did the entire swap for about 450 bucks with all new hardware. just my .02

Originally posted by greasefire:
I used 79 olds cutlass steering knuckles,rotors,calipers,etc. and a 70 chevelle disc master cylinder and a disc brake combination valve ... I did the entire swap for about 450 bucks ... Ah! smile.gif Thanks. I'll keep that in mind. Good info.