I have owned my 72 Chevelle Malibu for three weeks and have done necesary body/paint work. Now it is time for front disc brakes. My setup is basic drums, no power booster. I have found a used set from a man in AZ, they came off of a 71. It incompasses: Rotors, Spindles, Calipers, prop valve, lines, booster, master cyl.

I plan to buy new bearings and upper/lower nuckles and Poly bushing (I also ordered up some stiffer springs). Is there any other stuff I should replace? ALSO, I would greatly appreciate any insight as to what sort of problem(s) I may have. Like "J's70" who had a bearing shoot off.

Thanks!

You are going to find that the rod from the power booster is going to fit into the upper hole on your brake pedal, instead of the lower one like your drum rod went to (might be vice versa, cant remember off the top of my head) but the thing is your pedal used to actuate the brake switch, now with the rod in the other hole the pedal will not hit the switch. You will need to make a metal tab that bolts to the pedal and actuates the switch, or get a factory one off a disk car. It is a simple little piece, but no brake lights without it..you may also need an adaptor to go between your rear brake line and the proportioning valve output, usually different between drums and disks. Any autoparts store should have it.

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70 chevelle ss396 conv
66 chevelle ss396 hdp/conv

Did this recently and here are a couple of points to look at. The brackets that hold the rubber lines for the front brakes are different with disks; they are twice as thick as the drum types. Find another set of brackets or shim the hoses for the disk set brakes. The tubing lengths all worked fine except for the one that goes forward and on to the right front brake. This is easy to fix as it seems to be too long and will work if you enlarge the bend radius where it turns to go along the front crossmember. Or, you can put a lazy "s" curve in the line that lays against the crossmember.

If there was no power brake booster before and only the master i think you will have to drill holes for the booster? bolt holes booster should have 4 and master only had 2. might be wrong but i beleave so

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Owner of a 66 chevelle malibu.... might be on the road next year. I HOPE!!

The booster should bolt right up. your fire wall will already have all four studs, the bottom 2 are not used without the booster.

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Clark
TC #68
Ft. Polk, Louisiana

Will there be a problem with the porp valve. The front lines will match fine, but how about the rear ones? Same size head to screw into the prop valve?
thanks for any info thusfar, and any to come!

As stated in the earlier reply there is no problem with the rear lines, only the front right line needs to be re-shaped to make a good fit.

sometimes there is a problem with the rear, sometimes there is a different size nut on the rear line that screws into the prop valve. Just need an adapter to make up the difference, any autoparts store will have it.

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70 chevelle ss396 conv
66 chevelle ss396 hdp/conv

You probably wanna get those rotor on the lathe too, because if they're used they might be warped. Also, do you know where I might be able to find a replacement brake caliper bracket for a 72??

72Elky, you can find the calipers at your local advance auto, i know i work at one. My disc brake conversion was reall ease, just dont over tighten the bearings http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif But the fire wall has 4 studs make shure teh booster rod goes in teh top brake pedle hole and bleed, bleed, bleed those brakes! i did it 3 times to be positive i got it all out. and thse damn kits for$1000 bucks are a rip off go get some spindles and go to advance and buy the rest, and make shure the porp valve cam off of a 71 or 72 and th system was closed, if not your regert it. i got mine off of a 71 and i never bent a line in my car. If ya got any quewstions let me know! Always here to help.

J

I have the front end up on blocks and the control arms are sitting on the work bench. I am having trouble removing the old bushings! Upper that is... The manual convienently says "leave it up to the local GM dealer". Forget them and thier $100 bucks an hour. Do these come out in a u-joint manner? That is, I knock one side down, remove exposed bushing.... then do the opposite side. I have soked 'em in the breaker goop, but no luck. Any ideas???

The bushings have a steel sleeve that might actually be tack welded to the arm. If so you will have to break this weld. The bushings are removed by forcing them away from each other. I just replaced mine and removing them is difficult but I used an air Hammer up under the exposed lip to punch them out.(be carfull so you dont ding up your control arm)

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Clark
TC #68
Ft. Polk, Louisiana

Why do my replacement poly bushings not have any kind of metalsleeve on the outside? The picture in the catolog (Year One) shows the metal. But, mine is just poly on the outside with a metal sleeve on the inside.

ok i'll tell you a little secret on hopw to get them out. put the controol arm on the ground or against any solid surfice and pound with a good heavy hammer very very hard. they will come out but they will be a bitch, beleve me it took a while to get mine out! If they are welded then i dont recomond this but if not it will work, as for the no metle on the pollyuritane ones, i have no idea????

J P.S. if you dont have a balljoint campressor for the lower balljoints, used a HEAVY DUTY C-clamp and a larg socket, it works i did it!

If you dont have the sleeves for the poly bushings then something dont sound right. Where did you get the bushings? Call them and find out why they didn't send you the sleeves. You do need them. I got my bushings from PST and they came with all the hardware to include the sleeves.

Sounds like someone made a mistake in the shipping department.

I dont mean to knock the big hammer method but I found out the hard way that these control arms bend pretty easily. If it looks like you have to beat the cr** out of them then you might want to just go ahead and take them to a shop that can do it for you. It probably wont cost more than 20 dollars.


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Clark
TC #68
Ft. Polk, Louisiana

[This message has been edited by Clark (edited 08-30-99).]

Your bushings don't have the outer sleeves because your supplier tried to make a buck and they tell you to reuse the old rusty sleeves from the old bushings (What a joke here on the east coast, usually they are trash). I would send them back and get them from a good supplier like PST, who specializes in Polygraphite bushings.

I got the new bushing all squared away. Here's a thought on removing the old bushings. The bushing material is scrap anyhow, so How about I torch (carefully) the rubber. Removed the inner race sleeve. Then have the outer sleeve to deal with indep. of the mounting/shim arm.

J's70... I have been trying the hammer method, with a rod punch on one end. It has started to warp the hole that starts the threads for the bolt... not a good thing.

If you haven't bought the disk set up yet here is a thought. Stock chevelle disks are 10".If you get the spindles and rotors from a 70-81 camaro of trans am they are 11".If you want to go bigger yet get spindles from an early 80's wagon and use 91 camaro rotors these are 12" just imagine the improved stopping power. Hotchkiss has all the information on these conversion they even give you part numbers. I have 74 camaro spindles on my 70 Chevelle with 2" lower springs from and rear. it corners great. By the way those new Carbon Metallic pads work great.

72 chevelle
It sounds like you are trying to beat on the cross shaft in an attempt to drive out the opposite bushing. Is this correct? if so, dont do it! If you insist on doing this yourself then get a cold chisle and place it at the exposed lip of the bushing and then hammer it. Beating on the cross shaft will not remove the bushing.

Also the cross shaft will not come out of the control arm until the entire bushing is removed. The inner diameter of the outer bushing sleeve is not big enough for the cross shaft to fall free.

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Clark
TC #68
Ft. Polk, Louisiana

BOB... I have already purchased a set from a man in AZ, they came from a 71 Chevelle and it is the whole 9 yards.

Clark... Thanks for the info, the side-to-side (angled of course) jolt seems to be working better than an in-line smack on the cross member.

its been a while since anyone has been in this forum but if any one by any chance reads this post
i need to know where i can get disc brakes for a 71 malibu what typ of car and what year???
thanx for your help

jrocker84