Experts, I call upon your wisdom...... When spoken of ''early big piston GM caliper'' in a drum to disc brake conversion kit, which caliper are the advertisers referring to? Is it the caliper that was used on (amongst others) the 70-76 Camaro? Or 69-74 Nova, or.....? And the always used 11'' rotor? Anyone know? Thanks!
Most folks here try to stick with drums. I believe the calipers they use in those conversion kits are 80's Monte Carlo, etc...
Yup, that's it. The '78 and later caliper is what's commonly referred to as the "metric" caliper. It was used on A and G bodies, F bodies, and S series trucks. Bob
Just to make it more complicated: Now you can get metric calipers with oversized pistons 'cause I guess some folks felt the regular metric calipers were too wimpy for some applications.
big gm calipers were used from 69 -77 on camaros chevelles montecarlos pontiac gto grand prix lemans olds cutlass 442 buick skylark and GS pretty much any GM intrrmediate or camaro & firebird and nova these use a 11 inch rotor. There is a difference where the brake hose bolts to the caliper on the 69 to 72 from 73 to 77 .The 78 to 88 calipers and rotors were smaller these are called metric calipers
Hi, if you go to Speedway's web site and go to the brake section, you will see the different kits that they offer. If you look around, you'll see '' application '' on the page, when they are talking about a certain kit or the parts in a kit. I was looking at early gm caliper on a 11 inch roter, with ford small bolt pattern kit,brackets only. Click on application and they tell you what calipers or roters you need.Hope this helps, hope I was clear enough, regards, Tom.
Depends on the kit as to what is meant by "early GM big calipers". One kit I installed on my '47 Ford used GM fullsize car from '71 to '76 (Caprice, big Pontiac, Olds, Buick) on 12" rotors from a F100/150. Loved 'em..........stopped like power brakes with no booster...........using a '67/'72 Mustang disc drum M/C........ What I have seen scanning recent ads using that term seems most often to refer to '69/'77 Chevelle and it's equivalents...........as opposed to the so-called metrics. Ray
I was thinking about the same thing with my 64 belair, and was wondering about if there is a spindle to brake conversion from a later model gm? I've got a metric monte in the back yard was gunna use for racing but lost interest and was gunna scrap it.
I used a kit from ECI on the stock spindles on my '38 Ford pickup. It uses '73-'77 midsize GM rotors and calipers (mine came off a '76 Buick Regal). With this kit you can substitute Dodge Aspen/Plymouth Volare rotors if you want the Ford/Mopar bolt pattern instead of the GM bolt pattern.
As noted, the 69-77 calipers are larger, use SAE threads, and have a 2.75" piston. The 78-up calipers are smaller, metric threads, and use a 2.375" piston. Larger piston = larger clamping force for the same line pressure. The two do not interchange, as the space between the pins is different. The metric calipers were used on 11" (actually 10.75") and 12" rotors. I believe the same is true for the early calipers.
As an additional observation, when a given caliper is used on a larger dia. rotor it has more effective braking force as well, due to the the 'leverage' effect ............ Ray
D52 is the part number of the Disc Pad Plate, the Friction Puck is 728, and the disc pads are numbered D52 728 by many brake parts manufacturers. HemiDeuce.
You can do a really good "big" disc swap on the 58-64 Chevy x-frame cars by swapping 65-82 Corvette spindle, hubs, rotors and calipers. You will need to use the steering arms off your car with the mounting holes drilled to match the Corvette arms. The Corvette arms are shaped wrong for the passenger cars. Be careful with wheels such as Weld Lites and the like as they will rub on the caliper face. Usually cured with a 1/4" spacer and you can also grind the numbers and other crap off the caliper face. The spindle is a direct bolt on - same ball joints. Charlie
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