I'm wanting to exchange some front end parts on my old 1949 coronet. without subing in a front frame...is there any other make that will fit? I'm probably so far off here that I don't really know what I'm trying to say. I've looked at the front end and seen where the upper arms and lower arms are attached to the frame. Anyone out there with and old Plymouth or Dodge around that year....what did you all do? Without having to spend a freakin fortune on one of the mustang front ends or something like that, is there something that can be done? Thanks to everyone for always giving some good advice. It's great to learn from those that have already "been there done that".
Stoney, What are you looking to accomplish with the chaning of the suspension parts? I have a 48 Plymouth coupe which I have rebuilt the stock front suspension and added an Olddaddy (here on the HAMB) disc brake kit. My 48 is my daily around Dallas and with the discs upgrade I have had no problems handling the traffic. Parts to rebuild the front suspension are not that difficult to come by. King Pin Package $55 Control Arm Kit $299 (services both upper/lower arms on both sides) Tie Rod Ends $35 each You can also relocate your front shocks fairly easily which I have not done yet (good tech on HAMB) but understand it helps a lot with the ride quality. There is also a rack and pinion kit available from Fat Man's if you are wanting more room for a V8 swap. The old Mopar suspensions were actually pretty good for their time and as I said I have had no problems with my rebuilt front end. This is my second 48, the first had a Nova subframe and honestly I do not see any significant difference in the two. Especially not enough to spend the time and effort to make the drastic changes to go to a subframe. Just my $0.02 worth.
Thanks, I have looked at the disc brake swap kits and I really want one. I guess I was more looking to see if there was some kind of direct spindle swap anyone knew of that I could do that would accomplish that. I guess that there isn't because the few people that have been gracious enough with their knowledge said that they have never heard of direct spindle replacements, only the brackets to upgrade to disc brakes.
Olddaddy's kit http://www.rustyhope.com/mopardiscbrakes.html is really straight forward. Just requires drilling and tapping of the six attachment holes already in the spindles to 5/8 - 18 fine thread. From there it is a simple bolt on.
the reason you won't find anything that is direct spindle swap to get disc brakes is because the front you have has kingpins and uprights. The change to ball joint type spindles began around '55 (depending on manufacturer) and was long complete by the time disc brakes became standard fare. There were some 1/2 ton trucks that had kingpins and discs, but I have no clue about kingpin diameters, lengths, or axle boss dimensions. better off to use a disc conversion kit, parts availability and price should be way better
I'm working on a 1949 Dodge Wayfarer Business coupe. Plans call for a small block Mopar with auto trans. Master Power Brakes in North Carolina will take your spindles and do all the machine work and ship back a "bolt on" disc brake set up that even includes hoses. My Dad used the same kit on his 50 Wayfarer convertible with no problems. Also, look up Roberts Motor Parts in New Hampshire for better prices on any old Mopar suspension parts. Hope this helps. www.hotrodhammock.com
Although MasterPower has a pretty good product line, I am curious as to what 'machine work' is needed that you would have to send your parts to them. Are they trying to combine some odd-ball parts to obtain the disc arrangement? As noted, Charlie has a pretty simple bolt-on package so why make the job more complicated than it needs to be? .
They tap your spindle and install all of the hardware, caliper plates, calipers and rotors. All parts are new except your spindles. They ship it all back fully assembled and you even have the choice of bolt patterns and left or right hand lug nuts. They only rule is that you need to run 15" wheels to clear the calipers.
the Master Power conversion sounds alot like the Ply-Do setup. The Ply-Do kit is what Fatman does, or did, sell. The Ply-Do kit requires that you drill out and tap the three holes in each spindle, and that you drill out and countersink the steering arms, as well as grind down the thickness of one boss. It uses GM metric calipers and Aspen rotors. Picture below is of the Ply-Do brackets and bearing adapters I have for sale in the classifieds right now (sorry for the spam) I've never used a Rusty Hope kit, so I can't speak to its installation or parts I have a Scarebird kit too, it is supposed to be all bolt on, though I haven't installed yet, so I can't say for 100% certain. It also uses Aspen rotors, but uses Challenger calipers. Fair warning, Wayfarer spindles are the same as Plymouth (10 inch drums). Coronet/ Meadowbrook spindles are NOT the same (11 inch drums).
apparrently the countersunk bolts is only a Fatman Fab thing, here's a scan of their dropped upright instructions OK, well, I can't read the text of the whole page scan, so I cropped the text above the picture out and posted it as the second picture.
In the tech section of the P15-D24 forum I posted a site for suspension upgrade using the original frame and crossmember. They are converting a 50 Pontiac to modern components with ball joints and disc brakes if you think the original is not up to the task. The site is www.hotrodders.com then go to the "bulletin board" and look for "build hot rod how to articles" and there you will find one titled "37-57 Buick, Olds and Pontiac front suspension up grade". These cars are very much like the early MoPars. From this you can see ways to convert to later front suspension without cutting the front half of the frame to install a later model clip. I made an adapter for the lower A frame using a Chrysler screw in ball joint ring from Speedway Motors to fit 77 Cordoba spindles and upper A frame. Made an adapter for the upper A frames from 3"x3"x3/8" angle iron to hold the upper A frame. You could use any tall spindles and re-drill the rotors for Ford/MoPar bolt pattern. In the winter 1992 addition of Fat Fendered Street Rods by the editors of Rod Action is an article by Wayne Powell where he did this very thing to a 41 Chrysler club coupe. He used an adapter in the lower A frame for a Chrysler screw in ball joint and 1976 Chrysler Newport upper A frame,ball joint spindles and 11 1/2" disc brakes. The set up in www.hotrodders.com is based on on this type of an idea. The early olds, Buick and Pontiac are very much like the early MoPars. Check out the article for ideas other than sub-framing your car. I have not installed my set up, I mocked it up on a 41 Dodge front clip from a friend who installed a Fatman MII front clip. Before I install mine on my 48 P-15 I will install them on a 50 Dodge chassis I have to work out any bugs. I also have a complete front end with Fatman raised uprights (dropped Spindles) that I have modified the steering arms to try to get full travel both right and left in the steering. It is mocked up on the 41 Dodge front cross member now. I had major back surgery in May and am still limited to lifting no more than 20 lbs, so when the Doctor clears me I will be installing first one then the other over time to see which works the best. <!-- / message --> <!-- edit note --> <hr style="color: rgb(209, 209, 225); background-color: rgb(209, 209, 225);" size="1">
I have Old Daddys (Rusty Hope)disc brake kit on my 48 P-15, installed it in 2007 before my big trip to Bonneville. It too requires you to re-drill and tap the three mounting bolt holes but not countersink. Spindles from 46-54 Plymouths will fit on the Dodge uprights to use Old Daddys (Rusty Hope)kit.
hkestes reply to you is rite. No reason to change anything. All the parts are available to completely rebuild the front end with reasonable prices.
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