Hey guys, I bought my fiance a '64 impala SS for Xmas, and she'll be hauling our daughters around in it. The brakes need to be upgraded. Obviously I'll go with a dual M/C, but I'm thinking about a disc brake swap too... What's the most efficient route to handle that? Are there any junkyard parts that I can use to do this swap? Thanks in advance guys!!! Steve
what about pictures??? Check with eci as far as i know on all gm x-frames there is not a factory disk swap but ive been known to be wrong plenty of times before.
Just my opinion, but a lot of times, once you get done scouring the junk yards for disc brake parts, you'll have these additional costs: brake hoses, pads, turned rotors, bearings/seals, hard brake lines from the new master. Possibly a prop valve or distribution block. A lot of times you'll need to rebuild the calipers as well. If you're already converting to a dual reservoir, you'll end up buying that from the yard, getting a new one from the parts store, or rebuilding yours. By the time you get done have the rotors turned, buying the new consumables, cleaning/refurbishing/rebuilding the other parts, it's usually not too much more expensive to get a mail-order conversion kit. Your initial cash outlay is more, but the nickels and dimes really add up. Disc brake conversions aren't like scrounging for a trans, rear end or alternator brackets any more. -Brad
Getting ready to swap to disks on my 63 wagon and got the brackets for the calipers from www.scarebird.com came with a parts list for everything else needed for the conversion. The majority of the parts come from late 60's - early 70's Chevelle and Monty Carlos. The cost isn't that bad either, around $400 for all new stuff from the parts store, the brackets were about $70. I can list all the parts needed and #'s if that helps too.
I have acouple of friends with Impalas and they both run mid 90's S10 spindles. They said all they had to do was slightly hone out the spindles because the Impala ball joints have a little more taper.
If you decide to keep the rears, I got a rebuild set, backing plates, new springs, shoes and wheel cyls. Just not the drums. LMK if you want em. They're off my 64 SS. Cheap to free, for a fellow GMB. Jay
How are they getting around the fact the lower ball joints are of different type (compression vs. tension)?
that's the ticket for the master, and check speedway for the disk kit, it's 250...cheapest, just finished it on my 64, easy and that thing stops good, i'd recomend it!
Was the Speedway kit a simple bolt on, or did it need any machining etc? Did everything fit like it was supposed to? Thanks again for all the input so far guys! Steve
I had a webpage bookmarked that showed a disk conversion for a 70 impala and they were using the corvette rotors. I just checked it and it was no longer there. i shoulda printed it when I found it but did'nt. I'm not 100%, but I believe it used the rear rotors for the swap. It was a pretty straight forward swap if I remember correctly.
I thought the whole Corvette shebang bolted up to the stock ball joints? Using the Corvette spindles, rotors, calipers and all. A couple of companies sell bracketry to bolt calipers to the stock spindles. I think most early disk hubs swap on. And a 67 dual circuit master bolts to the same place the single circuit one does on the booster.
simple bolt on, only took a few hours and it was done, i'd recomend it, cheapest, only thing you need will be the rubber brake lines
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