I've been looking for a disc brake conversion for my 1949 Dodge Coronet for sometime now. I've looked at Scarebirds kit and at the ECI kits and decided against both of those due to cost and use of custom parts that may not be available for ever. I know guys who have both kits and they both work extremely well. Unfortunately they wouldn't work for me. So I was stuck trying to piece a kit together from scratch. I have spent a lot of time at the parts store looking for exactly the right rotors to use and how to mount them. Well I finally found everything I need. I was able to use a lot of stock parts off my 49' in this kit. Once the front drum and hub are off you can seperate the hub from the drum by driving out the wheel studs. I replaced the left side ones with some regular threaded studs to make lugnuts easier to find. Once the rotor was off the hub I took the hub to the parts store and bought a rotor for a 01 Dodge Stratus 4 cylinder coupe. The guys at the parts store used their brake lathe to turn the outside of the hub down to fit in the stratus rotor. Stratus' have the same bolt pattern as the dodge (5 on 4.5). For calipers I plan on useing first generation Chevy S10 calipers. I am also going to go ahead and put new brake lines on and new wheel bearings and wheel seals. If I was just buying the rotors and calipers and pads then i'd have around $165 bucks in the parts and thats with no cores on the calipers. If I had cores that would knock $40 off that price. My main goal with this was to use readily available parts that would be around for a long time and that you could buy at any parts store. And use them without any major modifications. I am going to make my own caliper mounts this weekend. Hopefully it'll be ready for a test drive by the end of the weekend. Here's a picture of my 49 with my supremes on it. I'll post some pics of my brake "kit" this weekend. I'm also going to try and get the front laid down a little this weekend. If this works out well I plan on doing a setup on the rear also.
I thought I would update this with some parts numbers and prices. All my parts I got from O'reillys Auto Parts though some may be a little cheaper somewhere else or online. (2) 01 Dodge Stratus 4cyl coupe rotors: 81-125032 $24.99 ea. (1) 85 Chevy S10 Brake Caliper: 18-4071 $29.99 (1) 85 Chevy S10 Brake Caliper: 18-4072 $29.99 (1) 85 Chevy S10 Brake Pads: D154 $13.99 set. (2) 49-56 Dodge Car Wheel Seals: 473450 $14.99 ea. (2) 49-56 Dodge Car Brake Hoses: BH10304 $15.99 ea. (2) 49-56 Dodge Car Wheel Bearing: 15245 $5.29 ea. (2) 49-56 Dodge Car Wheel Bearing: 09195 $6.29 ea. The grand total is $209.07 before tax. There will still be some adaptors to go from the old standard brake line fitting to the metric S10 thread. I may eventually do some searching for a brake line that will eliminate the adaptor. The store will probably also charge to turn down the stock hubs. Since they do drums for $10 ea. I would think $10 would be enough to do the hubs. The prices above have a core charge in them. The calipers have a $20 core so if you have some old S10 calipers it would cut $40 off the price. I also used a more expensive wheel seal, wheel bearings and brake pads so a guy could cut some cost there also if really needed. I'll update this again once i figure out which adaptors i need and a price on them.
Pictures! We Want Pictures! Sounds like a great kit - do you also have the wheel stud part #s or was that a 'universal' item?
Right on..but why not do the scarebird kit and just buy an extra set of pads and rotors and rebuild kits for later..chances are you won't need them for a while..but that's just me thinking aloud
I may have resolved the brake line problem but won't have a specific part number until I get some brackets made and figure out the length I need. The wheel studs are Dorman brand part number 610-315 and cost $1.60 each. I only bought 10. I am saving the wheel studs from the drivers right wheel and using them on the back p***enger wheel. I will have to drill the bolt holes out on the rotors to allow these studs to go through them. I looked at some 70s GM calipers and they are to wide inbetween the pads. I don't think they will clamp down on the rotors like they should. The brake line isn't as big of a deal as I originally thought. All I have to do is find the appropriate length and buy the metric bolt to go into the caliper. I'll hopefully have this figured out this weekend and have some part numbers. I bought the rotors that the scarebird kit uses and they seemed to deep for the spindle stub. I know he uses a custom spacer for the rear wheel bearing to set on. All the parts for his kit also cost $40 more then the parts I have put together. Also a lot of the parts I have been useing are not needed if you have good wheel bearing and seals on your hubs already. Also if you have some old s-10 calipers you can use as cores you can drop another $40 of the price. Meaning a guy could do this swap for about $116 and some steel plate and some time. I plan on driving this car a lot and on long trips. I don't want to have to haul rotors and pads and rebuild kits with me everytime I go on a trip. Because the one time I don't take them I'll need them. The parts in the scarebird kit are still available though and probably will be for a long time. PRice and the fact that I like to do stuff like this are my main motivation. I'll get some pics up this weekend when i have something to really show.
sure, an while he's at it, pay someone to install the kit too... this is what its about... taking stuff never designed to work together, realize that they WILL. and make them do so with your own two hands... awesome thread
I got a little more done yesterday. I had to drill out the wheel stud holes on the rotor so they would fit the new studs. I'm still looking for the right brake hose. Here's some pics. The turned down hub. Just making sure they would fit in the wheel. Drilled rotor on the hub with new studs. Back of hub and rotor. On spindle. Wheel and tire on. I'm going to make my caliper mounts up tonight and hopefully find the right hose tomorrow and rap it all up.
This thing was starting to piss me off so I put it on the back burner for a minute. I've got my caliper bracket made and everything bolting up. Ran into a couple little problems that may or may not affect other cars. My wheels were hitting the caliper. So I bought some 3/16" spacers. Still looking for the perfect brake line. Money and time permitting i hope to get this thing back on the road pretty soon. I'll post some pics tomorrow of what little progress has been made.
domepiece are the stratus calipers the same thickness as s10? why one thing overlooked when doing disc conversions is that. your calipers only have so much travel before you lose the seal. you might have to put spacers behind disc pads to match thickness difference. just something to consider
the nominal thickness for the s-10 rotors is .1" thicker then the stratus. The minumum thicknes of the s-10 rotor is .08 thicker then the stratus caliper. I didn't think this was a big enough difference that it would cause any problem as ussually when rotors get replaced they are way thinner then they should be. But this is another reason I choose the s-10 calipers over the 70s midsize GM calipers.
Well i finally did some more work on this setup. I gave up on finding the perfect brake line but i found some that will work I just need to move the hard line mount on the frame. I'm going to cut some new brackets just for asthetic reasons and try to get this all working this weekend but we'll see.
my son just bought a 49 dodge coupe and one of the things we were going to do was replace the front drums for discs, Domepiece, your my hero, thanks for your hard work, We're now going to do your upgrade, keep us informed. Greaserchief
I am impressed at the detective work you have done to figure this out. You also came up with an inexpensive and commonly available list of parts. This is true hot rodding. Please include us on the details of your caliper brackets. ALso, have you come to any conclusions on what to do about the master? Again, nice.
I am trying to figure out how this would not work for you. The Stratus rotor you spec out is extremely shallow, like 1-1/4". This way too shallow for any traditional or stock rim to fit. The stock Aspen rotor is quite deep, and allows the use of many different wheels. Availability should not be an issue - the 1970-72 Cuda calipers will be around a long time - Bendix has just started repopping the 70-72 rotor. FiddyFour Re: Cheap Dodge discs <hr style="color: rgb(229, 229, 229); background-color: rgb(229, 229, 229);" size="1"> Quote: <table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td cl***="alt2" style="border: 1px inset ;"> Originally Posted by madman mike Right on..but why not do the scarebird kit and just buy an extra set of pads and rotors and rebuild kits for later... . . </td> </tr> </tbody></table> sure, an while he's at it, pay someone to install the kit too... this is what its about... taking stuff never designed to work together, realize that they WILL. and make them do so with your own two hands... That is not always the wisest choice in term of time, effort and money. This is what we do for a living, hence we must offer a good, well thought out setup for a reasonable cost. We constantly improve our product; this app alone has undergone several revisions.
don't you need a proportioning valve to go with discs,sorry i'm pretty ignorant,what master cylinder are you gonna use ? wish i could call up mp brakes and do mine but am prepetually broke.good post.
It depends on the car. Most would do well to have a adj. prop valve and 10 lb RPV in the rear line; 2 lb RPV in the front. Currently, the master requires a lever mount - we plan on looking at that soon...
didn't know we had an alliance member for brakes,so i wish i could call scarebird but am perpetually broke,
lever mount? is that a frame mount under the seat? not wanting to steal this post but a relocation kit would be cool,sux pulling floor mats and carpet to check brake fluid,
I'm glad that someone is working on converting a Dodge to disc and giving us all a heads up on how their progress is going. I have to admire the dectective work you're doing and sticking with it through the revisions. I have a couple quick questions though. Does anybody know if the thread author's kit would work on a '55 Dodge? Also, Scarebird, do you have any disc swap kits for Forward Look Mopars, like my '55? I'm trying to find a good, cost effective kit. I know the brakes is not a place you want to cut corners on, but most of the kits I've come across for 50's Mopars are in the $900 price range and that is just way out there for me right now.
Did you ever get this project completed and on the road. Thanks for sharing this, it is nice to have other options. Let us know how it works.
While I admire the work and thought that he did. I also know that your life rides on these brakes I hope this works for you but the rotors are thin and this car is heavy these brakes will get hot ( real hot ) I used a Daytona master on my 52 ply worked great with stock location home made mount. my kit was 250$ w/0 rotors and calb. but as said stopped real good.
The problem with the 55 and 56's is according to Hollander they are off by themselves. That being said, I suspect they are close to the earlier spindles, so I would love to get a hold of one to check out.
Jeep cherokee 4wd front rotors, will slip over the old hub and lug nuts, once the drum is removed, and are a bit beefier.
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