Hi everyone. I have a question about my 50 plymouth deluxe that I am converting to 4 wheel disc brakes. I was wondering if anyone has done this and what is the best master cylinder to use? Also should I keep it located low where it is located factory or should I mount it on the firewall and make it work from there? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
check out my albums there is the unit i used on mine its off a Dodge Datona and mounted in the same location as the stock. worked great and was an easy swap.
Do they make disk brake conversions for 50s plymouths? My 54 could use them. As for the master, I put a dual res, power boosted, hanging pedal set up on mine. Works great.
I picked a 8.8 rear end from an explorer that has rear discs. Scarebird has a disc conversion kit that I am working on purchasing. Heard good things about there kits.
Thanks for the link, but still no Good answer on the best master cylinder for a 4 wheel disc set up for a 50 plymouth.
Use a Vette M/C.... anyone you choose, check whether it has internal or you need external residual valves, depending ont he position... If you mount it low, your gonna need a bellcrank setup, because the Dual M/C you need to multiply the rod ratio versus peddle ratio. I think I had $100 into the bellcrank setup on my 41 p12 If you mount it low, consider a remote fill as well... I used Brake Tech Solutions out of NC. They are very helpfull, and ay have a kit or at least give you tech on your application.
Doing the same swap on my 49 Plymouth fastback. I also am using Scarebird front and Explorer discs on rear, but I am installing them on an 8" Ford rear. Went with Ford because I couldn't find an 8 3/4 mopar cheap enough or the right size. I went with Scarebird because the parts used with it is all mopar parts.
May or may not be helpful, but I found a combination that works on Dodge I beam truck axles from that era that I use on hot rod builds. I use a FEDERATED SB96217 Front Brake Rotor/Disc that , believe it or not, is for 1992 thru 2003 Camrys. They are actually 5 on 4 1/2 ( Go figure), and they are shallow enought to keep things tidy. I use GM metric calipers and a bracket that I punch on my CNC turret. The rotors are only $17.00 as are the calipers. There is some simple machine work to make the parts cooperate, but it ended up being a VERY economical solution. Those early Mopar brakes SUCK.
I used AAJ on the 55 desoto and ECI on my 53. I was happy with the parts. Just make sure to match up the parts. Bore size matters. stroke matters.
CARtoons Magazine has not posted on the HAMB since April 2019. I wouldn't expect much from him. I'm not so sure Scarebird is doing disc brake conversions any more either, I believe they closed down a couple years ago as well.
Scarebird still has their website up and running. I did not look to see if they make anything for your car.
Can these 50's MoPars even be upgraded with a later model drum brake system? Something with self-energizing, auto-adjusting brakes and bigger drums and shoes. Seems like it might be simpler and less expensive and still provide a big improvement in braking, at least for a car that's being street driven sanely.
Just from memory, the 50s Mopars had brake shoes that were not very wide, something like 1 3/4" or 2" wide. Brake drum diameter could become an issue as well. Most of the "modern" front drum brakes were 2 1/2" to 3" wide, but the "modern" (think 60s & 70s here, the highest point of drum brake technology) rear brakes were in the 2" wide range (but the rear brake wheel cylinders are not brake hose friendly, and you want to be able to steer the front wheels, so brake hoses are pretty important). It may be possible to mount a "modern" front drum brake backing plate onto the front spindles if you could find brake shoes that would work with the original drums. The choices of "modern" drum brake stuff is shrinking pretty fast. Not many drum brakes in production (except from very small cars) these days. nearly every thing now is disc brakes, front and rear. The problem here is you will likely be on your own to do the research and fabrication. The more current disc brake conversions were(and are) adapting the modern rotors that slide over the original front hubs (often with minor clearance machining required for the rotors to seat properly and require longer wheel studs). Scarebird was one of the original companies moving in this direction. Then they have fabricated caliper brackets that bolt onto the cars original spindles and hold floating calipers (finding these already, or still being, produced is the challenge). With that setup the front brake hose length with the needed end fittings is the next challenge. The biggest problem is getting actual dimensions of existing available brake parts. We used to be able to go into paper books or look on line to get the dimensions, but that stuff often is not posted these days.
Scarbird skips 49 through 56 Plymouth all together. I don't know of any pfd for the caliper brackets for that era of Plymouth and remember the thread was dead for 12 years before today.
If I wanted to make a full scale version of the bracket pattern picture in post #4in of the link posted by derbydad276 to suit my car this is how I would go about it. First take a measurement from the centre of bolt A to the centre of bolt B as per Caliper Bracket 9. Now download a picture of the bracket pattern in post #4 in the link posted by derbydad276 click on the picture and take a measurement from the centre of bolt hole A and bolt hole B in picture you downloaded. Now calculate the percentage difference between the two. Now click on the 3 ... on the top, Click on resize image, click on Percentages and put the the percentage you have calculated and save. Click the picture where it is saved and print it off from there. The measurement should be about the same as the first measurement you took, if it is not quite correct you will do the same again just tweaking the percentage a bit. If do decide to do this please let me know how you get on.
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