got a '57 ford wagon, stock suspension. i am wondering how involved it is to convert to front disc brakes. can anyone shed some light on this one for me, please. thank you. tred.
Lower ball joint taper different, need to ream so it seats. heres another link http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55456&highlight=ream+57+brake
Yeah its pretty simple and cheap to do. Heres another link for ya...... http://users.ipns.com/rlewis/disc.htm -Shiny
Tred, I did my '59 Ford Wagon with '79 T-Bird spindles. The T-Bird lower ball joint boss was too tall for the '59 ball joint,yet the taper appears the same. Milled the '79 T-bird spindle on the TOP face,(castle nut side),and all parts nested normally. Milled off enough so that the castellations would allow a cotter pin to p*** thru the ball joint. That said,are the '57 and '59 the same basic front suspension?
just buy it new from master power brakes the whole kit for power disc with the dual master i think was around $800 only thing i needed was brake fluid
The Granada, Torino, Maverick & LTD II should all fit. It will lower the car a little. You can ream the the steering arm holes or just file the groove in the castle nut a little and the cotter key will go in. You'll need the proportioning valve, plumb it and a 10 lb residual valve is recommended to the rear brakes. Ron If you run 14 in wheels you need disc brake wheels. I got lucky and my 14" Americans still fit. I know the Maverick Wheels work.
I was told back in the day that 1969 Galaxie/Ltd is a bolt on, but you have to use Disc brake wheels and they only fit 15 inch wheels. True or false? Can anyone confirm this info? CBB
It was plenty thick in the area,and we used "good practices" in the process of machining,as in leaving a liberal radius from the machined surface to the transition of the steering knuckle proper. The main idea,( of mine anyway),was to have ALL the ball joint threads out of the tapered hole,that way you have no "threads in bearing". Some of my crazy(read ****) aircraft maintenance upbringing. It ain't going nowhere! Besides,what would I know about integrity!
Bought caliper mounts off a guy on ebay, got a parts list with 'em and got busy. No machining or used parts, couldn't run 14' wheels any more, but that is common with most all conversions.
As far as I know, Yes. There may be some minor differences in sway bar mounting and size, though. Malcolm Also, I did the Granada swap on my '62 Galaxie and I'm happy with it. The Granada master cylinder even bolted right up to the firewall. It did lower the car another 1 - 1-1/2", as already mentioned. I've heard of a few people that didn't want to use the Granada parts on a heavier car, so I compared the stock spindles to the Granada ones. The spindle thickness and construction really looks no different than the stock Galaxie spindle. I've "stress tested" and run my car real hard through a slalom/autocross and everything held up just fine.
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