Adrian Worman wrote:[Can you tell me more about the bearing adaptors, is that the only difference between '73 and earler spindles?
I would be more than happy with the bigger rotors and some decent pads, like the Firm Feel ones but without sourcing and changing the spindles.
that's the only difference. You will find a picture of the adapters I'm talking about
on this page.
You should also get in touch with DoctorDiff (Cass, (406)883-4772), he has good brake kits and they are reasonably priced. He has the only rear disc kits that work with OEM axle bearings without a lot of work too.
(The wilwood kits are a nightmare at the rear - integrated Corvette-style parking brakes can bend the backing plates easily, and then there's no more parking brake ; the green bearing design has lots of problems not found in the OEM tapered bearing).
If I had to say something about the wuality of the wilwood products, I'd say this :
Calipers are good.
Rotors are good to excellent (although not thick enough on street models).
Pads are good although their do-it-all compound could have a bit more "bite"(I haven't tested them all)
Screws and washers are not too bad. Machined aluminum parts are OK.
All the rest, especially the brackets, varies from pure shit (rear) to acceptable (front).
Master Power brakes have the new 73-style spindles (PN# SP2627), other suppliers have these too.
If you switch to 4-pot calipers (or more), you will probably need to change your master cylinder to have more displacement (you have to feed enough brake fluid in the lines when you depress the pedal to reach operating pressure, some calipers will require more fluid than OEM calipers did. You will need a bigger bore MC (of course, the bigger the piston, the harder it is to push it - unless you have good engine vacuum, you may find the booster does not assist enough). All that can take some work.
The page Dave referred to (Disc-O-Tech from Mopar Action) is the cornerstone of 15-inch wheel modern braking for vintage Mopars. You will also find
it's possible to use Viper calipers(I think these bolt on to drum spindles with AR engineering brackets).
It might be possible to use these on pre-73 drum spindles with the adapters.