Want to upgrade brakes

[boxer]

My brakes on my 56 Belair are all stock. I would like to do a disc brake conversion on the front end & upgrade the master cylinder. What kits have worked the best for all of you? There are so many differant ones for sale online. Thanks

[chevynut]

I think most of the kits, besides the high end ones by Willwood and Baer, use the same calipers and rotors. I assume your front spindles are stock too? If they are, your choices are much more limited. most of the disc brake kits are made for dropped spindles. I'm sure others will chime in here and help...I add disc brakes by cutting the frame off at the firewall. LOL! :)

[carls 56 (RIP 11/24/2021)]

got a complete kit from tomsclassic on ebay for a 55 i had. great kit for the money ($460), had everything. 16901691

[markm]

One of my favorite thing to do when I shoe my cars is tell people how screwed up my 55 and 56 is because I did not listen to the knotheads on trifive and use a zero disk brake kit. No one has yet to see the problem and neither do I. I do suggest that you use a kit that uses 70 Chevelle caliters and D52 pads. MY 55 has the smaller metric crap on it and does not stop as good as 56. The kits that use stock spindles use 67-69 Camaro, 68-74 Nova or 68-72 Chevelle roters.

[chevynut]

The kits that use stock spindles use 67-69 Camaro, 68-74 Nova or 68-72 Chevelle roters.

Yes, and they DO move the wheels out about 7/8" per side (I've measured it). I built a conversion for my Nomad before kits were available. If you don't lower the car and use the right wheels, it works just fine. But fat tires look kinda funny sticking out that far. Still you risk rubbing on the fender on a turn, when compressing the suspension like pulling into a steep driveway.

Boxer, if you want to go with the stock spindles and the 69-70 Chevelle/Nova/Camaro disc brakes, I can sell you the setup I built in the 80's pretty cheap. I have the calipers, caliper bracket, splash shield, and steering arms. The rotors are the 2-piece ones that I've been told are rare and valuable, so I plan to sell them separately on eBay. You can get replacement rotors at any auto parts store. PM if interested.

16921693

I don't know if there is any other option for the stock spindles.

[boxer]

Cheynut, thanks for ther offer, I will keep it in mind. I'm looking at some that don't have any offset. I need to call them & ask a couple questions. I'm still doing some research. Here is the website on the ones I'm looking at now.

http://www.belairbrakeparts.com/proddetail.asp?prod=309

[chevynut]

Boxer, I'd be skeptical of that "no offset" claim...make them prove it. And make sure they are usable on stock height spindles. That looks like a very complete kit, but $1000 seems way too high imo. I can buy an entire front and rear corvette suspension with differential, steering rack, swaybars, and 4-wheel disc brakes for that price. :)

Anyhow, I'm sure the guys here can give you more advice. Check out this kit from ECI. I don't know anything about it.

http://www.ecihotrodbrakes.com/chevy_zero_offset_discbrake_conversions.html
http://www.ecihotrodbrakes.com/early_chevy_discbrake_conversions.html

[Rick_L]

The "zero offset" kits for stock spindles use a separate hub and a hat style rotor from a 79 Trans Am. The hub is a 61-68 full size Chevy (or ECI manufactures an aluminum clone of it). They still aren't true "zero offset" because the rotor's hat is thicker in the wheel mounting area than a brake drum is. But they are very close. The only suppliers I know of are ECI (with the aluminum hubs) and mgchevyparts on Ebay (stock style hubs). But there could be more.

[markm]

It hsa been my experience that rear roters are thinner than front, is it a good idea to use them where they were not designed.

[Rick_L]

These are the same thickness as a typical front rotor, you use a D52 caliper with this setup.

[bobd]

i bought my front wheel disc brake kit from danchuk they sell the from classic performance products it was pretty straight forward. one of the things you have to do is drill a hole in the the brake pedal arm lower the the original location. one problem i had was i had to move the oilfilter to make room for the
new master cylinder and for some reason i had to get the front end aligned after. i called the company and was told replacement calipers and pads were for 1992 s 10 they work great cost about $600 good luck
bobd

[BONNEVILLE BOB]

These are the same thickness as a typical front rotor, you use a D52 caliper with this setup.
The D52 caliper is the '68-'72 caliper, correct? Do you use the same a.m. bracket that you use with the '68-'72 rotor?

[Rick_L]

All the "easy" disc brake kits use the 69-72 Chevelle rotor. It is the only common OEM rotor that bolts on. Where kits may differ is that some use the calipers from the same vehicles (D52 pads), and some use a "metric" or S10 caliper. Those are two different caliper brackets. With either bracket, because the bracket is sandwiched between the spindle and steering arm, moving it inboard, this changes your toe in. The tie rod ends must be adjusted shorter by the thickness of the bracket. So you need a trip to the alignment shop to reset the toe in, unless you can do it yourself.