Drums or disc???

[Mister]

Hope everyone enjoyed their 4th! I'm stock pile'n parts for my 70 and was bout to do a brake upgrade and was going to go disc all the way around when my cousin said that a company makes a nice performance rear drum brake and was wondering if anyone on here uses them or can vouch for Muscle Car Brake's stage 3 setup? My plans for car is a street/strip build with a 406 sbc all forged internals holley 750 sc&c street/strip suspension with a 12 bolt tru trac posi 3.73 gear 350 tranny...was looking at the cpp 2" drop 12" wilwood disk brake kit for the front... any 411 ill be appreciated.

[Boots]

wilwood make a drop spindle that is way cheaper than the cpp one..however it is made for wilwood brake assemblies ONLY..it is the dynalite series...and I am leaning that way

[Boots]

sorry...correction the spindle is from heidts for wilwood

[Mister]

ok gonna have to look into that. Thanks

[714024SP]

These are what I put on my car on the rear, have factory front disc.

MuscleCarBrakes CHV-242-WC-C

Hopefully will get to take her for a test ride this weekend.

The guy doing my car had no problems installing them that I know of and has driven the car himself with no issues.

Don't know as he's really slammed on them yet.

[Mister]

Let me know how the perform if you don't mind. They look like they might be the direction I lean towards.

[Daryl]

I went through this dilemma myself. I came to the logic that if I was going to go faster, I needed to stop faster. 4 wheel disc, no brainier. I also added a hydro boost.

[Mister]

Which brake kit did you go with?

[Daryl]

Here are the parts I used in mine.

Rear disk set

 

Drop spindles

 

The hydro booster I got from an astro van used 30$. Rebuild kit was another 30 if I remember correctly.

[Mister]

Ok cool and thanks for the heads up my man! If I go that route may need a little of your guidance...

[cbolt]

I just received my rear drum to disk conversion kit from Jegs yesterday. Same kit, slightly cheaper. Be sure to shop around, some of the places have them on sale from time to time

[Daryl]

I paid less for mine too when I got mine back in January. Like the man said shop around for best price. Here is a pic of mine installed. Below pic is a link to the jegs set.

 

 

 

Jegs set

 

 

[monte70car]

I also did rear disc on my 70. Most of the cars that are sitting on car dealers lots have 4 wheel disc even trucks. My 72 I'm going to be using Wilwood brakes on the rear

[Mister]

My rear end is out and will be headed to get its makeover...suspension stuff should be here any day now, so I guess I need to decide which 1 and get to ordering a rear disc brake kit then! Appreciate all the good feedback fellas!

[bills70monte]

You guys on this site are really awesome! Whenever I need to find out about something or need some info or opinions, there's always someone out there doing the same thing. You helped me decide to go with rear disc brakes. Thanks. Bill

[monte0]

I've been wanting to do this for years now too. I've got a question for those who have already done this, how much thicker is the rotor flange then the drum flange? I'm worried about my rear tires not clearing my wheel wells as they only have a 1/4" till they hit.

[wallaby]

That is the big issue keeping me from going disc in the rear. The added width. We have such little room under the rear wells as it is, I don't know if I could live with less.

 

The other issue is how much an improvement in braking you get. I have heard reviews that say "they work great", but is it an improvement over a properly functioning drum setup? I know that disc brakes require higher pressure to work...drums are self-energizing and work well with lower pressure requirements. Does that mean disc brakes need more down force on the pedal to work equally?

One of the great benefits of disc is their fade resistance; drums heat up quickly and loose grip, while disc tend to work better the hotter they get. Going down a long grade with a travel trailer, I would prefer to have disc. But is there a real improvement for the average use we put our cars through? Maybe slowing down at the end of the dragstrip even? Disc work better for that? What about on a road course? Is the front-rear braking properly balanced, or does it require an adjustable proportioning valve to dial in? I don't want to find that the rears are touchy or lagging when I try to slow down on a wet freeway cloverleaf.

 

I had future plans of going disc in the rear, and step one was to change out the vacuum booster for a hydroboost unit. The hydroboost alone made such a great inprovement in the braking, I put off the disc conversion probably indefinitely.

 

I'm just thinking out loud here.

[monte0]

Found out the rotor hat thickness is 1/4" fyi for those who have tight clearances

[714024SP]

Got to take her for a spin Saturday.

Although I wasn't nailing them hard, the brakes seemed to work great.

By the way, this is what I have up front with stock calipers.

SSBC Short Stop Rotor Kit

With these pads.

Hawk Ceramic Pads

[monte0]

I've done a lot of reading on these style kits and have heard some negitives. For those who have installed these kits, is the ebrake setup hard to get right? And also I heard they tend not to wear great unless you get the caliper centered to the rotor.

[Mister]

Ok! Thanx for the info!

[Mister]

Finally got it together and made my mind up on the rear disc brakes. Had to do a lot of shopping around but this is what I went with...

 

[Mister]

I appreciate the info and all you guys knowledge! U are right if I'm going to go faster mine as well stop faster as well!