Right stuff 4 wheel conversion

[dodge68charger]

Has anybody used The Right Stuffs 4 wheel disc brake conversion kit on their B body and have had any positive results from it? i Have a 68 Charger with power drums all around and am having a tough time finding a power front brake conversion kit to fit

 

[PST]

We have a four wheel kit for your car if you are interested and we have the members discount as well ?

Here is link for thought ?

http://catalog.p-s-t.com/index.php?...hicleID=31978&engineconfigID=15040&categoryID[]=3721

Thanks
James From
PST Marketing

 

[carolinadoug]

I bought the Right Stuff 4 wheel power brake kit about a year ago, installed it over the Christmas holiday and have been using it ever since. The sort answer is that I would NOT recommend it. I am not sure about the PST kit James suggests above but it appears to be the same kit.

The parts are all basically discount part store quality replacement components. Here are a couple of notes on the front and rear systems separately:

Front: The tolerance between the front calipers and brake pads is very loose (pads can move around). The rotors are not flat. The front brakes feel OK but when you lightly touch the brake pedal the calipers and brake pads move around on the wavy rotor and the system makes a light tapping noise. Not so bad you can feel it in the pedal but its annoying. Its just symbolic of low quality parts. However, I have not had any problems with performance. Its about what you would expect for a kit of this cost. Sloppy fit but they do stop the car well. Compared to the factory drums they are a major improvement.

Rear: I would definitely not recommend this system. You have to change to the "green" bearing (no axial play adjustment) so plan to spend the extra ~$100 for that. Also there are no factory brake line brackets so they send you tabs to weld to your axle housing. Then the caliper brackets are a combination of flat plates and standoffs. They seem to provide adequate rotational support but can flex side to side and do not keep the pads parallel to the rotor and after a few hundred miles there is some strange pad wear. They also squeak (despite generous application of anti-squeal grease) constantly. Forget the parking break ever working correctly. The cables supplied are not the right length (at least not for a '70rr) and once hooked up you can push the pedal until your leg gives out and the car just barely slows down. Very ineffective.

Recommendation: If you are on a budget my recommendation would be to invest in a higher quality front system (something like this: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ssb-a156/) and do a total rebuild on your rear drums using high quality parts. Unless you are doing autocross or spending a lot of time canyon carving at a high speed the rear drums are more than adequate. Drum brakes are powerful and effective, they just fade quickly and are sensitive to water. If you have the $$ to spend there are much higher quality 4 wheel systems out there.

Hope this helps. I would be happy to answer any questions.

Doug

 

[mguesto]

Thanks for the input Doug,

My tracking on the SSBC kit from FeDeX says my kit will arrive today. If all goes well, i will be doing my 69 GTX front conversion to Disc brakes over the Holidays
and after. I retire on the 14th so i will take the time to do it and take a lot of photos to post if there is interest in it.

Matt

 

[Propwash]

I have the Right stuff detailing front disc conversion I put on my '69 Roadrunner.... I do not have slop between the caliper and pad and the rotors are flat. Came with the necessary clips and banjo fitting type hoses. But, I had issues as well. One of my spindles was not machined to the right tolerance. For the life of me I couldn't get the the bearings over the spindles. Had to send it back, got a replacement and it worked fine.

On another note..and I would research PST's kit on this as well; My car was 4 power drums, just the same. Well the problem is that the Right Stuff booster kit is designed to work for converting manual drums to front power disc....not Power drum to front power disc. If you have a power drum car, the bracket off the back of the booster is completely wrong to match the setup under your dash. It can be made to fit.....With serious modification. I ended up researching a lot of the kits out there and a great majority of them are all the same...manual to power disc. So...beware. I ended up having to buy/find a Mopar Bendix power booster and sent the Right Stuff's booster back to them. When I ordered they specified it would fit right in, when I called and told them "this isn't going to work", I got a "ohhhh yeah...that won't work!"

I agree with Doug on the rears.......I have the 11" HD police/taxi rear drums on my bird, and that's more that adequate with the front disc. Like mentioned, unless you're going pro touring or something, why waste the extra money and headaches of trying to make rear disc work on your car? These cars are heavy, there is no "anti-lock" feature and the drum Brake hardware/parts are cheap and easy to find. Your car, your money..

 

[dodge68charger]

Im thinking of using a disc/drum master cylinder and power booster from cardone and going with a ssbc or wilwood front brake caliper and rotor kit that will fit on to drum brake spindles. Has anyone used a setup like this?

 

[Propwash]

If you go with the Cordone Bendix (I believe Napa has them from time to time) odds are you will need to adjust the endplay with the nut on the plunger shaft of the booster. When you bolt the the master up, look down inside the master, inside the little jet holes. You do not want a preload on that master piston when the peddle is at a resting position. This will cause your brakes to drag and eventually lock up once they heat up a bit. You also do not want a dead spot from the adjustment being in too far. Just a very very slight delay in peddle travel. Have someone give you a hand. A good flashlight and a good set of eyes when dialing in the pedal play and you'll be good to go.

A 1" to 1 1/8" Bore master should get you in the ball park with that set up. If I was going with the Wilwood/ssbc caliper's/rotors I would probably go with their master as well to take the guess work out of it. Just my own opinion though.

Best of luck to ya.

 

[dodge68charger]

Goin with the ssbc front disc brake with booster and master cylinder, They said their booster wont mount to firewall so i have to use my original power drum brake booster and attach their master cylinder to it. Guess it beats spending $450 on a new master cylinder from them.