Bens69PlymouthSatellite
Well-Known Member
the car is a 69 plymouth satellite going to be an estimated 550 hp regular driver,I was looking at wilwood drag brakes,would those be a dumb idea for a daily driver? any suggestions?
What would be the best choice of brakes?
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Donny
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Drag brakes? Like drag racing? I'd say no if that was what the name infers. Get a 4 wheel disc set up from some vendor in any Mopar magazine. The HP has really no bearing on braking, more weight of the car, and how fast you want to stop. Ultimately, you want to never be back in the 'Pump and Pray' mode the 4 wheel drum with no power offered as stock back 40 yrs ago.
69 Runner
ADMIN wif a corner office (Deceased - RIP)
Got Wilwoods on the front of my Duster and drums on the back. I don't have any problems with them
Meep-Meep
дворянин
Hey, you don't need brakes to go fast :rolling:
OK, now back to business. I will start by saying I think all American production cars are under braked. I'm not a Euro snob but I will say my old 72 Porsche 911 had the same size rotors as my 68 RR and it weighed 1000 lbs less. My 02 Durango is just embarrassing from a front brake standpoint, and that was admitted by the next year model when the brakes suddenly got bigger.
I have a friend who has the Wilwood brakes on his 67 Fairlane and he is taking them off! They make strange noises like the caliper is dragging. This may be an isolated case, but I say with good available brakes from ma MoPar, there is no reason to go with aftermarket for a driver that you don't need to stop from 160 MPH. I am putting the late model Cordoba brakes on my 69 RR - the 11.75" "police" types onto late A body spindles (MoPar Action has a great article about this conversion). These are Pick N Pull items so the cost and parts availability is great. Rear drums will be fine so more money saved there. Even if you go with the late A body disc setup (std 10" or 10.5" rotor) that will still be fine too. My 68 RR is a factory Bendix disc brake car with 10.7" rotors and those come with 10" rear drums as opposed to the 11" for the 4 wheel drum cars. Or I should say that's the way mine is.
I am also not against 4 wheel drum brakes, so long as they are properly working and not asked to do more than the design enables them to do. I upgraded my 66 F250 to the one ton 12" x 3" / 12" x 2.5" (following my rule of being under braked) and I towed cars with it. Worked fine. I upgraded my 66 Belvedere to a free set of 11" x 3" from a 69 GTX and they work fine so far. Again, if what I do with the Belvedere causes them to overheat and fade then I will put on late model discs. The drum brake relies a servo action together with hydraulic pressure to stop the car and discs are strictly hydraulic pressure. The advantage discs have over drums is they run cooler and thus are less prone to fading.
One of my older buddies had a 62 Grand Prix with a 389 tri power / 4 spd back in the mid 60's and it had the 8 lug wheels. The Pontiac 8 lug wheel was basically a huge aluminum finned drum / hub assembly with a cast iron liner where the shoes go - great looking setup by the way. The rim had no center per say and bolted to the edge of the drum with 8 lugs. According to the guy that put in the seat time in that car he said it slowed him down from 130 MPH without problems. Here's a pic of the wheel.
Since you are probably in a position to do brakes anyway just get the late A body setup and be done. Reman calipers and new rotors are cheap. Also, use the master cylinder from the same setup as a starting point. Put the extra money you save into the bodywork.
OK, now back to business. I will start by saying I think all American production cars are under braked. I'm not a Euro snob but I will say my old 72 Porsche 911 had the same size rotors as my 68 RR and it weighed 1000 lbs less. My 02 Durango is just embarrassing from a front brake standpoint, and that was admitted by the next year model when the brakes suddenly got bigger.
I have a friend who has the Wilwood brakes on his 67 Fairlane and he is taking them off! They make strange noises like the caliper is dragging. This may be an isolated case, but I say with good available brakes from ma MoPar, there is no reason to go with aftermarket for a driver that you don't need to stop from 160 MPH. I am putting the late model Cordoba brakes on my 69 RR - the 11.75" "police" types onto late A body spindles (MoPar Action has a great article about this conversion). These are Pick N Pull items so the cost and parts availability is great. Rear drums will be fine so more money saved there. Even if you go with the late A body disc setup (std 10" or 10.5" rotor) that will still be fine too. My 68 RR is a factory Bendix disc brake car with 10.7" rotors and those come with 10" rear drums as opposed to the 11" for the 4 wheel drum cars. Or I should say that's the way mine is.
I am also not against 4 wheel drum brakes, so long as they are properly working and not asked to do more than the design enables them to do. I upgraded my 66 F250 to the one ton 12" x 3" / 12" x 2.5" (following my rule of being under braked) and I towed cars with it. Worked fine. I upgraded my 66 Belvedere to a free set of 11" x 3" from a 69 GTX and they work fine so far. Again, if what I do with the Belvedere causes them to overheat and fade then I will put on late model discs. The drum brake relies a servo action together with hydraulic pressure to stop the car and discs are strictly hydraulic pressure. The advantage discs have over drums is they run cooler and thus are less prone to fading.
One of my older buddies had a 62 Grand Prix with a 389 tri power / 4 spd back in the mid 60's and it had the 8 lug wheels. The Pontiac 8 lug wheel was basically a huge aluminum finned drum / hub assembly with a cast iron liner where the shoes go - great looking setup by the way. The rim had no center per say and bolted to the edge of the drum with 8 lugs. According to the guy that put in the seat time in that car he said it slowed him down from 130 MPH without problems. Here's a pic of the wheel.
Since you are probably in a position to do brakes anyway just get the late A body setup and be done. Reman calipers and new rotors are cheap. Also, use the master cylinder from the same setup as a starting point. Put the extra money you save into the bodywork.
Donny
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Nice Pontiac wheels! Look at the Pontiac here in TX I saw at a show about 10 yrs ago.
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dantrap
Well-Known Member
I got to agree with 66 B Body on this Also. The Wilwood Drag stuff is great but I are sized for a max weight of 3000lbs. We used them on a supergas A-body with out any problems. I do not think they have dust boots on the pistons and the pads are on the small side. They may have a street setup but i am not familar with it. Good luck.
daredevil
Well-Known Member
my dad had those on his 62 catalina vert. dang looking back that car was cool. 389 4 speed and vert.what exactly is a 550 horse regular driver? lol I,d say a good set of disc in front and drums in rear and the best pads and shoes you can afford.i want a manual bias adjuster so i can tweak mine where i like them. factory proportioning valves dont take into consideration different size rubber from front to rear.
HT413
Semi Pro Bowler
Classic industries carries lots of different disc conversion kits from $1000 down to like $550. The wilwood drag kit i'm familiar with is limitd to 2400 lbs.
Jeremiah
Well-Known Member
I would check out the kits at AR Engineering myself. They make a cool kit for the Wilwood radial caliper.
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