Finished the scarebird conversion, a few notes.

[DJCarbine]

I just finished (and test drove) the scarebird conversion on my 66 coupe. It had 4 wheel manual drums, I converted it to front disc, still keeping it manual.

The pedal goes a LITTLE further to the floor than the drum setup, however it takes less effort to stop the car, and the pedal is VERY firm. Whoever claims manual discs are harder to work than manual drums is mistaken ::cough cough my local shop.

A few notes which may not be mentioned on the scarebird website.

-Use a 74 mavrick MC. You can pick one up at your local autozone for 21 dollars. The 68 MC they sell is the wrong one, and is more expensive. Use the mavrick pushrod.

-Calipers were indeed from a 90 S10 4WD. Hoses are the 17 inch from a caddy eldorado. No clearance issues with the hoses, and no clearance issues with the calipers on 15x7 TTD's.

-Uses the drum seals/bearings. You can replace them if you want with newer ones.

-I capped my stock distribution block where the rear line would go into it. I then ran the rear line directly into the front port on the MC. You can use a prop valve if you want, but I tested to make sure the rears wouldn't lock up... they didn't, even after several hard panic stops with the fronts on the verge of lockup and me turning the wheel a bit. If you arn't as cheap as me, get a prop valve for peace of mind.

Thats basically it. The setup went right in, if I really tried I could have done it in a day. The pedal effort is DOWN, and the car stops like a newer car. I don't have to feverishly downshift while standing on the brakes anymore

If anyone has any questions for me about the install, feel free to ask. I highly recommend it. I am sure there are kits with everything that are just as good, but I am perfectly happy with this setup.


On a side note, I opted to get cross drilled rotots from powerstop @ 89 a pair. They are high quality peices, and although I am a bit skeptical the claim that they really help that much (or if at all), cross drilled rotors are definatly cool to look at.

So yes. Scarebird thumbs up. Drum brakes thumbs DOWN.

 

[5.0ina66]

Sweet...that's on my list of things to do this summer, money allowing. Nice to see someone do it and review it.
Didn't you post at one point that the Eldo line was a bit long?

 

[DJCarbine]

Sweet...that's on my list of things to do this summer, money allowing. Nice to see someone do it and review it.
Didn't you post at one point that the Eldo line was a bit long?

I did say the 17 inch was a bit long... but it still cleared the suspension just fine. The 15" should be long enough, I don't know about the 12"

 

[strange65]

I am going to have to do something soon as far as disc brakes go.
I do not want to go with the Granada setup I just got.
Did you have to reinforce the firewall for the master cyclinder?
Did the MC clear the export brace, I am assuming you have a standard transmission.

 

[DJCarbine]

I am going to have to do something soon as far as disc brakes go.
I do not want to go with the Granada setup I just got.
Did you have to reinforce the firewall for the master cyclinder?
Did the MC clear the export brace, I am assuming you have a standard transmission.

Car was originally a 3 speed, converted to T5. Stock clutch linkage/zbar

The firewall did not need to be reinforced. The pedal effort was lighter than with the single MC...

The MC cleared the export brace no problem, and the clutch linkage no problem.

The only hard part was bending some hard lines. But, I put a socket in a vise, and bent the lines against it and they bent up no problem. You will need adapters to fit your stock lines to the new mavrick MC. The rear port is 1/4, so you will need a 1/4 to 3/16 to put in your stock 3/16 brake line. The front brakes are stock 1/4 inch lines, and the MC is slightly bigger. You can see what you needa t the parts store

 

[strange65]

Thats great, Thank you for the info and write up.
I got a line on a 65-66 OE disk brake setup but if that fails to go thru , I think I will go with the Scarebird conversion.
Glad to hear you are please with it.

 

[Scarebird]

Glad it worked out well for you, and thank you for the endorsement. If 15" hoses will work better, we recommend using the 79 Seville front hoses. I will update our website and install sheet to reflect your experience with the master cylinder.

Mention Stangnet when purchasing from us through our website/phone orders and get $10 off the order.

 

[rbohm]

hey scarebird, on a 67 mustang, since the spindles are the same 6 or 8, what rotor are you recomending for a four lug disc conversion, and is it an 11" rotor?

 

[Ronstang]

Scarebird....on the GM calipers you use are the seals on on the piston or in the caliper themselves?

 

[Scarebird]

1. Unfortunately, the 1967 and later 4 lug that used the 5 lug spindle were not offered with a disc, so we do not have one either. The 5 lug rotors are 11-1/4" in diameter (nice pieces). A compentent machine shop may be able to convert it to 4 lug.

2. The GM metric calipers found in S10's, Camaros, Firebirds, Cutlasses, Montes etc have the seal in the body of the caliper. Why?

3. We are still trying to make an affordable setup that will fit inside the diabolically sized 1967 14 x 5-1/2" rim. The original K-H setup will, but has cost and reliability issues. We have found one way to do this: 83-97 Ranger rotor and Probe calipers. The flaw is that the register must be turned down to fit inside the OEM rims. We are also looking at using the Wilwood forged Dynalite, though they run over 100 dollars each.

 

[Ronstang]

2. The GM metric calipers found in S10's, Camaros, Firebirds, Cutlasses, Montes etc have the seal in the body of the caliper. Why?

Simple. If the seal is on the piston, like traditional older GM calipers, the caliper itself becomes the sacrificial part when corrosion takes place. Your only option is to sleeve the caliper or get a new one. One reason GM brakes are junk. This information at least means the newer stuff is not as bad but GM still has issues with bad brake parts and did so all through the 90s. I won't use GM brake parts but at least if the seal is in the caliper they are not throw away parts.

 

[Scarebird]

I can't think of a GM caliper that had the seal in the piston- which ones did? The intermediate architecture runs 1969-2002, metric (just a smaller intermediate) from 1978-2000. The current "wraparound" style started in 1980 and is still used in some apps.

 

[rbohm]

corvette calipers through the 1982 model year had the seal on the piston rather than in the caliper body. that said however, i dont know of any gm cars that actually used the corvette calipers from that era, except the corvette's, and perhaps the Z28 camaro and trans am firebirds.

 

[Scarebird]

Pretty much 1965-82 Corvettes only- very rare 1967-69 Z-28 rear disc cars used the same components. IIRC, they are K-H sourced pieces, same as the early Mustang setup...

 

[rbohm]

Pretty much 1965-82 Corvettes only- very rare 1967-69 Z-28 rear disc cars used the same components. IIRC, they are K-H sourced pieces, same as the early Mustang setup...

a friend of mine has both a 68 Z28, and a 70 corvette, and the calipers on both cars are nearly identical. as i understand from him there are a couple of cosmetic differences, and the mounting point might be different, but otherwise both front calipers are basically the same.

 

[Scarebird]

This is the Corvette rear piece... can't find the reall rare rear Camaro Z28 setup. The 1967-68 front though had the KH calipers, and do indeed mount the seals on the pistons. Maybe that is why the K-H units have such a crummy reputation? The later GM units work fine, as do the Mopar and Ford setups that use a single piston.

 

[Ronstang]

Th K-H units for the mustangs mount the seals in the body of the calipers though.....kind of weird that they did Corvette's differently. Corvettes are one of the few GM cars I am willing to work on and this must be where I remember the seals being in the calipers from. It has been 25 years. I don't own or work on GM cars.

 

[Cool67]

I was thinking of doing the same thing with my 67 mustang but I had a concern about your capping of the distribution block. I'm sure some of the readers can clarify this but my limited understanding of the distribution block is that in the event of a failure of either the front or rear brake lines, the plunger in the distribution block would plug the low pressure side to try and maintain the high pressure on the remaining working side of the brakes. By running the rear brake line directly to the MC, it would appear that this feature would be defeated (but I could be wrong).

 

[68conv4sp]

DJ, since you have the stock clutch linkage, what headers do you use if any?

 

[DJCarbine]

I was thinking of doing the same thing with my 67 mustang but I had a concern about your capping of the distribution block. I'm sure some of the readers can clarify this but my limited understanding of the distribution block is that in the event of a failure of either the front or rear brake lines, the plunger in the distribution block would plug the low pressure side to try and maintain the high pressure on the remaining working side of the brakes. By running the rear brake line directly to the MC, it would appear that this feature would be defeated (but I could be wrong).

The stock drum distribution block does not have a plunger that I know of, the disc/drum block may have that plunger you described, but I am unsure. I was under the assumption that in even of a line leaking, the dual resevoir master cylinder would keep fluid in the brake circuit that had no leak, still giving you brakes. I could be wrong however.