front end drum to disk kits

[icobra2ford]

Does anybody know what year/model vehicles will fit to my 53 champ? I have heard that a Ford grenada/mercury monarch set-up will work,but I need to know what parts I need and what parts I dont. I am trying to stay away from the $500 front end disk kits offered by some ebay co. Also, what rear end set-up will work for this car? I have heard a Ford 8.8 will work,but ther again,I need more info..Thanks for the help!

[Dan White]

To my knowledge there is no drop in disk brake setup that will fit a '51 - '66 Studebaker, with the exception of the '63-'66 Stude disk brake setup. A word of warning, DO NOT TAKE any short cuts with the brake system. There is a reason why the Turner and Steeltech (that is the one on ebay) setups cost what they do, they are guaranteed to fit and work safely. I have had a Steeltech system on my '64 R1 GT for several years and it has worked great, others have the Turner system and as far as I know it works equally well. Steeltech also offers a budget system that basically are the brakets I believe and you supply the rest, Dave will give you the list and you can go to your local auto supply store and get the rotors, calipers, etc. Steeltech also makes a rear disk brake kit for Stude (Dana) rears that work well also. I do not know if there is a drop in rear w/ disk brakes that will fit a Stude or not, since Studebakers tend to be a bit narrower than modern vehicles. Sorry for preaching but I put brakes as the #1 safety issue on any car. If you can't stop safely having all the other stuff will not do you a lick of good.

Dan White
64 R1 GT
64 R2 GT

[Roscomacaw]

Dan's spot on here. The best you can do is to either get a late Stude disc brake setup (expensive!) or use one of the two kits done by the Stude-specific vendors.
A good way to save money is to buy their economy kits and shop for the calipers, hoses, rotors and whatnot by yourself. The kits TELL you what items are engineered into their system so it's not like you have to do guesswork there.
That's the way I went when putting disc brakes on my Transtar and it was a good deal cheaper than buying the whole kit!

Miscreant at large.

1957 Transtar 1/2ton
1960 Larkvertible V8
1958 Provincial wagon
1953 Commander coupe
1957 President 2-dr
1955 President State
1951 Champion Biz cpe
1963 Daytona project FS

[Alan]

The front rotors from a 70-71 Dodge charger fit right on with only a change in inner bearing and oil seal. But you have to make your own brackets. If you are not confident in your fab skills then buy from Turner.

[Alan]

Right after I posted this above I got a call from Superior Spindle Co. They said that my Willwood disc brake kit for early Ford 9" station wagon would be in Tues. and that it was $650 and I would have to put my John Hancock on a liability waver if I wanted to put them on myself.

[Mike Van Veghten]

Yep...pretty much what everyone else has said.

I've had both Steel Tech's. and Turners. The rotors and calipers are the same in both kits, just the bracket and little stuff is a little different.
The Turner caliper bracket is much nicer looking than the Steel Tech's. bracket, they work pretty much the same though. I sold my Turner kit cause it weighs a ton.

I have the Steel Tech. on two Studes I have....that said I will be removing the kit on my 54 to make my own bracket to use the Wilwood 4 piston caliper on the front. I have Wilwood on the back and prefer the lighter matched caliper setup.

Either kit will work well for you.

[Dan White]

I said before that there was not a drop on disk brake set up and that is basically true. However, Alan's post got me thinking that the '68 Ford LTD rotors will drop on the Stude spindles just fine, with no modifications. This was the basis of the early Steeltech (aka Dave Levesque) kit, along with Kelsey-Hayes (mid-70's Chrysler calipers) and the one on my GT ( I believe he uses a GM based setup now). However a couple of points, 1) you will need to make your own brackets, and as Alan says you need to know what you are doing. 2) The rotors are tough to find since they are a one year only part, NOS/after market new are virtually non-existant. Luckily I found a ''68 Fort LTD nut that had a stash of these rotors. So there are some partial solutions.

Dan White
64 R1 GT
64 R2 GT

[icobra2ford]

Thanks guys,I will prob. go with the steelt.version. If anybody has a suggest. on what rearends will fit under my 53 please let me know. I would like to keep the standard 5 bolt pattern......

[Alan]

57-59 Fords and T-birds will drop right in, all you have to do is pull the spring on the second side out a little, the Stude was about 1/2" narrower at the spring pads. The drive shaft even bolts right back in if you use the right yoke. There were 3 different length and u joint styles.

[Dick Steinkamp]

quote:Originally posted by icobra2ford

Does anybody know what year/model vehicles will fit to my 53 champ? I have heard that a Ford grenada/mercury monarch set-up will work,but I need to know what parts I need and what parts I dont. I am trying to stay away from the $500 front end disk kits offered by some ebay co. Also, what rear end set-up will work for this car? I have heard a Ford 8.8 will work,but ther again,I need more info..Thanks for the help!

Ok, Jeff is going to accuse me of being a "pot stirrer" [8D], but here goes.

Disk brakes are better than drums. They stop better than drums when wet and they are better than drums when stopping repeatedly from speed. My two daily drivers have 4 wheel disks. I wouldn't have it any other way, but...

for most of us, our Studes aren't our daily drivers. We are not driving through hubcap deep water and we are not getting the drums glowing cherry red from a bunch of 80-0 stops. But that's not my point.

The '54 and up Studebaker V8 drum brakes are gosh durn good. All components were engineered to work together. My '54 Streetrod has the stock '54 brakes (all new parts). It stops straight and true (and always as short as I've needed ).

I've always wondered if replacing the stock drums with front disks (maybe throw in a brand x rear end) would stop as good as the stock brakes. Is the master cylinder of choice matched to the bore and stroke of both the front calipers and rear cylinders (or calipers)? Are there correct residual check valves for whatever ends up on the front and rear? Is the proportioning valve right for the car's weight (if adjustable, is it set correctly)? Seems to me that there are enough variables when switching to disk brakes that it is entirely possible that the vehicle will not stop as good as the stock set up. Even if the disk conversion is set up AS GOOD AS the stock set up, and will slide the front and rear tires evenly, it then comes down to how good the driver is to brake as hard as possible without lock up.

I'm sure my two daily drivers will outstop my '54 (even the first stop), but I wonder if a '54 and up V8 Stude will stop as good as one with a disk brake conversion (assuming the brake components on both are in good condition)?

-Dick-

[Roscomacaw]

I'm gonna agree with Dick here. The late Stude V8 drum brakes are VERY powerful. The Stude experts will proclaim they're at least as good as the Stude discs were - for the first few hard stops in succession. After that, and in water, the discs have an edge.
As Dick says tho - how often you gonna encounter repeated panic stops or water deep enough to flood the drums?[:0]
IF I lived in mountainous territory, you can damn sure bet I'd have discs up front.

Miscreant at large.

1957 Transtar 1/2ton
1960 Larkvertible V8
1958 Provincial wagon
1953 Commander coupe
1957 President 2-dr
1955 President State
1951 Champion Biz cpe
1963 Daytona project FS

[DEEPNHOCK]

I wouldn't ever do that![:0]
Jeff[8D]




Pot stirrer!


[/quote]
Ok, Jeff is going to accuse me of being a "pot stirrer" [8D], but here goes.
<snip>
[/quote]

[Dick Steinkamp]

quote:Originally posted by DEEPNHOCK

Pot stirrer!

Takes one to know one

-Dick-

[Roscomacaw]

From one Jeff Rice: RE: Pot-stirring....
"I wouldn't ever do that!"

OK, so there's TWO Jeff Rices then.[}] The other one was here just awhile ago.

Miscreant at large.

1957 Transtar 1/2ton
1960 Larkvertible V8
1958 Provincial wagon
1953 Commander coupe
1957 President 2-dr
1955 President State
1951 Champion Biz cpe
1963 Daytona project FS

[64Avanti]

Well when I was about 17 (in 1968) I decided that I needed to stop a 1960 Hawk from about 105 MPH and that was such a bad experience that I took the car home and pulled all of the brakes off. I had a front disk setup for a Studebaker and installed that. I then went to the local wrecking yard for Jags and purchased a set of rear Jag Dunlop calipers and the front disks from an XKE. I designed a set of brackets and removed the rear brake drum from the hub and had the rotor machined to fit the hub. I now had 4 wheel disk brakes and no more braking problems.

Now you wouldn't want to make too many stops from 100+ MPH but the brakes were much better than the drums. I do recall some road tests from the 50's stating that the Studebaker drum brakes were great, but from my experience I can only say the other cars of that era must have been realy bad.

David L