Well the garage is finally warm enough and I am starting on my conversion to 4-wheel disc brakes. I have all of the parts from scarbird, new dual disc brake master cylinder and vacuum cannister, plus new hanging pedal along with misc hoses, bearings and metal to fabricate the mounting plate where the vaccum cannister will mount. I will take pictures as I do the conversion and post them. I will also post a parts sheet with all of the costs. Wish me luck

 

"Luck"

Remember

Righty tighty

Lefty Loosey

 

I removed the old brake master clyinder, booster and thru the floor pedal assembly. I also had to do away with the drivers side air box for fresh air and fabricate a flat plate. I used a brake pedal assembly from a 71 delta 88 so I am still Oldsmobile. Installed the new pedal assembly and a new dual master clyinder with a new dual chamber power booster (only power booster that would fit along side the 455) should work find. This Saturday I plan on installing the brake lines and getting the front disc conversion completed. Next weekend I will do the rear disc brakes. Here are a few pictures. The plates are the Scarebird conversion plates for mounting the calipers. I will take pictures as I take the drum brakes apart and put the discs brakes together.

 

looking good....keep the photo's coming
I'm quite interested in doing this to my 56 so I'm happy to gleen anything I can off your job....thanks

 

First I finished up the the brake tubing and installing the proportioning valve then started on the front disc brake install. The first picture shows the drum and backing plate removed. When I did a trial fit I found out that the new disc backing plate was only drilled for three mounting points, the two at the bottom and one at the top. I did not like this and will call scarebird about it today. After making sure that the caliper would fit ok I drill two more holes in the backing plate so all of the attachment points would be used. I felt better about this five bolts are better then three. Following the directions I then installed the spacers provided on the spindle (one each side) then installed the rear bearing and seal in the hub, installed the hub on the spindle, installed the front bearing, washer and nut, torqued to 25 lbs while spinng the rotor backed off a half turn and installed the cotter pin. Then I installed the caliper and hose. Repeated on the other side. Simple install and all went well. Next I will start on the rear conversion.

 

Nice work, So now it will both stop and go.

 

 

Thats the idea! With the 455 under the hood I needed more brake then throwing out the boat anchor.

 

Well I am stalled on the conversion on the rear brakes. First I had to find a machine shop to turn the axle flange down .010-.045 to fit in the Thunderbird rotors, sounds simple except all of the small guys in my local area have gone out of business. Had to send it out and because of backup will have to wait another week to get it done.

l also ran into a problem with the emergency brake. I bought The cadillac eldo rear loaded calipers used in this conversion from NAPA and thought they came with everything, Wrong, the NAPA calipers do not come with the e-brake lever, hardware and spring, the assumption is that you are replacing the caliper in you cad and will reuse these parts, no good for a conversion. After looking around serveral wrecking yards for these parts without any luck (toro and Riveria used the same calipers) I ended up ordering another set of loaded calipers from rock auto. The ones they sale are complete with the e-brake hardware. So now I have a spare set of calipers for backup. I expect to receive then at the same time I get the axels back should finish the project next weekend.

This conversion is not for the faint of heart. On my wish list for the new shop/garage is a lath and milling machine. Can't find good small machine shops around here anymore

 

Ok, so I completed the conversion, new soft and hard lines, new master cylinder, combo proportioning valve power booster, hanging pedal, new rotors, new calipers. Adjusted the rear emergency brake calipers before bleeding the system as advised and per directions. Bench bled the master cylinder before installing. Vacuum bled all lines starting from the right rear to the left rear, to the right front, then the left front. Brake pedal spongy. repeated the proceedure three times brake pedal still spongy, Test drove the car, it will stop sort but not good. What am I doing wrong here?

 

I have had this problem B4 vac bleeding get some help & do it the conventional way Pump & hold

 

Sorta

 

Thanks for laughing with me instead of at me Jamsbo

 

So what is the out come of your brake conversion?

Gene

 

Turned out great, was a bitch to bleed, tried the power bleeder and just could not get it done. Finally went back to the tried and true method with my wife in the car and did it the manual way. The the scarebird conversion brackets and directions were good and the quality of the parts provide were high. The most difficult part of the conversion was the power brake booster and hanging pedal conversion.

I had to remove the heater fresh air box on the drivers side, the passenger side and drivers side air plenums are tied together so this did not impair the air flow for the heater, defroster, and fresh air to much. My car did not have ac so no loss here. Had to use an 8" double vaccum booster to fit between the engine and the fender well ( not much room here) but it does provide enough boost to get the job done. I went with a corvette double master cylinder and proportioning valve to complete the under hood part.

The hanging pedal came out of a 75 Olds delta 88 and I had to install it to the left of the steering column. I heated and bent the shaft an angle the put the pedal in the same location as the original brake pedal. This worked out well and looks original.



The only difficulties I had was finding the wrecking yard parts that were listed in the scarebird parts list. Around here most yards crush anything over 10 years old so your very seldom find older parts cars. For the back brakes you need 1979 to 1985 cad eldorado rear calipers for the parking brakes as they are built into the caliper. Toronado's used the same thing.
I Had to buy them new from rock auto as they were the only ones I could find that included the spring and lever hardware. I did not have any luck finding any of the wrecking yard parts I had to buy everything new which in a way was ok because its now all fresh. The savings would have been in the core charge savings anyway.

The other item was getting the rear hub turned to fit the new brake rotor. This is not a conversion for a novice. You need fab skills to get this done or have the help of a friend who has these skills.

Pat

 

On my four wheel disc conversion, I used the parts from a Cad Seville for the rear and the '69/72 stock disc up frt. I also had to do some machine work, but not much. I used the Seville master cyl. I have manual brakes, and it stops on a dime. I have the 57/64 early OLDS rear.

Gene

 

In my cross reference book the Cad Seville is the same as the Eldo. Good call most likley was easier to find wish I had caught the earlier. Were you able to use the backing bracket from the Seville for you rear conversion or did you make the bracked.

Great to have disc brakes isn't it I have a 31 spline posi for your rear if it is a 58-64, the 57 like mine has 27 splines and i bought the wrong one. Let me know if you are interested.

 

Hi just joined the site but have been into cars for many years had a 57 98 2dr Ht since 1969 and gave it to my Daughter and Son-inlaw last year with the stipulation that he put disc brakes and a dual master on it. He got the disc brake kit from Scarebird and is working on the install now. I noticed with interest your master conversion and was wondering which booster and master you used and how much did you have to beefup the fire wall? Thanks later tcam

 

I used a universal dual master cylinder : http://www.ebay.com/itm/Street-Rod-U...62ee45&vxp=mtr

but have since changed to a dual 8" as the 7" is to small. Make sure you buy quality items as several of these kits are made in China and are noted to fail,

I used a sheet of 1/8" steel cut to fit the airbox bolt pattern, then back braced it to the steering column support at the dash. It does not move at all.

 

I thank you for the added info. I hear ya about cheap parts have been selling NAPA parts for 40 plus years will see what I can find in a 8" booster. Thanks again.

 

Pat,

What size wheels does the car now sport, and what size were original to the car?

 

I have 15" wheels. The original wheels where 14". The disc breaks will not fit in the 14" wheels.

 

That is what I figured. That one cannot use the original wheels/hupcaps is a drawback for me.

 

To keep the car looking period correct I went with the Cadillac style wire wheels. Looks great

 

"citcapp"
Lets get some daylight pic's of the '57
Maybe even a sound bite of the 455

Gene

 

I am going to a local cruise in tomorrow afternoon will take a couple of pictures and a video of the exhaust note Gotta love the music of a 455. Who needs a a radio

 

i have a 55 olds 88 im tring to find a drum to disk convertion kit for but not having any luck.

 

look for "Scarebird". They offer brkts and supply a list of parts to make the kit.

http://www.scarebird.com/index.php?id=21

 

Citcapp.
Should you ever get tired of the exhaust noise, I mean notes I just found in my car junk a radio for what I believe is for a 57, looks pretty good although I haven't put juice or a speaker on it as yet. Let me know if you need it...Tedd

 

 

what spindle and rotor did you use

 

Sounds like he used the original spindle and a rotor specified by the scarebird kit. Note: an 11 year old thread might not match current scarebird recommendations. I know for my 1966 full size they changed the recommended parts (probably because you couldn't find some of the earlier recommended parts). I would suggest you look at the scarebirtd site for current recommendations.

 

This thread is eight years old and the OP is deceased.

 

I get sad every time I run across a post like this. Pat has left the garage, long live his knowledge..... Tedd

Try Disk Brake Mike for this conversion and a current price list, he has been doing this for years.... http://www.discbrakemike.com/