hi everybody,
my name is john and i've had lots of oldsmobiles over the years. i currently have two that i'm planning on holding onto forever. my 1967 cutlass conv. i've had for almost 20 years, and my 1969 ninety-eight i've had for the last 3 years. (its the same year, make, and model as my first car).
here's my pickle... the 98 is my work car, and naturally i drive it back and forth to work everyday. not long ago i had problems with the brake proportioning valve. it was holding pressure but not releasing it. i drove the car back to the house, not realizing exactly what the problem was. by the time i got home my brakes and rotors were literally smoking hot. i ended up with a badly warped rotor.
i'm trying to find a rotor, and not having any luck. disc brake conversions are based on cars with drum brake spindles. I'M NOT WORRIED ABOUT KEEPING IT ORIGINAL, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,
john

 

Bummer. I don't know of any suppliers for the late 60s B/C body rotors. These parts are like gold. Hopefully someone can help you out. Welcome to the site.

 

Where in middle America are you?
There's a 69 Delta at the local boneyard, but haven't looked at the brakes yet.

 

thanks Olds64, i'm keeping my fingers crossed.

 

hi J(chicago), i'm in smithville, mo. its about 20 miles north of downtown Kansas city, mo. i know a guy at o'reilly who did some searching for me, and he said that 1968 and 1969 98's were the only rotors that would work, or at least thats all they had listed. i've submitted parts requests to 3 different auto salvage parts finders websites and had zero responses. this is driving me crazy!

 

Actually, 67-70 Olds 88 and 98 rotors will work. Unfortunately, these disk brake setups were rare when they were new and are almost nonexistent now. Don't hold your breath on any junkyard finds. Until recently there were no aftermarket replacements available (since there was virtually no demand), though within the last year I've seen some offered on Ebay.

 

thanks joe i'll broaden my search and keep looking

 

Lucky for you I'm going out there today. It still has the 455 in it and the yard owner said it RUNS. I'm bringing a battery, a gas can, and an oil pressure gauge up there in an hour or so.
They want $300 for the motor.

 

I checked it out. It's a 2 barrel motor, and I talked him down to $250 and a running 307 core

The car was a drum brake front end. Sorry bud. Your chances were slim to begin with on that one.
If you want to convert to drums, and then to aftermarket discs You might want to come up here and snag it. Chances are, they're going to crush it soon after I take the drivetrain tomorrow. That's the last Olds in the whole yard. There's a 77 Lesabre with a 403, but It looks shot, and a 5a 307 laying in the mud. There's also a pair of 68 or 69 cutlass doors laying in the mud there too.

 

I believe scarebird makes a disc break conversion for you car. try them on the internet if you want to maintain disc brakes

 

The car was a drum brake front end. Sorry bud. Your chances were slim to begin with on that one.
If you want to convert to drums, and then to aftermarket discs You might want to come up here and snag it. Chances are, they're going to crush it soon after I take the drivetrain tomorrow. That's the last Olds in the whole yard. There's a 77 Lesabre with a 403, but It looks shot, and a 5a 307 laying in the mud. There's also a pair of 68 or 69 cutlass doors laying in the mud there too.[/quote
a trip to chicago is pretty much not an option for me right now,but thanks for checking out the situation for me.
probably i'm going to have to switch to drum spindles and then to a disc brake conversion like the one from Scarebird. i'll have to keeps my eyes out for something locally
john

 

John,
I am K.C. we will have to hook up this spring. Hope you get your brakes working. I owned a '69 Delta for a while then sold it and lost track of it. Sad to say it had drum brakes and that is when I discovered how rare the disc setups were. I know of no yards around the Kansas City area any longer that have large amounts of older cars, too bad.

 

I know this sounds hillbilly but can rotors be professionally welded to add material and then turned to bring them into spec? I wouldn't want to try it on a good set of rotors but if the rotors you have are too warpped to be used safely then it might be worth a try. I also know of a shop in KC that could do it (if possible). Hi Tech welding in Lee's Summit, MO is the BEST welding shop I have ever done business with. If this is even remotely possible then they can do it.

 

The process is called flame spraying. It's used extensively to repair worn bearing journals on expensive factory machinery. Basically a welding torch (either a gas or arc torch can be used) has either a wire feed or metal powder injected into the flame. This molten metal is then "flame sprayed" onto the part to be built back up. The metal to be sprayed can actually be harder than the parent metal. Years ago there was a vendor at the Pomona swap meet who did exactly this on brake drums and rotors that could not be replaced. I'd suggest a Hemmings search.

 

The 5a heads would indicate the high output 307, right?
I am sure someone here would be interested in those heads and cam...
If lived close to there, i would wanting them for my '86 (if any good to begin with..) Too big and heavy to ship.

 

Well, there's nothing high output about them, but they're a helluva lot better than the 7A 307 heads. The high output 307s used 5a heads, a 440 lift cam and a 350 harmonic balancer. They only came in 442s and hurst olds' though I think.
This 5A motor was from an 84 delta. I saw the car nearby flattened to about 9'' tall

 

5A 307s are 80-84
and 7A 307s are from 85-90

 

John.
I'm in the state of Maine and know a yard that has 2- 69 Deltas with Disc brakes ,they want $200.00 +$60.00 take off + shipping this is for spindles and rotors and calipers . I dont know if he would sell a rotor by itself . The only problem is we have any where from 4 to 6 feet of snow on the ground and sub freezing temps in that area ,i know it dont help now but later in a couple months , I'm going to this place for some parts for my 78 cutlass and would find out for you.

rocwal
Dan B