I plan to change my front & rear drums for disc brakes on my 71 Cutlass. Most of the kits on the web say they are for 15" wheels, but I want to keep my SSII (14"). The few kits that fir 14" (like on YearOne) look like lower quality. I'm looking for an all-in-one conversion kit as I don't want to source from multiple manufacturers. Nor do I want to pull parts at the junk yard to find they don't work or fit. Has anyone used a kit that lets you keep your 14" wheels? Any nightmare manufacturers/sources I should avoid?

 

http://scarebird.com/index.php?route...&product_id=69


This guy has been doing brake kits for many years lots of pontiac guys
love his parts and kits Good luck

 

He sells the brackets, and you buy the rest at NAPA

 

The good thing about the scarebird kits are that you can buy replacement parts anywhere and not go back to a specialty supplier if you have problems in the future

 

Once again, the factory sold disk brakes with 14" wheels for YEARS. I asked one aftermarket company why they have the 15" wheel restriction and they said that it's easier to do that than to try to explain the differences between 14" disk brake wheels and non-disk brake wheels.

Bottom line is that for the front, unless you want oversize rotors, the factory 10.75" disk brakes DO CLEAR 14" wheels.

 

There were two types of rim for the 14" wheels of the late 60's and early 70's. I would assume you have the drum type of rim.

You have to make sure you have the correct type of rim. The kits that scarebird sells will fit most drum brake rims.

 

I'll check out Scarebird. Thanks for the advice guys.

 

A 1971 Cutlass has disk brake rims, no matter what brakes is came with from the factory. The only way to make the disk caliper fit inside drum brake rims is to use a rotor that's smaller than the factory 10.75". I personally wouldn't want to go there, as even the factory disks are on the small side for a 3700+ lb car with something like 60/40 weight distribution.

 

I have a 70 Cutlass S with 4 wheel drum brakes. How do I confirm I have "Drum Rims"? I'm looking at putting disks on the front.

 

Pretty sure all SSII's are OK with discs. Looks like that is what you have on the car now.

 

That is correct. Every factory-built SSII/SSIII wheel (14x6, 14x7, and 15x7) clears factory 10.75" disk brakes. I can't comment on aftermarket SSII/III wheels or different sizes than factory-available.

 

Thanks for the replies... Apologies to OP for short thread hijack.