I am working on a 1966 Olds 98. I currently have drum front brakes. Does any one know if there is a disk brake car I can take everything off of and bolt onto mine, or that is easily altered to fit?

 

Disc brakes were a factory option for 1967-1970 and will bolt to your car. Unfortunately these parts were rare when new and are almost impossible to find now. I'm still not sure if someone is selling new rotors or not. No newer spindles will work.

 

Tells me what I need to know. Thank you.

 

Joe, you seem to have a lot of knowledge on, well basically everything...lol Why cant we use different spindles? Couldnt you machine them to work with the original ball joints? Is the issue where the tie rods bolt up?

I also saw something, unfortunatly forgot to save the link, about the speedometer wire going through the front spindle? Is this true?

Thanks in advance, James.

Oh, I am about to start on a 66 Starfire, FYI.

 

http://www.scarebird.com/index.php?id=1

Scarebird has a listing for 61-69 Olds front and rear. They use your existing spindles and readily available off the shelf brake components for the conversions and I've heard only good things about them. But natcherly the Olds front stuff being fairly new product, it's more expensive than even the same years Buick and Pontiac.

 

I used Scarebird's front and rear conversion on my 57 Olds quality stuff with easy to follow directions.

 

Wow, thats cool. Thanks for the link and advice.

 

Unless they are exactly the same height, at a minimum it changes the suspension geometry.

Depends on the difference in the tapered holes and the amount of meat that would be left after machining. Speedway Motors sells tapered reamers for exactly this task. It's usually easier to just retrofit the ball joints that fit the spindles. This is how the B-body spindle swap on the A-body cars is done. Note that to get the suspension geometry right, you need special upper control arms from Global West, Hotchkis, etc. By the way, this is the least of your problems with this swap. See next response.

Ding Ding Ding

We have a winner. The 65-70 full size cars use a rear-steer configuration with the steering linkage behind the axle centerline. All newer GMs have front steer. The newer spindles also are one-piece forged so that the steering arms and caliper brackets are integral to the spindle, making it impossible to change. No, you cannot swap the newer spindles side-for-side to fit a rear-steer car.

Yes. Of course, you could swap in a different trans with a speedo drive gear and use that. Speedo calibration might be an issue.

 

Great, thanks for the response.

What is the consesus of sticking with the stock brakes? I know very little about drum brakes, how well SHOULD they work if they are completely rebuilt? Supposedly they were rebuilt 5 years ago, but they have very little stopping power and pull moderatly to the right. I plan to drive it occasionally for a few years, then strip it down and make it nice. Should disk brakes be one of the first things to look into or should I be able to get the drums working in a safe manor? I understand stopping is very important, i am just leary of drums after hearing everyone always badmouth them.

Thanks again for all the help, this is a great resource, especially for an aspiring OLDS guy...lol

 

Ive been driving a 4 wheel drum car for the past 25 years and havent had any major problems, you just have to push a little harder. except when they get wet! Discs are better, if sticking with drums my advice is to bleed out all old fluid until it runs clear with new fluid

 

Not sure on the 66 but my 64 Super 88 has a single master cylinder. If you have one it would be a good idea to upgrade to a dual. That splits the front and rear brakes. This is a safty issue that if any line in the brake system fails, you will have no brakes. If you swap to a dual master, if one corner fails, you still have one pair or prakes still working... make sense.

Also, see what the availability is of the factory drum parts are. That may be a dtermining factor. If you cant get a right front drum, there isn't much point of keeping the factory brakes.... just something to think of...

 

Dual-circuit brakes were federally mandated starting with the 1967 model year. Many vendors sell kits to convert single circuit brakes to dual circuit. Parts for the 11" drum brakes are readily available.

 

Can a 1965 starfire use another car disc brakes set up. Mel.

 

Go back and read this thread. ALL 1965-1970 Olds full size cars (including your Starfire) use the same spindles and front suspension have the same problem with conversions discussed in this thread.