Building a 1968 Torino Fastback and want to rebuild steering and add the orig disc brakes while I'm at it. Can anyone tell me what options I have? btw there is a 1971 ranchero that showed up a few days ago at Pick Your Part -brakes may be gone by now but hope to look for all options possible as new vehicles pop in if anyone can help?

I have 14" stock Gt Wheels btw if that matters... Thank you so much !

 

A couple things to keep in mind with this swap.

Frist thing, if you are going to keep your GT wheels, you cannot use the Granada / Monarch spindles as they upgraded the wheel bearings and the rotor is too big to fit into the 14 inch wheel center.

Otherwise, the Granada & Monarch spindles are still a good option if you can find them as they have the bigger wheel bearings and tie rods.

All the 65 up (I think), drum brake spindles are basically the same design wise, and by using the matching tie rod for what ever year spindle you have, they will basically interchange between all the shock tower cars.

There is an early small pin tie rod, and a late big pin tie rod, I forget the year it changed.

If you use your existing drum brake spindle, Wildwood, and other vendors make a couple nice kits, relatively cheap and bolt on.

The 1970 4 bolt backing plate (drum) spindle is the beefiest of all the stock spindles, and the SCCA allows that spindle to be back fit on older cars in competition, with no modifications.

Any of the early 3 bolt factory (disc) brake spindles and matching rotor / caliper combinations are also bolt on propositions, but the factory replacement disc brake parts have become expensive, and you still have to match the outer tie rod end to you spindle,,, depending on exactly what parts you're using. 

Also, you can buy a ball joint ream, and open up the early spindles to the late, larger pin if you are inclined to want to use items you have, not that I would do that on the very early spindles like 66 Mustang Falcon.

If it were me, I would buy the Wildwood kit for the spindle that is on the car and run it. 

By the time you get a set of factory Torino or Mustang items freshened up, the cost is about the same maybe even cheaper.

I would skip a power booster and install them with a disc brake master cylinder and drive it. 

This would very closely resemble the way Ford built and sold many of these cars back in the day with non-power disc brakes.

If you want to improve stopping power, pedal effort, and pedal feel from an early factory style set up, there are several options, but they go beyond the scope of what bolts on, fits, and works.

Thanks.

Mike H.

I saved the Granada disc assemblies years ago from my wife’s Granada just in case..... now I got the rest of the info i needed :)

Thanks :)

Granada spindles are a problem with 14" wheels? 

The pilot hole on the older wheels doesn't fit, but Grenades and Monarchs came with 14" wheels.

it's not the wheel diameter but the center hub register. if the center hub diameter in the wheel is larger than the register on the rotor the assy becomes lug-centric, but if the wheel hub diameter is smaller than the rotor register the wheel won't fit onto the rotor

if the wheel hub register and the rotor register match / are the same size then the assy is said to be hub-centric, the way OEM's / the correct way to do it. the load is carried at the center hub with no shear force on the wheel studs, only clamping force

Correct.

The early GT wheels, 14X7's, KH 14X7 slot wheels, and others 1971 and earlier have a 2-1/2 inch center register diameter.

The Granada and all 14" wheels after 1971 have a 2-3/4 register diameter, so the early wheels don't fit on the Granada register without opening them up somehow.

This has led to the butchered, torched out, cut out center holes in the early wheels I am sure many here have seen over the years.

I have a set of 14X7 Kelsey Hays 5 slots, that I managed to get 15X7 and 15X10 step down "Hoops" that I wanted to use to re-rim the KH centers onto and use on my Monarch.

To do so properly, the easiest way to accomplish this is to back fit a 70/71 spindle onto the Monarch.

I can post pictures of some standard wheels with the 2-3/4" center hole, the KH centers, the step down hoops, and the register diameter if interested.

Thanks, Mike H.