Ok, for all of you looking to swap your drums for discs, I was asked to start a new thread letting everyone know what I did for my girlfriend's '65 El Camino. As it turns out, my girlfriend works at an auto parts store, and a friend of mine had a donor S-10 that he was parting out. I had my girlfriend pull the upper and lower ball joints off the shelf for the Camino and for the S-10 and see what the differences were. The uppers are a direct bolt-in. The lowers I had micrometered to see what the differences were. The splines on the S-10 lowers was around 1/32 of an inch bigger, which just meant they'd be really tight when pressed into the control arms. Using a ball joint press, I pressed in the lower ball joints, swapped uppers, and put everything back together as normal. On a side note, I also bought a new power booster and dual reservoir master cylinder, and installed a proportioning valve from an S-10 as well. I replaced all the brake lines, as they were original '65 brake lines. The S-10 Donor was a square body '89 S-10, but I think any will work, except 4 wheel drive. Newer round body S-10 have Dual Piston Calipers on some models, and might be worth your while to look into. I hope this gives people another option to update the brakes and improve the safety of your vehicles. :TU: -Josh P.S. If some of you are wondering why the ball joints were necessary to make the swap, the newer vehicle parts are "metric" parts, which means the shafts have a difference diameter and taper to them, so they will not fit properly, and therefore would not be a safe swap.
This is great Josh! How did the spindles compare in distance between the ball joint arms? Just wondering if the upper or lower control arms geometry changed at all. Also, did the track width of the front tires change? I have heard of some swaps moving the front wheels outboard by 1" or so on each side. It's hard to measure this stuff with the old spindles still on the car. Did you do a wheel alignment on the Elco after the swap was finished? And did it come into spec OK? Thanks again. This will be a real cheap swap for alot of us who would rather spend money on speed parts!:beers2: Brian
I've heard of this swap before. The only problem is the rotor size. The S-10s have puny rotors, somewhere around 10". somewhat inadequate for the heavy A-body. I think stock rotors are 11 1/2". braking performance will be down, and the rotors will likely heat up very quickly.
any of the b body swap ball joints work for this swap since they are machined to the correct size i thought the swap is still better than front drums what tie rods did you use? i am doing the same swap with the dual piston caliper setup on my 65
Sorry for the delay guys. Busy with wedding stuff. But not to worry, I found my notes. To answer some of your questions, here goes: "How did the spindles compare in distance between the ball joint arms? Just wondering if the upper or lower control arms geometry changed at all." The S-10 spindles did change the camber a little, and they dropped the front end about 1 inch to 1 1/2 inches. I remember the crossmember being a little lower when I pulled the car off the jackstands. "Also, did the track width of the front tires change? I have heard of some swaps moving the front wheels outboard by 1" or so on each side." On the El Camino with the drums on, the mounting surfaces were 59 inches apart. After the swap, with the S-10 disc brakes, the mounting surfaces were 57 inches apart, so I narrowed the front end 2 full inches with this swap. "Did you do a wheel alignment on the Elco after the swap was finished? And did it come into spec OK?" The alignment went fine. I adjusted the toe myself just to get it to the alignment shop. But, as I mentioned, the camber was off as well. For the swap, I replaced the upper and lower ball joints, both inner and outer tie rod ends, new rotors, calipers, pads, hoses, inner and outer wheel bearings, and wheel seals. The upper and lower ball joints are from the S-10, as well as the outer tie rod ends. The inner tie rods are still El Camino, but I figured I'd change them since I was right there anyway. The stock Camino tie rod sleeve has the same threads for the S-10, so there was no need for any modifications. The S-10 bolt pattern is 5 on 4 3/4, but the studs are metric ( 12mm X 1.5 ). The steering knuckle is about 1 inch longer where the tie rod attaches, but it didn't cause any problems as far as rubbing or anything. As mentioned, the rotors are smaller than some other swaps, but they do allow for the use of stock 14 inch wheels. They also have slotted and drilled rotors for S-10's, as well as better parts availability than some older models of cars. For the El Camino I did ther swap on, it's a stock 283 c.i. with a powerglide. It's not going to be a 10-second quarter mile car, but rather my girlfriend's cruiser and daily driver. We all know there are plenty of disc brake conversions out there that are bigger and better for those looking for 27 inch rotors and titanium calipers and what have you. But for the guy who asked about swapping his 62 Buick Special to disc brakes, and getting rid of his 4-bolt pattern and getting a 5-bolt pattern, this is a good option for him. As for getting what part numbers I used, if you REALLY want to know, I'll run through my receipts and jot them all down for you. My swap was from an 89 S-10 pickup. Aside from the spindle swap, I also replaced the single reservoir master with a dual reservoir and a power booster, replaced all the brake lines and hoses. I did this swap for my fiance who was tired of manual drum brakes. She's an awesome chick who drives old steel with style. I hope this information was of some help to someone else. -Josh
