Thinking about winter projects that are not to expensive to work on this winter. I am thinking about boxing the rear upper and lower controls arms. A sway bar was added to the rear axel; but instead of boxing the lower arms, they just used a spacer.
Then adding the frame stiffners that came standard on the SS.
I am looking for information on adding bigger brakes on the rear. I think Chris P. did that. Car stops fine now, it has power disc brakes up front with a dual MC.
I need to replace one (1) upper control arm ball joint, bad boot. That has me thinking about putting taller lower ball joints to lower the front of the car. I just picked up a 1 1/4 front sway bar yesterday. So maybe do this all at one time. Does anyone have experience with putting in the taller joints, do you feel changes were helpful .
Thoughts and comments appreciated.
-- Edited by jim larson on Thursday 7th of November 2019 07:27:55 PM
-- Edited by jim larson on Thursday 7th of November 2019 07:29:15 PM
67ss said
Nov 8, 2019
To do the 11” rear drum swap you would need to find a wagon or full-size car from the late 80’s to get the backing plates. The drums a used where for a 1973 Chevelle wagon and then had to file the opening on the drum a bit to get them to fit over the axle. The problem you are going to run into is with the parking brake. The later cars the cables come into the backing plates one front and one from the rear which makes the pulling lever face the wrong direction for a Chevelle. I could not find anyone that makes those levers, I got lucky and found a used set out of a 1974 impala at a junk yard. You might be better off to buy the kit from master power brake and bolt it all on. I don’t think you are going to notice much difference if your car has front disc brakes already. I did it on mine because I kept mine a manual non power brake set up.
jim larson said
Nov 8, 2019
67ss wrote:
To do the 11” rear drum swap you would need to find a wagon or full-size car from the late 80’s to get the backing plates. The drums a used where for a 1973 Chevelle wagon and then had to file the opening on the drum a bit to get them to fit over the axle. The problem you are going to run into is with the parking brake. The later cars the cables come into the backing plates one front and one from the rear which makes the pulling lever face the wrong direction for a Chevelle. I could not find anyone that makes those levers, I got lucky and found a used set out of a 1974 impala at a junk yard. You might be better off to buy the kit from master power brake and bolt it all on. I don’t think you are going to notice much difference if your car has front disc brakes already. I did it on mine because I kept mine a manual non power brake set up.
Sounds good. One less thing to do. Thanks, Chris
Bobs_Place said
Nov 8, 2019
I used 65-70 Impala brakes, they work great, much better than the original. They are the same size shoe/drum that Chris P. has but the wheel cylinder is larger 1 vs 7/8 as I recall. There is also a brake factory installed proportion valve on my car, which was part of the disc brake package. Would still like better braking as a don't think I could lock them up if needed.
I've also been looking into taller ball joints but upper to help with improving caster/camber. An alternative is taller spindles, than maybe larger rotors, want to keep my wheels, they will fit the Corvette which is an 11-1/2 rotor vs 11 on the Chevelle, but the steering arm is on the wrong side. Could the spindles be swapped from side to side?
Bobs_Place said
Nov 8, 2019
Bobs_Place wrote:
I used 65-70 Impala brakes, they work great, much better than the original. They are the same size shoe/drum that Chris P. has but the wheel cylinder is larger 1 vs 7/8 as I recall. There is also a brake factory installed proportion valve on my car, which was part of the disc brake package. Would still like better braking as a don't think I could lock them up if needed.
I've also been looking into taller ball joints but upper to help with improving caster/camber. An alternative is taller spindles, than maybe larger rotors, want to keep my wheels, they will fit the Corvette which is an 11-1/2 rotor vs 11 on the Chevelle, but the steering arm is on the wrong side. Could the spindles be swapped from side to side?
Just checked, C3 Corvette spindle won,t work, way different.
Thinking about winter projects that are not to expensive to work on this winter. I am thinking about boxing the rear upper and lower controls arms. A sway bar was added to the rear axel; but instead of boxing the lower arms, they just used a spacer.
Then adding the frame stiffners that came standard on the SS.
I am looking for information on adding bigger brakes on the rear. I think Chris P. did that. Car stops fine now, it has power disc brakes up front with a dual MC.
I need to replace one (1) upper control arm ball joint, bad boot. That has me thinking about putting taller lower ball joints to lower the front of the car. I just picked up a 1 1/4 front sway bar yesterday. So maybe do this all at one time. Does anyone have experience with putting in the taller joints, do you feel changes were helpful .
Thoughts and comments appreciated.
-- Edited by jim larson on Thursday 7th of November 2019 07:27:55 PM
-- Edited by jim larson on Thursday 7th of November 2019 07:29:15 PM
To do the 11” rear drum swap you would need to find a wagon or full-size car from the late 80’s to get the backing plates. The drums a used where for a 1973 Chevelle wagon and then had to file the opening on the drum a bit to get them to fit over the axle. The problem you are going to run into is with the parking brake. The later cars the cables come into the backing plates one front and one from the rear which makes the pulling lever face the wrong direction for a Chevelle. I could not find anyone that makes those levers, I got lucky and found a used set out of a 1974 impala at a junk yard. You might be better off to buy the kit from master power brake and bolt it all on. I don’t think you are going to notice much difference if your car has front disc brakes already. I did it on mine because I kept mine a manual non power brake set up.
Sounds good. One less thing to do. Thanks, Chris
I used 65-70 Impala brakes, they work great, much better than the original. They are the same size shoe/drum that Chris P. has but the wheel cylinder is larger 1 vs 7/8 as I recall. There is also a brake factory installed proportion valve on my car, which was part of the disc brake package. Would still like better braking as a don't think I could lock them up if needed.
I've also been looking into taller ball joints but upper to help with improving caster/camber. An alternative is taller spindles, than maybe larger rotors, want to keep my wheels, they will fit the Corvette which is an 11-1/2 rotor vs 11 on the Chevelle
, but the steering arm is on the wrong side. 
Could the spindles be swapped from side to side? 
Just checked, C3 Corvette spindle won,t work, way different.