Selecting The Right Brake Conversion Kit For Your Vehicle

If you consider converting the front drum brakes on your classic car or truck to disc brakes, there are some front disc brake conversion kits on the market that can make the job easier. Not all of these kits are complete, and some require you to source some additional parts from OEM stock available at most auto parts stores or dealers. 

Choosing Your Kit

When you begin to look for a front disc brake conversion kit for your car or truck, you may find that some of the kits use all new parts designed by the kit manufacturer, while others use stock or OEM parts and some additional custom hardware to adapt the parts to the vehicle. While one design is not necessarily better than the other, some owners like the idea of using stock parts on a classic car, so they may want to use a kit that only offers adapters and custom brackets.

The custom kits may be more high-tech in their design, and if you have a classic car with a modern engine and running gear, you may find that a full-on custom kit fits the theme or style of the build better than using stock parts. Ultimately, you will have to decide what you want for your car when you start looking at the kits and the options they offer. 

Brake System Improvements

Updating the brakes with a front disc brake conversion kit can significantly increase the amount of stopping power the brake system offers. The disc brake system is in the front, and as you begin to apply the brakes, the momentum pushes the front end down, and the tires gain a grip on the pavement.

Because the old master cylinder in the car is not designed to provide the needed pressure for disc brakes, you will more than likely need to replace the stock one with a newer, dual-chamber master cylinder. A valve in the system that balances the pressure and allows the disc and drum brakes to work together will also need to be installed on the car. 

Some kits will come with these parts, and others will require you to purchase them separately, but getting the system to work correctly is sometimes tricky, so it can be beneficial to have a brake tech set this up for you.

Buying Parts

It is vital to keep a list of the parts you used to put your conversion kit together for future part replacements. If you purchased a kit that uses many OEM parts, you might need to know that the discs came from one car model while the rotors and pads came from another. If you sell the car, this information will be even more critical to have on hand so the buyer can replace worn parts easily, even with the custom system in place on the vehicle.

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