4 Wheel Disk Brakes - 1954 Pontiac
Originally, I was going to go with 76 Camaro front disk brakes. While researching new spindles and balljoint front suspension, I came upon 73 Nova front drum spindles. The spindles would work for the suspension as they had the right balljoint to balljoint spacing (roughly 10") and rear-steer steering arm which was bolted on and not part of the casting of the spindle. Just for the hell of it, I purchased the drum hubs with the spindles.
73 Nova spindles
As I was driving home, something clicked! I remember seeing an early 80s Buick Riveria with front wheel drive that had 4 wheel disk brakes with removable rotors which were not part of the hub! The Riveria had the same bolt pattern as my 54. Hmmm, what if I put the Riveria rotors on the Nova's drum hub? The Riveria's rear rotors should fit on the rear end also.
I had a chance to go back to the wreckers about a week later, no Riveria, it was crushed and so was I until I realized that any early to mid 80s Buick Riveria, Olds Toronado and Cadillac front wheel drive all use the same brake system. There are tons of them out there! I found an 84 Toronado with excellent rotors and pulled everything off of it from the brake pedal to the master cylinder to proportioning valve to rear hubs.
This brake page was getting too large so I broke it up into smaller pages:
- Installing the Master cylinder and brake pedal
- Installing Front disk brakes
- Installing rear disk brakes
- Installing the brake lines
- Bleeding the brake lines
- Adapting the 54's hand parking brake to the rear disk brakes
- Adapting 76 Camaro disks to 54 Spindles