The drag racers like this swap, because the small rotors are light, and reduce rotating mass.
This is not sufficient to safely stop your heavy Chevelle in traffic. This swap is not recommended for heavy street-use, because the rotors are only 10” diameter. They are basically a direct swap, except for the lower ball-joint, which requires machining to fit the Chevelle lower A-arms. S-10 and G-body Spindles: The brakes from 2-wheel-drive S-10s and S-15s and the G-bodies (Monte Carlo, Malibu, Regal, etc.) of the 80s are somewhat popular for converting drum brake Chevelles to discs. Access to a machine-shop is helpful, but there have been many “do-it-yourself’ers” who have made their own brackets using 5/16” thick flat steel. There is some minor machining to be done on the upper bolt boss, custom caliper brackets need to be fabricated, and the Corvette rotors slip on over the drum brake hubs. The drum spindles are also very popular for modifying to fit 12” C4 and 13” C5 Corvette brakes. With a little machining, you can bolt the stock disc caliper brackets on them, and “convert” them to disc spindles for about $80 if you can do the machine-work yourself.
Stock Drum Spindles: These are good for more than just scrap iron, so don’t throw them out just yet. The 11” discs are sufficient for stopping your Chevelle for ordinary type driving, but they will get hot and fade quickly if you do any road-course racing. For this reason, it is recommended to use the ‘69 and later single-piston calipers. These are very expensive to rebuild, and are worth much more to someone looking for “correct” 67-68 discs than to anyone just looking to stop well. 1967 was the first year for the factory disc brakes, and along with the ‘68s, they used the very rare four-piston calipers. They were also used on GM’s 67-69 F-body ( Camaro, Firebird) and ‘68-74 X-body ( Nova, Omega, Ventura, Apollo). You can find them on 67-72 GM A-bodies ( Chevelle, Monte Carlo, El Camino, Skylark, GS, LeMans, GTO, Cutlass, 442). There are several cars you can look for when searching for these spindles, and they are a direct swap onto any ’64-72 Chevelle. Stock Disc Spindles: GM was good at making things interchangeable, and the front spindles were no exception. The most important part of this is choosing your spindles. Hopefully this information will help you decide which setup is right for your car. Each option has advantages and disadvantages. Many of them have been converted, either using original parts, kits, or some of the other popular swaps. Most of our Chevelles would have came from the factory with drum brakes, with the exception of some ‘67-72s that had optional discs and all ‘69-72 SS cars, which came standard with discs. Much consideration must be given to your budget, your intentions for how you’ll use the car, and of course your safety when dealing with your brakes. The options are nearly endless for adapting disc brakes to the front of your Chevelle or El Camino. What's Stopping You? -Disc Brake Tech -by Derek Kiefer
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