I have the 4 piston Kelsey Hayes disk brakes on a small bolt pattern 1970 Duster.. This last weekend at the track, the brakes were marginal at best when trying to stop the 3100 lb car at close to 130 mph..

I guess I have a few questions... with the first being are the Kelsey Hayes really that bad to where I had to put some serious muscle behind getting the car slowed down..

And the second question is.. Is there an affordable place to get an upgraded brake setup?

I've done some pricing around and I believe to upgrade to the larger ball joint, tubular uppers, new spindle, rotors, bearings, disks and of course new wheels.. I'm looking at spending well over $2000.. and I'm not so sure I want to dish out that kinda coin with Christmas being next week..

So.. is there an alternative? I'm open to all suggestions..

Going throught the same thing right now. The most unfortunate part is that to get good front brakes you have to ditch the factory disc spindles and go to a drum spindle in order to support a wilwood or strange type update. I think aerospace would create a setup for you if you send them your disc spindles but I didn't want to go through all of that. Since my car is primarily street driven i didn't want a set of brakes that I have to pump multiple times either.

Strange told me to absolutely not run their drag setup on the street so wilwood was imho the only choice. The problem there is that I have been waiting for the 140-11022 kit to come off backorder for over a month now.

I am also planning on buying Bob's tubular uppers and either his or O'Reilly strut rods. Find yourself a set of 70-71 9" drum spindles first.

That system, in proper working order, with a good set of semi-metalic of full metalic pads, should be sufficient to stop you car. I'd go through what ya got first. Could save yourself a lot of $$.

i did some road racing in a 70 duster many decades ago, and LOVED the kelsey hayes 4 piston brakes. i never had a problem. i would go through and check everything (make sure you have the correct m/c, also). you could try the small bore m/c- that's what i have on my scamp which has the single piston calipers, and it works great. lots of leverage.

I sent 1 spindle to don gould who sent to aerospace, awesome brakes, I beleive the bill was under a grand. Very good stopping power Don

I should also say, never had to change master cylinder or anything, complete bolt on and go. Can,t remember if the 2 brake lines were included or had to buy seperate.

Wilwood does make a kit for the 4piston KH A body spindle. I have it on my car. No need to change the spindle at all.

Call them. there is a part number. They don't sell many of them.

I did it to save the weight of the cast iron calipers and go with alum wilwoods.

They don't sell it period anymore. I called them after I brought this up a year ago. I had you give me the part number and everything and they said no go.. Believe me I tried very hard.. LOL

That's when I contacted Aerospace adn they said if I sent them a spindle they could make a kit. I just decided I'd lose even more weight and go with the 9" drum spindle and be done with it. Like I said I drive mine on the street and didn't want to deal with the double pumping of brakes that you supposedly get with the aero's.

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Wilwood does make a kit for the 4piston KH A body spindle. I have it on my car. No need to change the spindle at all.

Call them. there is a part number. They don't sell many of them.

I did it to save the weight of the cast iron calipers and go with alum wilwoods.

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The pads also tend to hang up, as after years of use the tangs on the pad tend to wear a notch in the caliper where they slide. If they are not too deep you can file that area to bring the sliding surface level. If your pads wear on one side look for the notch.....

Thanks for your suggestions everyone.. I will first look into seeing if the calipers are frozen or hanging up.. before I contemplate upgrading the brakes..