A100 brakes

So, the A100 is just about ready to hit the road. It's going to be my tow car for local events (show 'em how it was done on the 'ol days! )BUt I do have a concern---brakes. What would you guys recommend for a brake upgrade to one oof these things? I'll be using an aluminum open trailer so it & the car aren't too heavy but do you guys know of any brake upgrade or who mightknow of such things?

Are you running trailer brakes?

Yes. On all 4 wheels. The truk currently has its stock drum brakes

There is a front disc conversion out there.

You need to figure out which spindles you have to order the disc conversion.
There appears to be two sizes; light and heavy duty.
The GVWR on the door tag should give you a good idea, but it would be smart to actually measure the bolt spacing on the back of the spindle. I don't have the numbers handy, but you should be able to do a search.


I haven't done the conversion, but read a number of threads on them and drove kick_the-reverb's van that had it done. I had to almost stand up on the pedal, it was that hard! However, he felt that while the effort was higher, it was liveable. There really isn't much room where the master is located for a booster, so you have a few choices...

Do the swap and live with high pedal effort.

Research remote vacuum boosters and hydraulic boosters.

Get deep and research pedal travel, ratios, and hydraulic sizing and come up with a good system yourself.



Make sure your steering and suspension are dialed in too.

Here are some results from the first page of a Google search for "Dodge A100 brake conversion"

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Number=6019731


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dodge-A100-64-65-66-67-68-69-70-2200-front-disc-brake-/370852082276

https://scarebird.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=127

http://www.orchidlakecandles.com/manual.pdf


http://www.sweptline.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=24461

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/tag/a100-hell-project/

So the answer is that there isn't a quick, cheap, standardized perfect answer for you, just like most things dealing with old Mopars!

or you could just get some bigger truck brakes with backing plates and such-----in the 60's chysler used those brakes on taxis and police cars---it was effective enough to slow chyslers entry into the disc brake market------drum brakes work....

True,properly adjusted self-energizing drum brakes are easier on driver input than manual disc brakes for sure.My '67 A100 has a 5000# GVW and 11" drums.

Might be true, but I never felt bad about replacing the completely rebuilt 11" drum brakes on my 70 Road Runner with a set of discs, many years ago. The drum brakes worked as long as you didn't stress them, if you put them under stressful conditions, they would give you a pretty uneasy feeling. It might be OK if you don't drive the A100 as hard as I drove the Road Runner, or any of my work trucks.

These days there are several aftermarket disc brake kits that equal the cost of rebuilding the inferior drum brakes, why would you take the chance? Things have changed a lot in the years since this thread was first posted. Gene

today the acid test on brakes is 6 panic stops in a row------if thats the world you live in i can see the concern-----and in the old days when you did a brake job when the drums were turned the new shoes got the exact arc ground into them----that is something that isnt done anymore....