Projects My new land yacht - '62 Newport

I have not personally done much with the big Mopar stuff, (after '65 known as "c" body) so I won't swear this will work but...... Common practice in the Mopar muscle car world is to upgrade to disc brakes on earlier cars by swapping spindles from later Mopar products. I.E. say a '67 B body (Charger' Satalite, etc.) would use spindles and brake gear from a '73 and later "A" body (Valiant, Duster, etc). Last time I really checked into Mopar land (always had the hots for a '70 or '71 duster) the early spindles were becoming hard to find so some guys were using later "F" body stuff (all the cross tortion rearwheel drive stuff from '76 - '87). Now here is the part I won't swear to, I think that the disc brake spindles and all their gear from your long lost '73 Fury III would bolt up to your '62 maybe with some updates to ball joints and tie rod ends. I base this information on absolutely nothing but a hunch and experience first hand with some of the other conversions listed above. I am just dumb enough to have most every Mopar based magazine in my collection from the mid ninties until about 2006, (my daily driver is a '48 Plymouth coupe with a 360 small block) and I know that an article has been written along these lines. I will do my best to find it in the coming days and get the particulars. Oh, P.S. Itook the dogs for a walk last night and the '62 Newport I mentioned early on is still there. I want I want I want. Too many projects though............

 

YOu might also look at light duty vans and pickups for disc brake kuckles and spindles.

 

I did find a good thread over at the Chrysler 300 Club website. A fellow there uses '74-'78 spindles and brakes with minor mods. I don't like everything he did, but could certainly build on his work. There is a tie-rod issue, but that's an easy fix. This article shows bending the steering arm, probably to the detriment of ackerman angles, but that is only one way to make parts fit. It looks like he wanted to avoid changes to his OE parts just in case he wanted to revert back to original. http://www.chrysler300club.com/jhstuff/discbrake/mopar/disc.html

I looked up some parts after reading this and found that the C Body cars, for the most part, use the same upper and lower ball joints as the '57-'62 big cars. Several suppliers throw the big cars in with the C Body cars for a wide range of parts. I also looked up the rotors for a '76 Newport and found them to be 11.75", so this may be an easy road to the big discs. Some other donors from this class were using 11" brakes. I think either would work fine. Even the'73 Plymouth stuff I was wondering about looks probable, but I couldn't nail down the compatibility of the lower ball joint.

Can anyone tell me what rear axle I should find underneath? The farm is an hour away, so I can't just run outside and look. I am thinking an update on the rear drums might be in order, too.

Thanks!