2 Questions About Disc Conversion

[451 valiant]

I'm switching the Valiant (68) to disc brakes on the front and am rebuilding the front end and have upper control arms from a 73 disc brake car.  I'm wondering if I need to get the offset upper control arm bushings or do I need to try to align it with regular ones? 

Second question (may be dumb) - In the tech section it says the regular 68 (drum) lower control arms will work and use 73-76 lower ball joints.  Is it just the ball joint socket that's bigger and not the stud?  If the studs bigger its not going to fit in the control arm. Could someone clear this up???

[Jim_Lusk]

The bigger ball joint is the upper. The bolt holes to the spindle are different in the lower ball joint, but the stud is the same size. You shouldn't need the offset bushings for a normal alignment.

[A13Dart]

Buy upper and lower ball joints for a 73-76 disc brake A-body and use your 68 lower control arms

[DartKnight]

The only real reason to use the later LCAs is if you want the sway bar tabs, but everyone says they interfere with the calipers, anyway.

[451 valiant]

Thanks guys, I guess I was making it too complicated for myself. 

[Jim_Lusk]

Dartknight, you have a couple of things confused in your statement. The late model LCAs with sway bar tabs require the use of the late model k-member and late model sway bar. The early sway bar and early LCAs with tabs can be used with front mounted calipers IF you shorten the sway bar end links. The LCA tab also needs clearance for the forward lower ball joint bolt.

[DartKnight]

Thanks for the info, Jim; I did forget about the k-member. What about aftermarket sway bars? Now that I think of it, did you post a pic a while back where you had trimmed down the end links?

[Jim_Lusk]

Yes, we run shorter end links for clearance and yes I have posted pics, but I don't remember when the last time was.