Yes, Joe, the job is fairly easy, if dirty! The upper and lower ball joints need to be unbolted, and the tie rod ends. To start, just remove the old calipers from the spindle, and hang them to the side on a piece of wire. (I use a coat hanger.) You don't even need to remove the rotor from the spindle-it is all leaving!
  After getting the new late-model spindle (also called "upright") in place, bring the new caliper up, and hang it near the old one. Remove the small steel piece of brakeline  from the rubber brakeline at that connection, and quickly reconnect to the new caliper. This is to limit the amount of fluid lost, and the amount of air trapped. Less is better! After the brakeline is reconnected, re-hang the caliper. Don't forget to bleed! The brakes, that is...:-)

  Depending on how hard the tapered swedge fits on the ball joints are to pop apart, this job can take from 2 hours to all day...

  New wheel bearings, ball joints, and maybe even outer tie rod ends would be good to replace now, while it is all apart, and you need an alignment after all this, anyway...

joe trussell <vanagongl@HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
  Hi,

I have a late-year '85 with cast control arms. Can I swap out the old small
calipers/discs for the '86 and up larger ones?

I'm just trying to verify something I seem to remember reading, but can't
find in the archives.

Thanks,
Joe T.

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