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I am looking into converting my 4 wheel drums in to 4 wheel disks. The big questions are as follows:
what front brake lines to use? I think that scouts use the large banjo bolt, simular to vetts. anyone have a part number ... flem?
what rear diks to run? I have the El Dorado caliper, but I am not sure of the off set or thickness.
Anything else I am missing?
when you find all your part #s, or what you need the parts off of, let me know and i'll round up everything for you the next time i go to work.
I would use the weld on caliper hangers in the rear, I can get you the number off of my stainless front lines, then you can order them from any hot rod shop I guess. For the rear rotors, I would say chevy 4wd rotors redrilled. I am not sure, but there is a guy on ebay selling a kit. I think he is using different calipers than I was trying to use. I had rear calipers off of a 83 eldorado, but they may have been different than what others are using. His seem bigger then the ones I had. You will also need a small flexible line for the rear to service the brakes. A hard line will also work, but you will have to be careful when moving the caliper around. A new master cylinder will probably be in order as well, I think any gm with rear discs will work. Also an adjustable proportioning vavle for the rear may be in order. some other ideas, suzuki rotors are 5x5.5 already, but they are a one piece rotor, no vanes, and are really thin.
are the rear drums THAT bad??? Is there a significant stopping issue?
seth once you go to a bigger tire, you need to upgrade the rear brakes. i had 10" drums, I could have gone 11" but I chose to do a rear disc brake swap instead. I could feel the back end not stopping during braking with 36"s. I'd say above a 35" tire you need something better than 11" drums to be safe.
Your new axles are 4 wheel drums too?
mine? no, i havent done the 4 wheel drum thing for years. Wouldn't matter if it was drum, i replaced it all with ford and chevy shiat. I was going to do discs in the rear on this axle, but I'm getting sick of it not running. My next purchase is the adapter, and I'm slapping in some garage floor 3.55's and running the damn thing.
damn...sounds like flem might actually be getting motivated...
to keep this sorta on topic...10.5" rear drums, 37"s...
I want to do it b/c drums are a PITA, mine are always ****ing up. You get some mud in them they quit working, an adjuster gets old and rusted they quit working, they get hot, they quit working, see the pattern? With discs, you take off the lug nuts, then two other bolts and voila, the brakes are apart. They cool better, work better, and are much more simple.
i guess upon further thought it is a pretty good idea....esp about them messign up in the back and discs being simpler....seems as if it can be a pain to ge together...but then it also sometimes sounds like you can 8 diff nameplates in one brake assembly.....wonder how much there is to cheaply upgrade stock...
The only PITA with a disk conversion is the parking brake. El Dorado calipers have a parking brake provision, but from what people have told me, it pretty much sucks.
Most modern rear disk setups have a smaller integrated drum for the parking brake that works well. Other setups use a drum brake on the rear output of the t-case. See a pattern here? While disks are better for stopping, drums seem to be better for holding when they are working correctly. Simplicity aside, I am not sold on the rear disk thing without a real parking brake solution.
-Mark
'85 CJ-7 "Norm" (Sparky is my parking brake)
I use "park" myself...;)
if you use a proportioning valve cant you just crank it all the way up and pump the pedal a couple of times and have it work like a parking brake?
My fault for not being specific. I was talking about Brandon's new IH axles.Quote:
Originally posted by robertf03
mine? no, i havent done the 4 wheel drum thing for years. Wouldn't matter if it was drum, i replaced it all with ford and chevy shiat. I was going to do discs in the rear on this axle, but I'm getting sick of it not running. My next purchase is the adapter, and I'm slapping in some garage floor 3.55's and running the damn thing.
no, the new axles are disk but they are still in KS. Big dick is going to bring them down if I can get around to making all the arangements.
I am just converting my 4 wheel drum set up to 4 wheel disk, that way I figure out of the quirks before I swap in the other axles. The likly senerio is the I will only get the fronts done before the next IH run. When I come back, then I'll do the rear swap.
Before I go to Gilmer I still have to a) install my front disks and knuckles b) new master cylender an P valve c) replace my vally pan since it hemorages oil and d) weld a re-enforcement under the rear body mounts.
sould be a fun week.
I would think this would be akin to crawling under your truck with only a jack holding it up. How far do you want to trust the hydraulics? Although, it is better than nothing, which is what I have...Quote:
Originally posted by BigRedFord04
if you use a proportioning valve cant you just crank it all the way up and pump the pedal a couple of times and have it work like a parking brake?