73 CJ5 drum-to-disc swap issues

just for giggles the rear drums are adjusted ....right?

 

Well went to the parts store and got new organic brake pads, the jeep brakes a lot better than yesterday, a little better than when it had drum up front, but no way near as good as my TJ. I think eventually I will go with power brakes but its ok for now.

Strange that the organic pads provided by the seller did not worked with the setup, they are part number d52-728 and with the little I found online I think these are indeed organic. The new organic pads I bought are part number LD52.

Thanks for all your help guys!

 

Your TJ is power brakes so comparing what you have to that is apples to oranges. I wasn't saying an upgrade to power is not a good one, it can be, but a manual brake Jeep will never brake as easy as a good working power brake set up. It can however work quite well.

Not surprising the experience you had with the parts you got .

I've found purchasing conversion parts like this from people who actually install them and use them themselves is a better option for working out these types of issues vs buying from people who do not understand how the systems really work and only re-sell the parts

Glad you've got them working!


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Maybe you don't understand what you are getting with manual disk brakes?

The advantage of disks is they resist fade, and are self-wiping - thus remaining functional when wet. They don't necessarily require less pedal pressure than drum brakes - in fact, they should require more, since drum brakes self-activate from the drum rotation. The disk calipers should have a mechanical advantage due to the larger piston size, but the surface area of drum brake shoes is larger than disk pads. Thus it's hard to make a generalization about all disk brakes vs. all drum brakes. Power brakes do not change the capability of the brakes; they just require less muscle for the same amount of braking force.

I'm glad you improved braking with the organic pads. Nick knows these brake conversion issues inside and out.

 

Brakes are working well but I have been thinking about power brakes. Has anyone done a power break conversion? Anyone has a write up? Between a late CJ and an early YJ brake booster, which one is easier to swap to a 73 CJ?

Thanks!

 

Hum i did it , took everything, power booster, master cylinder and prop valve from a early YJ and it work well even with a rear disq break application. You will need to drill four hole on the firewall and modify a little bit the rod end from the yj boosted to mate with the pedal but pretty easy i did it without difficulties.

 

Sounds good! What modifications did you have to do to the rod?

Thanks!

 

Hum i cannot remind exactly, i think drill it to make the hole bigger and i grind one side so the Oem brake switch could work properly

 

I used a Waggoner booster, master cylinder and firewall adapter.

I had to drill two holes in the firewall and make a different pushrods.

 

One more question. How did you connected the front brake lines to the proportioning valve? The YJ proportioning valve has two different connections to the front brakes (one for each side) but my 73 CJ5 has just one line for the front that then splits in two. Did you routed new independent lines to each side front brakes?

Thanks!

 

Routed new line for both side so i don't have any connection on the line.

 

Great! Thanks for answering all my questions! Hopefully I will tackle this project soon.

 

If you have other questions dont be afraid to ask, we all learn somewhere, and asking question sometime may get you away from trouble that other goes trought...

Also don't know what's youre plan on that but if you ever think about doing a hydrolic clutch set-up, the yj booster leave you enought space to put the master cylinder on the wall but cannot tell with the wagonneer one.

you can see the master cylinder of the hydrolic clutch set-up at the right of the brake booster on this picture i took from my jeep