• Registration trouble? Please use the "Contact Us" link at the bottom right corner of the page and your issue will be resolved.

Front Disc Brake Tutorial

RockAuto can be wrong. The 1 1/8" rotors were only offered late 76-78 CJ5 and CJ7 with the "6 hole" caliper brackets. Both of the later style knuckle mounted caliper brackets "2 bolt" used the 7/8" rotors. Don't let the internet fool you, it isn't always correct. Just wanted to clarify it for someone using later stock Dana 30 Jeep knuckles to do a disc swap on an intermediate Dana 30.
 
Last edited:
Part update
O'Reilly part # 3550RGS Brake Best Select. It is 1 1/8 " wide. I have about 1/8" gap still. No pad removal required.
The parts guy didn't know what the difference was, they were both for the CJ5.
Thanks for all the help.
 
CincyCJ5 said:
Did you have to put in a proportioning valve, or was yours fine without one?
Click to expand...
I didn't...Seems fine. I wouldn't mind trying one to see if the front brakes bite a little harder than they do.
 
Focker said:
You hit it on the head...There's a lot of excellent disc swap information on this forum but it's somewhat scattered.
Click to expand...

Excellent writeup. There used to be a section here called "Tech Articles." It was a tab on the main page of the site, separate from the forums. Sort of like what a sticky would be called now. We had a nice writeup in there on disc brakes, but it was lost a few years ago. It was so similar to your pics, I almost thought someone had found it from an archive. Nice to bring this valuable info back (although nary a reference to "knuckle pudding" hahaha). Here's a link to the original Verne article:

Drum to Disc Brake Upgrade - Tech Articles - JP Magazine

Here's another popular article:
Disc Conversion
 
What the full story on the resisdual valve? I know it is only for the disc side of the master cylinder. Its a must have?
 
nickmil said:
It's very important on a frame mounted master cylinder to use a 10 psi unit on drum brakes and 2 psi unit in disc brakes with low mounted mc. Otherwise the fluid tends to drain back to the mc reservoir.
Click to expand...
 
What did you use for your tie rod and drag link? You had to change that if you have the one hole knuckle right?
 
While looking at the pictures posted of Focker's install, I noticed the wheel lug studs appeared to be short in length. The knurled section of the stud is short of the face of the hub and in the view where the wheel is mounted, the stud does not protrude completely thorough the lug nut. In my case where I have aluminum wheels this is a real issue and therefore used Dorman P/N 610-219.1. The knurl is longer and the overall length of the stud is longer.
 
Thanks for posting an another Dorman option...Any pix?
 
I found a couple of more items that concerned me. The banjo bolts and brake hoses Focker listed are the OEM parts to be used with the K10 calipers. When I installed the brake hose onto the caliper, I did not feel the bolt engaged the caliper very well. The bolt only threaded into the caliper about 1/4". I felt the brake hose would be more securely held in place with a longer bolt. I used NAPA banjo bolt P/N UP82701 which is approximately 1/8" longer. See comparison picture below. The OEM bolt did not have many threads engaged into the caliper as you can see in the picture.

View media item 2496
I needed a wider inner bearing race for the brake pads to fit correctly. In the original post, Nick recommender race P/N LM501311. This bearing race is 0.7160" wide as compared to the original bearing race of 0.580". It did move my hub assembly out and gave the clearance needed. It also created a new problem for me. With hub assemble moved this far out on the spindle, I could not thread my bearing locking nut fully onto the spindle.

View media item 2499
I researched and found bearing race P/N LM501314 which is 0.6537" wide. This gave me the clearance I needed for the brake pads and allowed full engagement of the locking nut.

View media item 2498
 
Last edited:
Thanks for posting your results for others who may encounter the things you did...It's great info!

I'm almost certain that most will experience some unique element with their conversions. The biggest motivation/inspiration/plagiarism for my conversion was from a 9 year old article in fourwheeler.com that ITLKSEZ posted. I worked out the bugs I encountered along the way with lots of help by those previously mentioned, then posted my results. I wanted to provide updated part numbers, specific tools required and self explanatory photos. While I didn't use exact part numbers they listed, I did however use mostly Chevy parts. I don't recall any concerns when assembling the Chevy K10 calipers along with the K10 hoses or K10 banjo bolts. My experience didn't require any machining to the hub or the use of different races...It was almost a bolt & go...Or maybe I should say stop! :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom