you guys know how this works, post up the questions & the tech

okay, heres a ? for someone... I have a d70u from an 85' 1 ton. The drum backing plate that bolts to the axle is the same as my old 78' D60 rear. The holes are 3 3/8 & 3 9/16's. Does anyone know if the spindle is the same length? I want to get a set of the Greatlakesoffroad d60 disc brackets and just want to be sure they will work with the 3/4 ton calipers. The reason I ask, my buddy has a 70HD that is the same width (65") and the splindles are 4" longer.

I picked up some D44 caliper bracket and did a bone yard disk swap on my 9". I heard the same caliper bracket will fit the D60 for a disk swap. I had to drilled the bearing center slightly and the stud hole to 1/2" I think. I can check fer ya later. I am not sure of the D60 stud size.

I could have used some advice on this last week. I completed a swap of my existing D60 rear disc setup to a D70-U rear axle. Here's my story:

Around last Christmas, I installed rear discs on my '78 rear Ford D60, using ebay brackets, Chevy truck rotors, calipers, pads, etc, with brake hoses from the front of a '76 Dodge 1/2 ton 4x4. I recently picked up a Dana 70-U model out of an '85 F-350. The backing plates are the same distance apart. The spring perches are the same, yada, yada. After taking out the 3.54’s and putting 4.10’s in it, I figured I was home free. I was thinking, "OK, the disc brake swap will be a bolt on." Wrong.

The 70 uses 9/16" wheel studs, the 60 uses 1/2" studs...this does not cause any problems.

The hubs on the 70 are quite a bit larger than the ones on the 60. The Chevy rotors would not seat themselves on the rear of the 70 hubs. With much grinding from a cheap $6 electric grinder, I had one of them ground down enough so the rotor would mount flush on the rear. The $6 grinder had served me well over the past year, but the bearing was going bad. I picked up a Milwaukee grinder for $105, and let me say it’s like comparing Schwartzanegger to David Spade……anyway.

When I went to bolt everything on, I found that due to the hub being larger on the 70, there was no way to get the inner brake pad between the caliper and the bracket….as is required for the system to function. I took some measurements and found that if I cut a large chunk out of my disc bracket, I could mount it BEHIND the backing plate/axle flange (whatever the proper term is) on the axle, instead of on the outside, like it was with the 60. The bracket is now retained with 3 grade-8 bolts instead of 4, but I don’t think it’s going anywhere. After this was complete, the rotor was too far away from the caliper to function properly. After much swearing, I remembered that I kept the well worn front D60 rotors, after I replaced them last winter. I grabbed on of them, and found the “hat” on the 60 rotor is deeper than the Chevy ¾ ton rotor. Knowing that this was my last change to get it to work without starting all over, I drove out the studs, installed the front D60 rotor on the rear 70 spindle, put everything together, and discovered that everything works as planned. Wahoo!!

The key ingredients to making an existing rear 60 disc setup work on a 70 U can be summed up quickly:

1. Grind the ‘8 lumps’ and the base of the rear 70 hub.
2. Buy ’79 F-350 rotors (many other years probably work, but I know these do).
3. Cut away part of the 60 disc bracket to allow it to mount BEHIND the axle flange, rather than in front of it.
4. Use the Chevy calipers, pads, bolts, etc.

Brag to others, “My rear end is beefier than yours, and it is also smoother than yours…..and it has discs.” :grinpimp:

Buford

So no issues with running the chevy brakes on the ford 60 front rotors?

So no issues with running the chevy brakes on the ford 60 front rotors?

No problems. I didn't take any precise measurements, but they both appear to be 12" rotors. If I remember correctly, the Chevy rotors are thicker than the Ford 60 rotors (even when the Ford rotors were new) something like 1.5" thick for the GM stuff, and 1.25" for the Ford rotors.

Buford

Sam,
My setup on my 70U is pretty much the same as Bufords. Give me a shout and/or come out to Elizabeth and check out the install. 720-308-7642
Later,
Steve

PM'd you Steve

Alright here are a couple questions. What are the best years for ford 60 and 70's. I know some of the axles had coarser splines. is that true with fords?

Second are all the widths the same through the years...
Jake

I put discs on my rear FF D60 axle that came out of a '78 F-350. Bought the kit on ebay from seller : mejeep8
Kit came with rotors and calipers from a 1973-1975 chevy 3/4 ton 4x4 truck. Very cheap and easy install. Included everything. The only hard part was getting the old drums off.

Ok, so what Master cylinder and booster did you guys use? I am building a 68 Ford 3/4 4x4 and have put the chevy discs all the way around, but need to update the master cylinder and booster to handle the larger capacity. Any Ideas?

I am currently working on putting disc brakes on a 70 rear.....

I'm using 14 bolt rotors, these accept the 9/16 wheel studs. A lathe (or grinder) is needed to trim the inside of the rotor to fit the back of the 70 hubs. Using similar caliper brakets and 1/2 ton chev calipers, I will be shimming the bracket out with 4 - 1" (or so) dom tubing to get 4 bolts in each flange to hold the bracket on. No master swap and not much change in caliper location or brackets.

Sorry to say this will be going under a Jeep.....and no I don't own it.... :flipoff2: !

You really have to watch out when using ford rear ends...you may end up with a 61 instead of a 60....shaft, spindle, and drums can be different from year and models. Usually hard to tell which one you have until it's too late.

what year master & booster would work best on my '79 with rear disc

When buying ford rear ends, always look up the BOM on the tag, or axle tube, and pull a shaft to verify what it is.

I've read and been told that dual diaphram boosters from F350's work the best. As far as master cylinders are concerned, I would guess that if they bolted up, something from a fullsized 75-79 ford car with rear disc brakes would yield the MC you need. Lincolns of the same era used hydroboost, so I dont know if that will be of any help. I have also heard that people have gotten away with using stock MC's, and just installed a 2# residual check valve....

Of course, all of this info can be learned from other posts on the board with a few hours of the search button....

truckn I saw where you were using a '68 dana 60 rear. I have that same rear laying around and I've torn it down and have started cleaning on it. I know it has 16 spline shafts and my question is are the shafts the same length of other dana 60s? I'm wanting to swap out shafts when I put a locker in if they are the same. And what brackets did you use for your rear disk conversion.

http://www.off-road.com/toyota/tech/dana70discbrakes/ our brackets in a magazine install article. Thanks Shawn

http://www.off-road.com/toyota/tech/dana70discbrakes/ our brackets in a magazine install article. Thanks Shawn

You're welcome ;)

Was this you who wrote this up?
You're welcome ;)

I'll beit dumb question. Yes thankyou very much we put a link to this off of our website. I appreciate the props, Shawn
Was this you who wrote this up?

Has or does anybody know what is involved in installing disc brakes on an 85' Chevy D70 DRW? All the kits an info I see are only about SRW. I am running H1 rims and have heard that if done would need bigger rim size? :confused:

Has or does anybody know what is involved in installing disc brakes on an 85' Chevy D70 DRW? All the kits an info I see are only about SRW. I am running H1 rims and have heard that if done would need bigger rim size? :confused:

Read ;)

http://www.off-road.com/toyota/tech/dana70discbrakes/

This is a DRW D70

http://www.off-road.com/toyota/tech/dana70discbrakes/images/image010.jpg

Is anyone with solid mounted rear discs having any problems? I thought calipers had to "float" on the rotor or things would wear funky.

Is anyone with solid mounted rear discs having any problems? I thought calipers had to "float" on the rotor or things would wear funky.

Only if single piston... if they're single piston and cant float; bad shit will happen.

this link is to my 70 rear with regular 3/4ton front discs, calipers and caliper mounts (i'm using a line lock for a parking brake)
i found that a 44 front caliper mounting bracket i had, has a 3" I.D. hole, and the spindle on my 70 had a 3" O.D..............so i just cleaned the rust off and it was a loose fit, so i just welded it up.
fyi, i'm running un modified 8-bolt hummer wheels without any spacers

http://www.geocities.com/lorimaryrose/dana70rear.html

I am also curious as to what booster and master cylinder you guys are running. I sell tons of hydroboost to the D60+ guys. I am sure lots of you are running the hydroboost but those that aren't, what did you use and more importantly, how does it work?