Dana 70 Parking Brake

[Kreep]

I'm swapping the rear D70 from a 1979 Dually F-350 under my Jeep. I'm keeping the rear drums for now since I prefer the way drum parking brakes hold on steep hills.

My problem is this axle isn't set up for parking brakes.

Can I fit the backing plate from an F-250?

Drill out the pivot for the shoes and install the brackets?

Anybody been down this road before?

Help!

[Ultim8kaos]

I put a D70 in my wheelin rig and put disc brakes on it. I used all of the D-70 drum brakes and installed them to a D60 from a '79 F-250. Don't see why you couldn't do the opposite.

IIRC,the only differences were the backing plates and shoes and drums (the D70 backing plates were deeper to allow for the wider shoes).

I think you will be able to swap everything over from the F-250 and have useable brakes. You shouldn't have to drill anything if you have a complete (backing plates out) donor.

EDIT: Caveat; My 70 was from a SRW F-350 and I am not familiar with the dually brakes. Hopefully it will work for ya!

[jaluhn]

The brakes off a 250 dana 70 should fit. As far as I know, they're both the same.
~John

[Proeliator]

I'm in the same situation with my D70. But I think I'll be ahead of the game buying the 1-ton cv joint and x-case parking brake from Jess.

[Kreep]

Thanks for the help!

I found an F-250 D70, but one backing plate is bent. It looks like I can swap the hardware onto my Dually backing plate if I drill the pivot for the shoes. The F-350 version has a pin riveted to the plate while the F-250 version has a fancy bolt in the same location so you can remove the parking brake hardware. Otherwise, the shoes, springs and adjusters seem nearly identical.

Kreep Out!

[Kreep]

Progress report in case someone else wants to do this.

Drilled the rivet head and punched the pivot pin through the F-350 backing plates.

The splined pivot bolt from the F-250 drives in perfect, all the hardware swaps fine. I bought parking brake kit and cables for an 84 F-250 from NAPA. The D70 was offered in the rear of F-250's during 83-85. The small parts kit, brake cylinder and shoes are the same as for a '79 F-350 so it doesn't matter what you ask for.

On my D70, the backing plate already had holes for the parking brake cable, one on each side so it can be used on right or left side.

The SWB F-250 cables were too long for my CJ-7 (big shock, eh?) so I swapped the parking brake mechanism and ran the cables out the back of the drum using the "wrong" hole. It just clears the self adjuster inside the drum when tight and cable routing is nice and clean if unusual. It drove my buddy nuts "I've never seen cables come out the rear of the drum!" but appears to work fine.