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junkyard 9 " disc brake conversion

79K views 55 replies 26 participants last post by  hasteranger 
#1 ·
anyone got any good tips or a parts list for a junkyard disc brake swap for a ford 9 inch from a 78 bronco? trying to spend as little money as possible. looking to use a caliper that has the ebrake built into it.
 
#3 ·
I used Suzuki Sidekick rotors, Subaru front calipers and made my own brackets.

The 93 Subaru Loyale front calipers have a mechanical lever for e-brake and the Suzuki rotors have the same bolt pattern as the Ford axle and fit the Subaru calipers. When everything is all together, the bracket is just a flat piece of plate and no shimming or welding is required.

A few pics:












Super easy to make. The brackets are only held on by the flange bolts in the pics but they will be welded to the axlehousing for maximum strength. As for the e-brake setup, take a look at a Toyota truck setup and that is what I'm going to fab up to work with the calipers.


Sean :cool:
 
#13 · (Edited)
I used Suzuki Sidekick rotors, Subaru front calipers and made my own brackets.

The 93 Subaru Loyale front calipers have a mechanical lever for e-brake and the Suzuki rotors have the same bolt pattern as the Ford axle and fit the Subaru calipers. When everything is all together, the bracket is just a flat piece of plate and no shimming or welding is required.
Hi Sean,

I did the same conversion in a CJ7 and I am courious to know the following:

What kind of master cylinder are you using (Could you please specify) ?
What did you do with the proportioning or combination valve??

Mario
 
#5 ·
bigerikt said:
did you use 1/4 or 3/8 thick steel for your brackets?
I originaly wanted to make them from 3/8 but I had some 1/4" lying around so I made them from that. Because the bracket is not offset or shimmed in any way, I think it will be plenty strong. Keep in mind that this axle is going under a LWB Samurai on 35" Boggers. If It was going under a FSB with 40"+ tires I might have found some 3/8" steel plate to make them from instead.


Sean :cool:
 
#6 ·
I know you can swap the rear brakes off of a 90's crown vic on to a small bearing 9" rearend (I did it on my 67 mercury cougar), but not sure if it works on the big bearing rearend. Everything is a direct bolt on replatment except for parking brake cables. I did it for under 100 bucks.

I have heard about exporer rear disks off of 8.8's working too.
 
#7 ·
if i'm not mistaken, the explorer disk brakes are 5 on 4.5, not 5 on 5.5 that 9's are. so that conversion would require different rotors or redrilling the 8.8 rotors? please correct me if i'm wrong.

and the lincoln versailles had disks and a 9" but it was a small bearing i think.
 
#10 ·
check my thread. next few days my super duper cheap 9 inch conversion is going to be installed.

search under the newbie jeep forum for a disc brake conversion i did on a dana 35.... besides the tech in there, im using all the same hardware, and the funnay at the end of the thread
 
#11 ·
352Ford said:
I know you can swap the rear brakes off of a 90's crown vic on to a small bearing 9" rearend (I did it on my 67 mercury cougar), but not sure if it works on the big bearing rearend. Everything is a direct bolt on replatment except for parking brake cables. I did it for under 100 bucks.
I'll try that. My 9" came off a 68 Cougar and is 5 on 4.5. Is the Crown Vic 5 on 4.5 or 5 on 5.5?
 
#14 ·






Off an old lincoln mark VII if (78ish) i remember correctly. The middle picture is the lincoln caliper and rotor and the right is a 81 caliper and 92 4wd rotor (front brakes from f-150s) the calipers are direct replacements for each other (the lincolns have ebrake where the trucks ones donot which could be bad), the truck rotors are slight larger in diameter (like a 1/4 i think) but the caliper brackets are a 2 piece (very strong though) setup and as such you unbolt the two halves and then use a couple 1/8 washers (grade 8 or whatever and some new bolts) to space it out, the flange that the calipe slides overr may need to be taken down with a grinder (get a budddy to sping the opposites axle, be sure the rear end is kept together, then rest a grinder on the flange and go till the caliper slides over nicely.) then bolt everything together and you're good to go other than putting in the mc you got from the car you took the brakes from.

I snagged mine for a 100 bucks, and other than rebuilding the calipers new rotors and pads and playing with the brake lines this is a fairly cheap way to do it.
 
#19 ·
Wait so lincoln calipers, ford truck front rotors, truck caliper brackets?
Almost, lincoln caliper brackets, trucks rotors and calipers (if i want too, but this is a street trucks they're going on so i want to keep the ebrake, so rebuilt lincoln calipers but you can go the other way if you want to).

Haven't got to far with this, still just a pile of parts, but if i remember right i think i can use the truck pads which is what i want to do cause they're cheap, i also will be using an inline wilwood porp. valve cause my truck is lighter in the rear than the lincoln and the lincoln p-vavle is probably setup for that so i'll need to turn down the pressure. i';; look at the parts this weekend when i go back to the farm for the weekend.
 
#20 ·
i checked tonight... the factory 78-79 F150 front dana 44 rotors fit really nice on my Moser 35 splines. ill have to make the shims, but i was surprised they cleared without grinding...
 
#29 ·
How is the conversion working out?


I am considering rear discs on my Early Bronco.
This looks like an inexpensive way to get discs with e-brakes.

And do you want to make me some adapter plates or do you have a template?

Never in a million years would I have considered using a Subie caliper.
 
#30 ·
Not sure, it hasn't actually been put to use yet. Other projects keep getting in the way. Theoretically, it has more than enough power to lock the wheel but if you have deep gearing and like to drag the brake for traction then it might not be powerful enough. I'm not competing so it's not a concern of mine. The emergency brake part is all manual so eat your spinach. :D

Very inexpensive. The only custom part is the adapter plate.

I live in Canada. It would cost more in shipping than the steel to make it.:shaking: Use a piece of cardboard to make your template (I used corplast, a plastic cardboard) and get someone with a plasma cutter or even a oxy/acet cutting torch to cut them out.




Sean :cool:
 
#31 ·
Hi Sean, I was wondering if you could take a pic of just the rotor, pad saddle and brake pads installed. Cause I think you might have a problem there. The diameter of the rotor is to small and the brake pads will be hanging over the edge of the rotor damn near 1/4inch.
 
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