I have a 1973 E-100 Custom Supervan with the very light duty drum brakes and would like to convert to disc brakes in the front. Are there any specific car/truck models that came with disc brakes that would replace the drum units on this year van?

I have seen 3rd party disc brake manufactures offering brakes for Fairlane, Falcon, Ranchero, Mustang, but they do not provide a cross reference to other Ford models?

If you have managed such a conversion, I would like to know some of the gotchas.

 

Try doing a search in this forum for *Disc Brake Conversion*

 

I have checked both the forums and the Tech Articles and most have to do with truck drum to disc conversions. Not useless by any means. In fact, there were some helpful comments on conversion "kits" that were very enlightening. I am thinking that I need to find out what other Ford models might have come with the same hub spindle configuration and see if those might be easier to cross reference with disc brake systems.

 

Well pre-68 cars had 2 piston brake calipers.
68+ had single piston brake calipers
68+Cougar,Mustang,Fairlane,Falcon shared the same parts

If you stick to the equal size of Cars they all interchange.
ie:Lincoln,T-Bird,Large Mercury's



Trucks are trucks, they usually don't cross-over with cars.
Rotors have the HUB on them so :

Trucks & Vans have a 5 on 5.5" bolt pattern >
Cars don't.
Different cars have different bearing sizes depending on weight & options I assume the spindles are different as well.

*There are exceptions though*

The very easiest way to do a cross reference is to write down the parts you need to know about and drop by a wrecking yard that has the interchange info on computer.
It takes just seconds to print up everything that requires the same part.

Meanwhile, if you have any *Specific* questions,
Ask me & I'll see if I can help.

BTW <> Pardon my Manners !

Welcome to FTE!

 

Please come join us over at www.geocities.com/Motorcity/pit/1249/ it is a website dedicated to '68-'74 Econolines, and a member there is very close to perfecting a disc swap for E100s and E200s, there is a tech article already done on the E300 disc swap.