Forgive me for being a bit of a novice here, but I have (hopefully) a simple question about brake conversion. I had originally been trying to find spindles for my '66 but am having zero luck, which leads me to my question. I'm assuming that if I convert to front disk brakes, new spindles will come with the kit. Is this right? If yes, can anyone recommend a conversion kit? Many thanks.

 

Do not waste money on a kit, all the parts needed for a conversion are factory ford parts.

Go to any wrecking yard and obtain a set of 72 to 79 spindles, hubs rotors and calipers that have disc brakes on them from a F100. Use the calipers as cores and get new.

Its all bolt in.

Have new King pins and bushings installed.

Grind a bit off the stering arm to fit the tie rods.

also take the frame brake hose bracket from the truck and go to a second truck and get another. (note one is rivited and does not come off so you need to get one from a second truck)

Obtain the power booster and master and prop valve from the yard for cores and get new. They Will bolt to the firewall with minor work to the linkage or pushrod.

You can even order all new brake lines based on what the donor truck was. as it will interchange to the 65 66 chassis.

Garbz

 

I'm going through the same thing right now.....a disc conversion.

I came up empty trying to find a source anywhere that had a conversion kit. There is not a conversion kit available for the F100 because of the caliper bracket and spindle being one piece. Most kits have a bolt-in plate or brake that takes the place of the drum brake backing plate.

SSBC Stainless Steel Brake Company was the one I wanted and they do have an up-grade kit. So the best way is to do what was already suggested.....find a 73-79 F100 and cannibalize everything you need. Make sure you grab the portioning valve, master cylinder and lines to the portioning valve . The single cylinder on the truck will not work and neither will the valve in place. There is a great post here done by another member that takes you through the process step by step. Even talks about making a stop-light switch mod and this is something you will need since I have yet to find dual master cylinder with the hole for the stop-light sensor. I have an idea I'm going to try utilizing the stock switch and will post something in a thread I'm running when I see if it works.

The other thing is make sure you check the cost of the calipers and master cylinder from the boneyard. I'm replacing the calipers so I didn't take them and their cost was 15 bucks each. The core charge for the calipers was 5bucks so why bother. The master cylinder is a 30 buck core charge when replacing it and I don't think it cost more than 15 bucks so you do come out ahead. I also just left the rotors since I was going to upgrade them no matter what. There's no core fop those.

There are kits available for rear disc conversion but only because that does bolt to the rearend housing with a bracket.

 

that would be 73-79, 72's still had drums.

 

As a 66 owner going through this exact conversion, I second the remark to not waste your money on a kit.

The easiest thing to do is go to the junkyard, spot a 70's truck, and pull the ENTIRE front end (spindles, calipers, steering linkage, ibeams, and braces). Don't bother with the springs as they will be taller than your stock ones; just reuse your originals. This is by far the easiest way to go. With the help of just 1 other person, you can easily pull the parts you need and have them bolted up to your own truck in a single day.

Running the brake lines is a bit more cumbersome...

 

thanks everyone, this is super helpful.

 

Master Power Brakes offers a power disc brake kit to fit the '66 F100 2WD. The rotors and calipers are Ford '73 - '79 units. I assume the spindles are reconditioned, but they look new. King pin bushing kit was included, but they were nylon so I bought metal ones and had a machine shop install them. The dual bowl master cylinder/booster has a mounting bracket that gets everything up and away from my 352. They send you two adjustable pushrods, one of which worked perfectly with no hassle. Proportioning valve included. Also brake light switch. It may have been a little pricey, but there are some advantages to having nice new shiney warranteed bits sent to your door.

 

I have to admit that I'm very happy I found a '73 in the juck yard for the conversion since it saved a ton of cash....enough so that I can now afford the rear brake kit and a couple other things.

In a small way I do wish that I had seen MPbrakes show up in a search. Would have made my search stress less just incase I couldn't find a '73-'79 out there as a "just-in-case" back-up plan.