Are there any aftermarket front brake calipers available for my '78 F250 dual piston? Wilwood and Baer have nothing. Do they exist?

 

Not really..the reason: you have nothing to bolt a caliper to.

SSBC may be the one option as they are the one of the few who supply floating caliper replacements. Most of those however will not offer and significant gains, just nicer appearances.

 

I'm wondering why you want to replace them. If they have good pads and rotor, are not leaking, they work well. Could the problem be you need a more powerful booster?

Good luck.

 

Hi Bryan,

What are you looking to do? Are you looking for increased caliper piston area, a stronger caliper or just something that looks better than the stock ones? Are you going to try to add a larger diameter rotor too?

I have found that 80's (84 for sure) f600's uses a one piece, 2 piston caliper with larger pistons (63.5mm vs 56mm). I have not verified what would be needed to adapt these but it looks like it would just fit into the D60 caliper bracket. They have a kinda odd hose mounting setup and may need a outer pad shim to make up for the 600's thicker rotor/pad combo but those are easy things to overcome.

Looking at Wilwood's site they only offer two calipers ($500+ each) that have over 7.63in2 piston area (stock piston area). Both calipers are 6 piston with 8.7in2 made for rotors in the 14-15" dia range and up to 1.5" thick. The one benefit of a 4 or 6 piston caliper is that they don't need a caliper slide and you can make a hard caliper mount which is WAY easier than making a mount that also allows the caliper body to move.


For rotor, 14.5" dia P30 front rotors (front rotors from a 1 ton 80's gm step van with rear discs) have very similar dimensions to the dana 60 front rotors (heigth and bolt pattern but are .25" thicker). Some day I'm going to get around to mounting these (have a pair waiting) and figuring out how to move the caliper out 1" or so. At the same point I was going to try to take a left and a right factory caliper and create a 4 piston caliper. These rotors would make a good addition if you went with the wilwood type calipers, they fit the needed wilwood rotor dimensions.

 

Thanks guys, I don't really need the upgrade, but my truck's PO decided to squeeze on some aftermarket 15" wheels by grinding the calipers down to fit. Yeah, a real genius. I figure if I was going to replace them, I might as well look into some hotrod 6-piston aluminum units or something. Oh well, stockers it is.
Can anyone recommend a brand or source for top quality factory replacements?

 

I replaced my original (and hurting) twin piston calipers with Cardone reman. Working fine after 5+ years. Many/most parts stores carry them.

The calipers bolt to the mounting parts. An impact and/or stout vise and torque wrench are needed to disassemble and re-assemble.

16" minimum wheels required to clear. 16.5" wheels as original. I run steel 16's.

 

They are super easy to rebuild (kits are $5 or so and pistons if need be are only a few $ each). You may want to just pick up a set of cores from the JY and rebuild them your self. Due to the grinding from the PO you may not be able to get the core $ back from yours either.

 

Surprised nobody has recommended this yet. There are other options!

The front calipers from a 1978/1979 T-bird or Ford Fullsize car will bolt directly up to the front caliper locations, except that they're a single large piston. They're actually slightly larger than the F250/F350 dual piston calipers, but only by a fraction of an inch... still they are indeed larger.

I'm planning on doing this upgrade myself as I like the idea of less moving parts (1 piston vs 2 pistons).

I bought a pair of calipers at the J/Y for $30, and bought a rebuild/seal kit from Rock Auto for $5.

Just rebuild and put to use! Easy peezee.

 

Interesting thought.


The DUAL piston F250 is 2.18 (each)

Part Number: FRC7007
Brand Name: Raybestos
Part Description: Disc Brake Caliper
Bore Diameter: 2.18"
Inlet Thread Size: 3/8-24
Bleeder Thread Size: 3/8-24
Packaged Weight: 14.20"
Grade Description: Premium


The T-Bird is listed as 3.1"

Part Number: FRC4083
Brand Name: Raybestos
Part Description: Disc Brake Caliper
Bore Diameter: 3.1"
Inlet Thread Size: 7/16-20
Bleeder Thread Size: 3/8-24
Packaged Weight: 11.00"
Grade Description: Premium


That equates to 7.46 vs 7.94

While that IS a bit more...it's only about 5%. I'm not sure that's worth the cost. Single piston pad use tends to distort the pad plate under high loads also. That's on reason manufactures more to dual pistons- to spread the load. And allow for a larger, longer lasting pad. *pad size does not dictate effectiveness however.

 

My thought is to keep it simple. You know the old saying... KISS (Keep it simple stupid lol).

Less moving parts = less to break down... with the added bonus that old T-birds aren't as desirable as our Ford trucks (currently), meaning less cost on parts... and a 5% increase in stopping power to boot!

EDIT: I'm not saying "toss away" the older dual piston calipers... I'm merely suggesting an OEM alternative to aftermarket parts.

 

Thanks. Yeah, I did the T-bird conversion on my Bronco a number of years ago. Works well.

 

Just to make sure everyone is straight, althouh the T-Bird style caliper has more piston area than the F250/F350 caliper it can only replace the F150 caliper. The T-bird caliper does not fit the F250/F350. See pictures below




F150 Caliper



Tbird Caliper



F250/F350 caliper

 

What if you glue two of them side-by-side?

 

Yeah..that could be a problem...LOL!

 

OP has a 1978 F250 4WD with dual piston calipers.

See 2B120 caliper & 2B292 caliper anchor plate in pic. Both parts furnished by themselves.