I called a local shop and they said 400 parts and labor to switch to power brakes. does this sound right? I will later switch the brakes to disc.

 

For remaned parts, you'll pay about $150 from autozone. You need only the booster, and a different master (different rod length). Guess you'll need a lenght of vacuum hose and a fitting of two, but that's cheap. You do the math for their labor. Seems a little steep to me. This is bolt up stuff, no mods.

IMHO, don't bother to upgrade to a power setup till you go all the way to discs. You'll need a different master for the disc later on, which means repeating some of your costs.

Do a little leg work yourself -- those spindles, prop valve, master and booster should cost around $250 from a junk yard. I bet for a $350 you can get someone to put them on for you -- total cost $600 and you are all the way to discs.

Good luck!!

 

does that include the price of the disc?

 

well there is a kit on one of the advertised sites here and it is a kit with every thing to add power brakes and disc brakes here is the clencher it is $1,195.00

 

BUMP

 

Ouch on the kit, Don't forget the booster brackets(very important). Just do the work yourself, save the cash, and feel safe knowing you did it yourself. And biggest part is the knowledge you can aquire here on the site to do the swap worry free.Oh ya and have fun!

 

I found a different kit for $995 and they offer a video on how t odo the install!

 

Well I guess it would depend on you resources. If you have more money than time, talent and tools then the new may be the way to go. I have bought clapped out F-150s and robbed all the front brake stuff and sold off the remaining parts for a couple hundred more than I gave for the truck, which more than offset the price of the reman. loaded calipers and new hoses.

 

Man -- no way should it cost that kind of money to do a disc brake swap on a twin I-beam truck. By and large, used spindles are JUST AS GOOD as new. These parts do not wear out ever with normal proper maintainance. Yes, you can ruin them, but the vast majority of salvage specimins are going to need very little. Perhaps bearings, perhaps a new rotor, usually new pads and calipers, but that is small change. And the other stuff is easy too, except for the prop valve. Even if you want that to be new too, go to mpbrakes.com and get a new one.

If it is skill that is the issue, then get the parts yourself -- do you good to see first hand what goes into you rig. Call around to some junk yards and find the stuff, pick it up and deliver it to a brake shop to be swaped for you. With some time on the phone you can find someone for sure who will do it. And you'll save for sure.

And if you don't care about saving -- well why did you post the original question?!!

Good Luck.......

PS -- when we say "spindles" that will ususally includes the hub, bearings, spindles, rotors (the "disc" part) and calipers. If the junk yard tries to tell you that the calipers are worth $40 each, tell them to keep them -- they cost about $15 remaned plus $5 core charge these days. Rotors are not expensive either. Check out the tech article. For your era pickup this is not a difficult swap. You want to drive an old pickup, better learn to have a little grease under nails on occassion.