I want to do the disk brake conversion as cheap as posible. I get a discount at Napa but have a hard time finding parts at local junkyards!
any ideas??

 

What are you talking here - front drum to disc conversion, rear drum to disc conversion, or all four? Also what rearend do you have?

Search the junkyard for any old 70's Lincolns (the big boat type) like the Versailles - all of them had 9" rearends and quite a few of them were equipped with discs in the rear. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the 9" disc assembly will directly replace the 9" drum assembly with no modifications. If this is true, you can either pop these parts off a car at the boneyard, or, if the junkyard is like any junkyard I've been at and the cars are sitting wheel-less in the sand, you can look up some numbers at Napa and probably buy all the parts you need much cheaper than the $400 rear conversion kits out there.

 

front drums

 

I would do em all.
Mine gets in the water in the summer and all the time i wish i had disc all the way around.

was up on slick rock this weekend.......and..and..and...it was hard to stop this 68 eb....

 

i would do the 76-79 F-150, or 78-79 Bronco, all you need is the knuckle and spindle which you can't buy new as far as i know, and all the rest you should be buying new(with your discount) anyway.

and your junkyards can't be as scarce as hawaii's junkyards. i kept checking the paper and someone was parting out a run down f-150, thats how i got mine.

 

Ha junkyards aren't scarce around here, they just do dumb crap! They take the wheels off every car and set it down in mushy sand on the drums and rotors - so you can't salvage brake, steering, or rearend parts because they're sunk in sand up to the frame. Then when you tell them you're looking for a carrier out of a rearend, they get all pissed off because they have to get off their butt and pick up a bunch of cars with their forklift and hold them up while you unbolt everything!!!

 

It doesn't matter if you go ford or chevy they are all Dana conversions for the front.... because that is who made the rears.

You know how to knock out ball joints with a hammer? Loose the not on the ball joint and hit what the ball joint retained by with a nice plastic BFH? Once the truck is jacked and the wheels are off you can knock apart that rear in about an hour.

What you can get at NAPA is the hub/rotor assembly with races which is the same for both conversions and runs up to like 89 or something. Obviously the rebuilt calipers. The are like a hundred bucks or something.....

I would scour craig's list etc.

You want either 70-79 Ford 4x4 F150 Bronco rear, really all you need is the knuckle out, knuckle, spindle, rotor, caliper hanger plate, caliper, and hub.

Or you want a Chevy K-10 rear from like 72 to 85 and you want the spindles, caliper hanging plate, and caliper. Then you retain your factory knuckles and use the same hub rotor assembly as with the other.

Be careful pulling the spindles. They do not like to come easily and are usually close to rusted in place. You need to work them off slowly and carefully.

Be careful if you try to go really lowbuck and get hubs from somewhere and then want to replace the rotors. Knocking the studs out you can miss and hit the snout of the hub and bend it and that hub is then shot. Put a piece of wood behind the stud you are taking our... and be aware you really should use a stud installer to pull them back in place correctly.

IF you do the for you will need two inserts on the the knuckles to use you stock tie rod. You can get these at a bronco place.

 

I would do the GM conversion. All new parts are available aftermarket (including spindles), and it is a lot easier than removing the knuckles. Would be a good idea though to replace the ball joints anyways though. The only advantage of the Ford knuckle is the axle hole diameter is larger, which makes axle removal easier if you explode a front axle u joint and the yokes are spread out.

BTW, Boba Fett. 70-79 Ford and 72-85 Chevy is incorrect. Ford didn't introduce discs on 4wd's until 76. So 76-79 F150's or Broncos are what you need. And the target GM models to look for is 71-77 K10's. The spindles changed in mid 77 when they swapped to the 10 bolt front end and will not interchange. The calipers and backing plates will interchange to the late 80's, but they switched to metric calipers. Also little known is 74-77 Jeep J10 pickups have the same outers as a Chevy and will work as well.

The Lincoln Versailles rear disc conversion isn't a direct swap because the wheel bolt patterns are different. Would need some machining work done to the axles and different rotors to make it work.

Jason

 

71-77 K10's spindle and backing plates is where i need to start as they are the only used hard to find parts right?

 

Spindles are still available new. Backing plates were still offered through GM (as of 4 years ago, anyways). A backing plate is pretty easy to tell if it is bent or not. Its a little harder on a spindle. Look for wear on the bearing and seal surfaces and for damaged threads. A machine shop should be able to check them in a lathe to check straightness. Make sure the wrecking yard will take them back if they are bent or damaged after you get them cleaned up.

There is still an abundant supply of Chevy and GMC pickups in wrecking yards. You should be able to find what you need.

Jason

 

There is one BIG advantage to the Ford knuckles over the Chev in my opion. The Ford used studs wich can be knocked out and replaced. The Chev knuckles use bolts to hold the spindles like the stock Ford drum spindels. If you or the previous owner/s of the EB in the last 40 years have replace about a dozzen or so front axel u joints than the bolt holes through the knuckels that hold the spindles will be stripped beyond proper torq specs. I have gone through the helicoil routine more times than I should have. Wish I would have replaced the stock drum knuckles with F150 disk knuckles.

 

back to putting the disk brakes in the rear, can you tell me more about that? I went out and paid for the disk in the front. I would like to find the ones for the rear on the cheap, any info would help.