Hi Folks,
Has anyone here had any experience of knowledge of converting the rear Aerostar drum brakes to disc brakes? I am wondering if disc brakes from an explorer or some other Ford product would work as a bolt on conversion. I have a '97 elactronic 4WD.

Later Folks...

 

I was told by my mechanic that it wouldn't really be worth it to put in rear brakes for the Aero because it has such a front weight bias...he said I'd be best off trying to beef up the front brakes.

Not sure if that's true or not...just reporting what a knowledgeable guy once said.

 

You are probably right in the case of an Aerostar but these parts are donor parts to a completely differert vehicle configuration. All these drive line parts and suspension are being grafted to a '53 Ford F-100 frame. Weight distribution is going to be very different.

Later Man...

 

it is possible. my friend did it with his Explorer with Dana axe, but belve me, no difference, really no....

he got convertion kit for german vans, redrilled holes, added park brake shoose, and added rear brake force regulator.

And got no noticable difference....

 

As I said above, with the standard Aerostar, it wouldn't be worth the effort. However, in the application I intend with often times increased rear load of over 1,000# with a welding machine, I'm sure it would make a difference as brake fade will increase under a load.

Later Man...

 

not sure, gentelmen.....

 

i would not use the weak Ford 7.5" or 8.8" rear ends to carry 1000 lbs continually on the rear end.
they use rear axle outer bearings that ride on the butter soft steel axles as the inner race. major wear and weakness problem

 

so what rear end swap do you advice?

 

I have to agree with you. My plans would call for occasionally and local if I did. My point was more to the fact that it's a possibility morer than a probability.

I knew a guy that had his own copier repair business and he would load his old Aerostar down heavy and run all over the county every day. Apparently the old rear axel was stronger than most people give it credit for. he did go through a lot of rear brakes in over 250K miles though.

One fact remains. Brake fade is and always has been an issue with drum brakes. I have a '99 Explorer for a donor for my other '53. Since both it and the Aerostar are currently out in the snow I will have to wait a while before I do any measuring and comparing. It will probably be April. I just thought if any body knew of a direct bolt on switch I could be on the lookout for a donor that might be up for sale.

Later Man...

 

The 8.8" rear axle is actually pretty strong. The part of the axle shaft that rides on the bearing is induction hardened, so it's not as bad as you might first think. Ford uses that axle on some of its small trucks. It's not the ideal setup for a HD truck to be sure, but it should work OK for something that's used only occasionally for hauling.

I know one member of this forum has had a bearing failure of uncertain cause. But I think most of them were caused by hitting curbs with the rear wheels.

I would pull out the axles from both your 99 Explorer and 97 Aero to see if the brake backing plates will interchange. That's the part that the respective brake hardware will mount on, and they bolt to the end flanges on the axle housing. If so, you might be able to just swap those (and the brakes, of course), and leave the axle shafts alone. Since the shafts have the inner bearing races, they have worn into their respective bearings, and should stay with them. Plus there is a chance they might be different lengths.

If you can swap the brake backing plates, they next thing to check is where they position the calipers on the new axles. You may need to make some plates to offset them to the right location to match up to where the rotors will end up.

Of course, once you have the mechanicals fitted, you need to hook up the hydraulics. For pickup trucks, you really need some kind of rear anti-lock braking system to accomodate for the varying loads in the rear. Old style trucks used a lever-activated pressure limit valve mounted between the rear suspension and the frame. Maybe the Aerostar's RABS will work for you.

But as someone mentioned, you really do need to augment the front brakes; the stock Aero's are pretty weak even for the Aero. This is where you will see the most fade occurring.

 

Hi,
I would do the pull for comparrison but I still need to get the extra parts because the the Explorer's rolling chassis is going under my other '53. If you click on my link below in my sig you can get a better idea of what I have in mind for easch of the trucks.

Later Man...

 

A properly set up and maintained drum brake is just as effective as a disk brake.

If stopping power is what you need, then you need more surface area, hence larger brakes.

In the world of Road racing and Auto crossing, to get more stopping power, bigger brakes are required. Also proper proportioning to the brakes Front back helps alot too.

Also if your looking at beefing up the rear it is good proactice to beef up the front. If you have too much stopping power towards the rear it can cause the rears to look up quickly and that is bad.

A few other aspects that get over looked, if you increase frinction area in your brakes, incraseing tire grip is soemthing you need to think about. Cause if you can apply more stopping force to the rotating mass, it can become quite easy to lose grip, i.e. lock'em up. Say your running a 205/75/14R. Possibly moving up to a 215/65/14, 225/65/14, or 215/60/15.

Suspension also helps stopping distance, a shot suspension actually hurts stopping distance due to the weight shift when the nose dives, Thus load up the front and unloading the rear. Thus putting more stress on the front rotors and brake pads ending in premature wear, and causeing brake fade due to heat soaking the pads and rotor.

 

I am also looking at transplanting aerostar running gear under an old pickup, and have wondered about upgrading the brakes. So I guess this point of this whole thread would be that when all the smoke and BS clears, no one knows what can be done to upgrade the brakes on an aerostar?


ROb

 

Hi Rob,
Yes you are right, no one knows. However, I did get enough hints and maybes to figure out what can be done and how to find what I need to do the job. There is no way the naysayers are going to convince me this can't be done. It's just that the majority of people who even consider doing stuff like this are likely to stop at the first road block. In this game you gotta do a lot of improvising.

I always try asking around first just in case somebody has done what I am considering. Hey, you never know, somebody might just possibly have done it and if so you can do what they did.

It won't be until late spring when I get started but I'll keep posting the progress or you can go to my website and checkout the projects I'm into. The link is in my signature.

Later Man...

 

Hmmm so my post was smoke an BS? Hmmmmm and just why are you putting running gear under an old truck? How old of a truck, year make and model?

Is it so old that it has drums all around?