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Just a follow up .... I've been driving it a couple times a week to work and last week I took her to the Co-op about 17 miles away and had them slide a pallet of 50 forty pound bags of wood pellets in the bed (a ton), used a second empty pallet to push with the fork truck and push it all the way to front.
This was the first time to drive her with a real load since I did the whole brake upgrade deal .... and I gotta say, it was a big difference from last year when I hauled the same load with old brakes and oem booster, etc. Then, when I slowed to stop on that grade at Walmart to stop for the light it was a two foot affair. This last week, just laid my foot up there on the pedal and she was slowing, no question but that she'd stop.
Also this weekend I went over every connection looking for any signs of seepage, leaks. No wet spots, no smeared paint showing brake fluid leaks (last time I fixed a leak I cleaned and repainted each spot) and brake fluid is right up at 1/4" below lip.
This was a hugely gratifying mod, even if it is to an old rusty looking truck. She's a joy to drive now.
I have been following this brake upgrade on several forums and have decided to install on my 78 bronco. I was curious if you ran into a fitment issue with the caliper key and spring. I have been reading that this upgrade is a bolt on with no fabrication. I am faced with the issue of not having enough space to drive the key and spring in without damaging the caliper housing. Did you need to modify the caliper housing to have the key fit? Thanks.
I have been following this brake upgrade on several forums and have decided to install on my 78 bronco. I was curious if you ran into a fitment issue with the caliper key and spring. I have been reading that this upgrade is a bolt on with no fabrication. I am faced with the issue of not having enough space to drive the key and spring in without damaging the caliper housing. Did you need to modify the caliper housing to have the key fit? Thanks.
No need to modify anything except the brake line. Key should fit fine, make sure the top end of the caliper is in the right spot.
... etc ... I am faced with the issue of not having enough space to drive the key and spring in without damaging the caliper housing. Did you need to modify the caliper housing to have the key fit? Thanks.
No, as far as the mounting of the T-bird calipers to the 4x4 front steering knuckles, they fit in place just like OEM calipers. I cleaned some rust and lightly sanded and lubricated the key ways / slides. But I just used a small hammer and tapped the keys in place.
Make sure the other part of the caliper is fitted all the way in that side and the key and spring should tap right in.
Here are my pics on the front axle showing flex line to front axle and JBG hard lines to flex lines to calipers
OK, I see what you mean. They replace the short steel line and rubber hose which had a brass block made on it with the one line.
I believe I would have maybe made a bracket that bolts to that hole and which had a hole that fit that bulkhead fitting, but used thinner steel that would allow a spring clip to be used.
Can you get any of the "groove" above the frame steel? Maybe a thin steel or stainless steel piece of flat metal slipped in place and a simple screw through a second hole to keep in place with a screw?
I think there is enough interference fit between the frame and the bushing that I won't need a clip. My original question was driven by how the braided line wanted to lay on the driveshaft. Alternatively, it wanted to wrap around the sway bay link. I just slapped it and told it where to go! Picture shows how it sits, looks like an interference free position. I will get pictures of how I mounted the block on the axle bracket. Just drilled the bottom, tapped and ran a bolt into it. It is all just loose fit right now, hopefully get rest of it in this weekend.
Struggling with forward half of fuel line right now - trying to get old one out and new one in without splicing.
Yesterday I got off work at 2pm and drove to the local Farmer's Co-op near work and bought a ton of wood pellets to haul the 15 miles home. This time they used a fork truck to set the pallet in the bed (drop in liner) and then used another to push it as far forward as he could .... but the pallet was still a couple feet from the front ..... and he didn't seem comfortable using the fork to push a smpty pallet against it and ..... so I shut the tailgate and eased out of the parking lot and headed towards home with my load essentially centered over the rear axle. Once I got up a little speed, two good brake jabs had the pallet with 50 forty pound bags on it resting at the front of bed after a gentle slide.
Not as easy as my '07 F150, but they aren't far from it. It's like .... if I step too quick and a little hard on the brakes (unloaded) the '77 now surprises me with a rapid slow down or even a hint of tire protest noise. Before, when stock ..... there was no such thing as getting on them too quick or too hard.
Loaded ..... they are GREAT, however if unloaded ..... it is a bit easy to lock up rears if a hard stop but I am prepared for it. I would not expect these "still F150 sized" brakes to maintain their cool under constant long hard use like larger brakes on a F-350 like say "loaded and coming down the mountain" .... they are still F-150 rotors and drums.
About going from F150 to F350 rear wheel cylinders …. They look same, bolt on same, but larger pistons amplify psi from lines. Since I had used a F350 MC with bigger 1-1/16" bore (stock F150 has 1.00" bore so F-150MC is 1.13 X as great) which moved more volume each pump, I wanted to make use of the increased line pressure/volume afforded by the F350 MC/Booster combo without applying rear brakes to soon ahead of fronts. F-350 WCs are 1-1/16" diameter (0.88667squ"), F-150 were 15/16" (0.69031squ") stock … that increase in area alone gets 1.28 times the force for same line pressure, but also uses more volume each application which I figured was a good match for larger MC bore and larger front caliper pistons.
In hindsight, I probably would have gotten a slightly better matchup using 1" diameter (0.78542 squ") RWCs. Then the increase would have been 1.13 as great which more nearly matches the increase in front caliper sizes (up from 6.48 squ inches to 7.51 squ inches = 1.1589 X increase).
Last edited by tbear853; Mar 8, 2026 at 04:57 PM.
Reason: will try the 1" RWCs soon
Great thread on the brake upgrade! Been fighting with poor brakes on my '78 F150 Super cab 2wd. It stops like crap... won't lock up any wheel, if i'm lucky, maybe the rear. Been through the entire system, replaced everything but the PPV and still is not performing like it should. Anyways, reading through your thread it's mostly geared to the 4wd and the Dana 44 in regards to the front calipers. So my question is, would these T-Bird calipers also work for the 2wd front?
Great thread on the brake upgrade! Been fighting with poor brakes on my '78 F150 Super cab 2wd. It stops like crap... won't lock up any wheel, if i'm lucky, maybe the rear. Been through the entire system, replaced everything but the PPV and still is not performing like it should. Anyways, reading through your thread it's mostly geared to the 4wd and the Dana 44 in regards to the front calipers. So my question is, would these T-Bird calipers also work for the 2wd front?
Thanks .... from my looks at parts catalogs, your F150 Supercab 2wd takes the same exact calipers as m '77 F150 4x4 ..... but do check for yourself. Look at Rock Auto and check part numbers ..... same. So those T-Bird calipers with larger metal pistons will work. You'll have to figure in hoses too. Not sure what all years can use them, but that catalog helps to cross check.
tbear853 Awesome job! How did I miss this thread? This needs moved or linked to the tips and tricks stickied thread or HIO Silvers stickied Technical Info Hyperlink Compilation.
Just noticed that I never posted a picture of exactly how I modded the T-Bird Calipers to accept the F-150 brake hoses and properly index them.
The '77 F-150 OEM calipers with small pistons have a cut in the casting that indexes the brake pipe / hose upwards behind the front wheel.
T-Bird larger piston calipers use a straight in threaded brake hose on a T-Bird (has a pipe on it).... so there was no cut for indexing.
If one looks close at the T-Bird calipers, there is a machined ring around the threaded hole. It will seal a sealing washer as used with the F-150 hose ends but it's "sunken". To gain some use of my near new hoses, I simply used a Dremel with a HD cutting wheel to carefully mill out a notch on the T-Bird Calipers to match what was OEM on the F-150 calipers ..... and then since the T-Bird calipers have a larger threaded hole, used new larger Banjo Bolts and sealing washers with the OEM style F-150 hoses ..... which I also modded.
The hose ends with the block, I removed from the truck and carefully drilled to 7/16" with a slow feed on a drill press to fit the larger banjo bolts then flushed the brake hoses several times from the far end and blew dried each time to remove any drill cuttings. The banjo bolts (7/16-24) I used are listed in the thread someplace (See post 42 below) they were purchased online Summitt as I recall, correct thread fort T-Bird calipers.
If you are using the SS braided brake hoses mentioned earlier in this thread, no mods are needed to T-Bird calipers … as their adapters screw straight in. Likewise, the set of SS lines I have will still fit my T-Bird calipers ... as will new F150 hoses (if modded) if ever needed. (I'm gonna put the SS on soon I hope).
Below is a pic of stock OEM F-150 brake caliper with hose attached. This was on the "LEFT" side.
Below is a pic of the modded T-Bird caliper ..... it goes fast ..... leave the plug in .... and stay off that milled surface around the hole. You can see that I left the machined area slightly recessed after I determined that the sealing washer would fit within the recessed area, yet still stand "proud". This one was a "LEFT" side caliper.
Below is the same "LEFT" in place with new Semi Metallic pads.
About the below paragraph and those 7/16-24 Banjo Bolts:
Originally Posted by tbear853
The hose ends with the block, I removed from the truck and carefully drilled to 7/16" with a slow feed on a drill press to fit the larger banjo bolts then flushed the brake hoses several times from the far end and blew dried each time to remove any drill cuttings. Banjo bolts ( 7/16-24) I used are listed in the thread someplace, they were purchased online Summitt as I recall, correct thread fort T-Bird calipers.
I was just in the basement and took a peak in my box with my SS brake lines and adapters which I may someday use .... or sell if I sell the truck .... and there was the receipt and packaging for the Fragola Perf Sys # 650154 Banjo Bolts 7/16-24 which I used with the modified T-Bird Calipers and OEM style F-150 brake hoses after drilling the block end from 3/8 to 7/16" as detailed above.
In my case, I originally was gonna use the SS ... but my OEM style hoses are near new. What I liked about the way I did it is once moddded carefully as I did, the hoses lock into position like OEM.
First, let me say out front what many of you already know, but just the same ..... there may be some noobies looking here some day. I did not come up with this brake upgrade, I found it here and other places on the net. As far as I know, a fellow by the name of Danny Cabral is the likely originator, and the mod first appeared on some Bronco pages. Here is a copy of it on this site: Complete Brake Upgrade for 1978 - 1979 Ford Broncos | Ford Trucks
Anyone curious about the "why" the use of certain parts like T-bird calipers, etc .... should read it there.
Note that the process for a 1978 and a 1979 Bronco in that article use different MC/Booster parts ....
.... because the booster mounts differently on the firewall on the two years. My '77 F-150 is exactly like a '78 F150 and the '78 Bronco so I used the MC and Booster for a 1978 F350. Also, part numbers can be crossed at your auto parts store.
On with it then ....
For my purposes, a number of years ago I decided that some day I was gonna do this deal to my '77 F-150 if I kept it long enough. I've only had it since 1986. I started buying the parts a bit over a year ago. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post13177096
And then in November 2013 I posted about a mod I was contemplating .... and then did .... to those Tbird calipers:
Anyway, I got to thinking and that other thread is about things I do including .... and besides, the brakes. It started out about brakes, but it may not show up in a search for info and maybe this helps someone else find a bit of info that helps them. This one is just about my brake upgrade experiences .... maybe some of the glitches I had, my feedback, whatever ..... maybe it helps someone else?
So my 77 f150 currently only has a MC. Would I be able to buy the 78 f350 booster and MC and it bolt up and work correctly or would I need to try a different route? I bought a 77 f150 booster and the bolts are no where close to matching up to the holes in the firewall.
So my 77 f150 currently only has a MC. Would I be able to buy the 78 f350 booster and MC and it bolt up and work correctly or would I need to try a different route? I bought a 77 f150 booster and the bolts are no where close to matching up to the holes in the firewall.
Does your '77 with non boosted brakes have the bell crank set up or what?
Look back through the posts, I think I have a pic of my firewall with nothing in place to compare.
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