purdy

 

Thanks for letting us follow along!

 

So I’m trying to decide if I need to replace the axel seal and outer bearings in the rear axel while I’m putting the rear disc conversion on. The bearings are in good shape so I’m inclined to push that down the road a bit.

in other news I found a brand new rough country 2 1/2” lift kit on marketplace for $200! So now I have fresh suspension to put on and clearance for 35” tires.

 

Nice, looks like an older kit with rear steel lift blocks instead of plastic too.

Beware those rough country springs are almost twice the spring rate of stock springs....ride will be STIFF.

 

More work done today, cleaned up the axels and prepped them for new bearings and seals. Also made some good headway on the door cards. Now that I have them covered I can cut the speaker grill out and drill the arm rests for mounting hardware. I will also be making some leather covered arm rest cushions. Now for what you came for…

 

Ok, so I buttoned up the last bits of the rear disk brake swap yesterday and I wanted to summarize all the ins and outs of using the master power kit.

First, the kit was very well packaged and documented which helped greatly when determining what all was there as well as what needed to be bought still.

I’ll start with the booster and master cylinder swap. Wow, what a difference it made. A dual 9” diaphragm with a 1 1/8” bore was the right decision. The orientation of the ports on the master were inverse and the front port either needs to be adapted or have the end switched out for 7/16-24 I believe. I opted to put a new end on since adapting introduces unnecessary failure points.
On the interior the booster arm mounted perfectly and the small bushing in the rod end made for a snug fit for the bolt that attaches to to the brake pedal. The geometry all seems correct just based of pedal feel. That is al little tight gettin I. There but totally doable with a wobble and 2” extension and a shallow socket 9/16 I believe. The other side of the bolt is a 3/4 and a box end fits nicely.

following the lines, next is the proportioning valve. I know you could probably guy the original valve to get the system running but it’s the brakes we’re talking about so I wanted to do it right. I this is not part of the kit but I think it should’ve been. I ordered a PV4 which matched up port wise exactly except for one port. It required an adapter I was able to pick up from the parts store, 3/8-24 to 7/16-24. it would have been nearly impossible to swap the end on the line with iron the truck.

Now it is important to make sure you either pay attention to the bleeding process whe putting in the valve otherwise you’ll need to reset it. That’s all I’m going to say here about that.

Even though this is a bolt on kit, it was made for a 72’ and I’m not sure that made much of a difference but following the lines back I did need to make the driver side line a little longer so I could attach it to the rear caliper without trying to wrench the original into place. Just plan on doing it.

the rear brake setup was uneventful and went together quite easily. All parts fit as you would expect with the included hardware. While I was there I did take the time to install new outer wheel bearings because you do have to remove the factory retainer plate. Which means you’ll be removing the axels and cutting that off or in my case sliding it off after butting the old bearings and bearing retainers off.

Be prepared to replace the diff oil that comes out the axel end when you are doing this process. I lost about a quart and just added new once ut was all put back together.

Next is the e brakes. I wasn’t saving the drums of anything so I broke them down and removed the cable from the backing plate. The factory cables should work with a little modification. It’s not rocket science, the end fit perfectly into the caliper retainer but the cable is a couple inches too long as seen in the photos. I haven’t shortened it yet but I will be once I get the proper parts to do so. Master power offers a kit of the universal kind that you can buy for a whopping $160 which was way overpriced in my book all things considered.

I know this is more about the conversion kit but while I was at it I did replace the front rotors and pads and rebuilt the front hubs. This was a trivial process that only required patience and a 4 prong socket to remove the axel nut. Everything else went as you would expect. I did replace the outer soft brake lines while I was there as the ones that were on the truck looked to be original and had questionable internal stability. A fresh coat of high temp calipers pant went on everything just because and that was about it for the job. All in all, not to bad. A couple of delays finding the right parts and extra steps from the while I’m here I may as well category, but a very welcome upgrade and one step closer to engine building time. Gotta have good brakes to stop more ponies.

 

Awesome write up, thanks got that and the truck is looking very sharp.

 

A little update, I got around to mounting the door panels. I used a rivenut for the rear armrest bolt and used the factory location for the front one. The speaker grills are out great and I think tie in well. I’m still working on the horseshoe door handle levers so for now I’ve got the originals on. I’m also in the middle of making the arm rest pads. They will be wrapped in leather too.

more detail details are in the other thread, specifically on building them.

 

Those are looking pretty dang sharp, for sure.