What kind of modification would be required in putting a set of wildwood brakes, 1972 Ford F-100 4 x 2 - Front Brake Kit Part No.: 140-14614-R
on one of our trucks 73-79?

 

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Hopefully someone has inquired and knows if anything is close, or if it's not worth trying to make them work.

In my experience, not having a listing does not always mean it won't work. It may mean that they simply have not tried them on other years yet. It's been that way for generations of aftermarket parts. If they know 100% for sure, they'll list it. But until they do, no reference in their books.
And since some of the phone help does not know more than is in the book (or on the site now of course) they will not say different.

Be nice if they'd let someone have a very generous discount to check though!
However, have you called them anyway? Maybe they know for sure that the kit will not bolt on to the '73 or newer trucks for one reason or another. Spindle and bearing size, rotor offset, bracket mounting, hose size, etc. All are legit reasons to not have them in their listings.

Very interested to see if something will work though. Or better yet, if they have anything in the works. They've been going gangbusters on getting us out different kits for the Early Broncos. Maybe just not that many people inquiring with them on the '73-'79 2wd trucks yet.

Good luck.

Paul

 

If there are kits for the early Broncos, would some of those kits not fit the 73-79 2wds?

 

My guess would automatically be "not even close" because all Early Broncos were equipped with Dana 30 or 44 front axles (depending on the year) which have large center bore openings for the large 4wd hubs and locking mechanisms. This means separate hubs and rotors, vs the integrated rotor and bearing hub that the 2wd trucks use.

Not to mention bracketry differences, and rotor offset differences.

So my answer would be, nope.

Paul

 

Maybe because there is not much to gain? '73-79 had available factory front discs that were pretty good. If you can get the factory system in shape may work fine or even better.

 

Thanks for the replies. I did call them and they , (or the guy on the phone said) he had no idea if they were working on a kit for our trucks or not. He also said that the r&d department did not fill them in on what was being researched. I'm just not sure what the major differences are from a 72 to 73-79 2wd.

 

My first step in the search would be to go to an easy-to-use site like RockAuto.com just to see if the part numbers are the same.
If they are the same, then I'd look at the wheel bearing part numbers to see if they're the same.

Then, if either of the numbers don't cross over to the other year, I would go to my favorite FLAPS here and ask to see both so I could compare them.

Of course, some of that I could do right now, and so I think I will!
Let you know what I find...

Paul

 

Oops, wrong thread. We were talking about discs in another thread too.
Since your '72 has drums, and the '73 and later were available with discs, I checked the wheel bearings and the numbers are different (set-3 and 5 for the early trucks, and Set-12 and 13 for the later). I did not check to see if the races/cups were the same though.
But just going by the bearing "sets" I would have to say that a disc sized for a '72 is not going to fit a '73 and later to retrofit the factory discs.

So you're still on yer own there. Seems to me though, that someone was talking awhile back about swapping discs to the early truck. Maybe you'd still have to swap other parts to make it work. Or maybe it hasn't been done on your particular model yet.

Good luck.

Paul

 

Installing Disc Brakes on Your 2WD Pickup - Pt. 1 - FORDification.com