• Welcome to ClassicBroncos! - You are currently viewing the forums as a GUEST. To take advantage of all the site features, please take a moment to register. It's fast, simple and absolutely free. So please join our community today!
    If you have problems registering or can't log into your account, please contact Admin.

Forward Caliper Rear Disc Conversion???

70_Steve

Old Guy
Joined
Dec 13, 2002
Messages
8,317
I'd really like to keep my shocks behind the rear axle. And I'm gonna bet one of these days I'm going to want rear disc brakes.

Does anyone know of a rear disc conversion for our 9"s that mounts the caliper in front of the rear axle housing?
 

phred

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Aug 25, 2006
Messages
3,432
Loc.
Earth
Steve, caould you flip the brackets side to side and upside down? I havn't looked at them for doing this but that brackets should work but the bleeder screws may end up being on the bottom which really doesn't work.
Maybe circle track weld on brackets and calipers?
 
OP
OP
70_Steve

70_Steve

Old Guy
Joined
Dec 13, 2002
Messages
8,317
Steve, caould you flip the brackets side to side and upside down? I havn't looked at them for doing this but that brackets should work but the bleeder screws may end up being on the bottom which really doesn't work.
Maybe circle track weld on brackets and calipers?
Taking calipers designed for mounting behind the axle and just swapping sides puts the force on the caliper in the wrong direction. Or at least in the opposite direction of how they were mounted originally. I won't say I'm very familiar with different caliper designs, but the one's I've paid attention to are very specifically built to take the force of braking in one direction only. So, it appears the calipers need to be engineered to mount in front of the axle to begin with.
 

toddz69

Sponsor/Vendor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Nov 28, 2001
Messages
10,080
I'd really like to keep my shocks behind the rear axle. And I'm gonna bet one of these days I'm going to want rear disc brakes.

Does anyone know of a rear disc conversion for our 9"s that mounts the caliper in front of the rear axle housing?

Back in the early days of disc conversions, there were a number of people that had the Lincoln Mark V rear calipers mounted in front of the axle housing (mine were this way for awhile). You're right - it does put the force on the bottom of the bracket and not the top. In the case of the Lincoln brackets - you're now pushing on the spring/slider instead of the top of the bracket. Whether that's a huge issue, I don't know.

Late model Crown Victorias mount their calipers in front of the axle but their backing plates are drilled for the small bearing pattern (good disc swap for the small bearing housings). You may want to investigate the feasibility of combining Crown Vic parts and Explorer parts to get what you want.

In any case, the e-brake cable routing might get a little interesting too.

Perfect excuse to spend some quality time in the junkyards, Steve :)

Todd Z.
 
OP
OP
70_Steve

70_Steve

Old Guy
Joined
Dec 13, 2002
Messages
8,317
In the case of the Lincoln brackets - you're now pushing on the spring/slider instead of the top of the bracket. Whether that's a huge issue, I don't know.
Yeah, I (obviously) don't know either. And where the brakes are concerned, I'd rather not second-guess the engineering that went into their design.


Late model Crown Victorias mount their calipers in front of the axle but their backing plates are drilled for the small bearing pattern (good disc swap for the small bearing housings). You may want to investigate the feasibility of combining Crown Vic parts and Explorer parts to get what you want.

In any case, the e-brake cable routing might get a little interesting too.

Perfect excuse to spend some quality time in the junkyards, Steve :)

Todd Z.

What would be the year range of the "late model Crown Victorias" you referred to?

Yes, the e-brake is a requirement. Regardless of how the cables get routed!!:eek:

Quality time in the junkyards would mean the afternoon temps stay at least below 100°.
 

chuck

Bronco Guru
Joined
Aug 14, 2001
Messages
6,474
Loc.
Ingram, Texas
On some of the GM stuff one caliper is in front and the other is in the rear of the axle. My brackets can be used on either side. But with my brackets you can leave the shocks on the rear.
 

tasker

Contributor
all knowing of nothing
Joined
Jun 2, 2006
Messages
20,735
Loc.
NH
I run the old Lincoln discs on mine, mounted on front. been that way since 06 and have had no problems.....have not hooked up my ebrake either though.....
 

Broncobowsher

Total hack
Joined
Jun 4, 2002
Messages
34,835
The parking brake requirement is the big stumbling block. That will almost require the cables to be pointing toward the back, which will require a 180° bend to aim them forward. It is just the matter of putting the left side brakes on the right side. That will work fine.

If you were to do something like Explorer rear disks you could spin the backing plate 180° and that will place the caliper at the other end (swap left and right calipers to get the bleeder on top). That can more a low placed park brake cable up higher.

As for the forces going the wrong way, only if you are running a race car with floating calipers and a brake link. For the rest of us who have the caliper mounted to the axle housing it will come down to torque. The caliper will apply force to the rotor and the caliper bracket will apply that force as torque to the axle tube. doesn't matter if the caliper is front, back, top or bottom. the rotational force will be the same trying to rotate the axle tube.
 

shamu

Lucky as the day is long.
Joined
Jun 18, 2009
Messages
5,290
Loc.
Sachse,Tx
Here is a pics of BCB brake kit.
 

Attachments

  • tweety 2 014.jpg
    tweety 2 014.jpg
    121.3 KB · Views: 83
  • tweety 2 015.jpg
    tweety 2 015.jpg
    117.9 KB · Views: 82

toddz69

Sponsor/Vendor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Nov 28, 2001
Messages
10,080
As for the forces going the wrong way, only if you are running a race car with floating calipers and a brake link. For the rest of us who have the caliper mounted to the axle housing it will come down to torque. The caliper will apply force to the rotor and the caliper bracket will apply that force as torque to the axle tube. doesn't matter if the caliper is front, back, top or bottom. the rotational force will be the same trying to rotate the axle tube.

I think we're all in agreement that the rotational torque is the same regardless of where the caliper is located on the perimeter of the rotor. I believe Steve was concerned that the rotational torque acting on a different part of the bracket might be of concern.

Now that I think about it more, the Explorer caliper mount and caliper mounting configuration is the same top and bottom so there's probably no issue.

Todd Z.
 

toddz69

Sponsor/Vendor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Nov 28, 2001
Messages
10,080
What would be the year range of the "late model Crown Victorias" you referred to?

I'd have to do a search here to find out exactly what years, but I'm guessing maybe '94-'95 and newer?

Todd Z.
 
OP
OP
70_Steve

70_Steve

Old Guy
Joined
Dec 13, 2002
Messages
8,317
I believe Steve was concerned that the rotational torque acting on a different part of the bracket might be of concern.
Yes, exactly. As you mentioned, Todd, the Lincoln calipers, and several others I've seen including my own front calipers, would put the force on the spring/slider assembly, instead of directly on the V-d part of the caliper bracket if they were mounted in front of the axle. I don't know what other differences there might be with any other applications caliper and bracket if the force was reversed.
 

garberz

Bronco Influencer
Joined
Jun 24, 2007
Messages
6,856
Loc.
Conejo Valley, Ca.
Why do you want rear disk? I just converted one back to drums. Lousy parking brake, caddy calipers. The stock setup works so much better.
 

broncnaz

Bronco Guru
Joined
May 22, 2003
Messages
24,341
Wouldnt worry much about rotational force of the rear brakes they only account for maybe 30% of total braking if your lucky and due to weight transfer even less weight is on the rear so that force goes down quickly.
 

73stallion

Bronco Guru
Joined
Mar 5, 2004
Messages
16,786
Loc.
Eugene, OR
can't remember if it's the newer ford or chevy 3/4 and 1 ton trucks, but they have one caliper on the front and one on the back of the axle. don't know if it's to save money by being able to use the same caliper on both sides, or the same backing plate, but seems to work.
 

nvrstuk

Contributor
Just a Bronco driver for over 50 yrs!
Joined
Jul 31, 2001
Messages
8,614
I agree, Caddy calipers aren't a whole lot better than drums-least mine weren't. However, Exploder rear discs are.

Sure is nice tho not having the rear drums full of water or frozen to a solid glob of ice when taking a short break from wheeling in the cold.
 
OP
OP
70_Steve

70_Steve

Old Guy
Joined
Dec 13, 2002
Messages
8,317
Why do you want rear disk? I just converted one back to drums. Lousy parking brake, caddy calipers. The stock setup works so much better.
My rear drum brakes are working quite well. With the hydroboost I can lock up all 4 35's in a heartbeat. But I believe there are advantages to "properly working" rear disk brakes. And there are rear disk brake setups that do have a very good parking brake. My DD, a 98 Camaro SS, has a fantastic parking brake, and is actually one of the reason's I started this thread, as the calipers mount in front of the rear axle.

My immediate goal/project is to rebuild the rear shock mounts. I will, most likely, run the drums for a while longer. I'm just trying to make sure that, if I mount the shocks in the rear of the axle, I can still install a disc setup in front of the rear axle.

But who knows. If there's a good workable solution I will probably do both at the same time.
 

Broncobowsher

Total hack
Joined
Jun 4, 2002
Messages
34,835
can't remember if it's the newer ford or chevy 3/4 and 1 ton trucks, but they have one caliper on the front and one on the back of the axle. don't know if it's to save money by being able to use the same caliper on both sides, or the same backing plate, but seems to work.

My quick guess is to clear the staggered shocks. Most every truck now has one forward shock and one rearward facing shock. I can narrow that down a little more, rearward drivers side shock and forward passenger shock. rear on the drivers side because the fuel tank is forward. Which happens to work real nice for routing the exhaust on the passenger side. Which would be a forward facing caliper on the driver's side and rear on the passenger.

I recall (I think GM) that has a park brake cable that passes the rear axle then does a 180 going to it from the back.
 

Devin

Bronco Kineticist
Joined
Apr 29, 2004
Messages
3,956
I thought about this for a while when I put the Exploder rear discs on my rig. I ended up just running the shocks on the front side of the axle housing. But, one of my ideas was to build a custom bracket for the rear shock mount that would clear the disc brake assembly.

So far I have been happy with the ride/response with the shocks mounted forward, though.
 
OP
OP
70_Steve

70_Steve

Old Guy
Joined
Dec 13, 2002
Messages
8,317
So far I have been happy with the ride/response with the shocks mounted forward, though.
Although I don't hear too many complaints about ride, etc with either the shocks mounted forward, or even inboard shocks, they just seem to work better in all aspects if they're mounted to the rear. My thought on shock mounting was to use something like the Wild Horses Extreme Shock Hoop, but mount it behind the rear axle. Call me lazy ;D but I'd rather deal with just the shock mounting in relation to the spring, etc., than have to deal with fitting it around some calipers, too.
 
Top