full size 9in disc brake doners?

[RB Precision]

I'm wanting to do discs in the rear. I'm running an 78 f150 full width. .. can anybody give me some ideas for doners to look for at the junk yard? I would prefer a swap that doesn't require a great deal of mods.

 

[broncnaz]

In a sense there is little that just bolts on. Some of the 70's lincoln setups will bolt on if you have the correct housing end bolt pattern. Then all you have to do is find rotors that fit most of the time you have to grind the rotor or axle flange to get them to fit. Some people redrill the lincoln rotors. although supposedly early Cj5 front rotors or ford D44 rotors like you have on the front already are supposed to fit All the ones I know of do require some mods. A lot also depends on exactly what your looking for. Do you just want disc brakes or do you want a park brake as well? As that can narrow down your options. Lots of options all depends on you. Most dont require a great deal of mods but do require some.

 

[RB Precision]

Parking brake would be nice. I've been hearing of guys getting brakes off Cadillacs, not sure what year etc and apparently the parking brake cable hooks right up to the eb? Seems too easy haha.

 

[DirtDonk]

That's pretty much the deal unfortunately. Ford didn't put rear discs on many vehicles back then. And stopped producing the 9" rear in any numbers in the very early '80's. Long before rear discs were popular on trucks. And since the cars and trucks don't share even remotely the same wheel bolt pattern, or in many cases the axle flange spacing and register diameter, a car donor like the Lincolns mentioned don't work either without a lot of fiddling.

And since a bolt-on bracket design would have to take into account the probably more common small bearings of a car, vs the somewhat common large bearings of a truck housing, there's the bolting and sizing patterns there to contend with as well.

If you have a small bearing housing, or a '74/'75 housing, the Explorer and Lincoln brakes are less trouble. But even then I don't think either is going to get you to the simple bolt-on state.

Good luck though. It'd be cool if you find something (from literally any vehicle) that would be close enough to work out that way. Who knows, maybe that old beat up Isuzu Rodeo or Trooper, or fullsize Van with Dana 60 and disc brakes you find in the boneyard would be a simple bolt-on from just re-drilling a couple of holes. That'd be fantastic!
And I could return my very cool, but almost $900 kit, and put all that towards something else! ;D

Here's to hoping you find something.

Paul

 

[RB Precision]

Thanks man, I'm a machinist and have a machine shop so modification is not that big of an issue, its more time at this point...

 

[broncnaz]

Lincoln setups have a parking brake as do explorer setups.
Your issue will probably be the 78 axle most likely has the large bearing bolt pattern (1/2 bolts vs 3/8" bolts) and not the torino style. If you have the torino style then some of the junkyard finds(like lincoln's and explorers) are nearly bolt on.

Most states require a park brake if your staying street legal and have to do safety inspections your going to need it. So a park brake may or may not be required.

I could be wrong but I think that the explorer type park brake is the better setup as far as holding power(ie small drum brake setup). The lincoln, caddie /monte carlo ect are not as good. As disc brakes dont have the holding power that drums do.

Well heck being a machinest makes things way easier you can get almost anything you want and make it fit.

 

[pbwcr]

Brakes with cam operated parking feature are made by Varga for use on Fords
Examples are the Taurus SHO (small pads), 90 Superbird (Large pads). Any Mustang SVT (not sure about pad size). Have not researched the Lincoln as to pad size. I think the Superbird has the biggest calipers. I wonder it they are the same as the Lincoln?
BCB sells a Cadillac kit for the EB 9”
Anyway the 78 axle all will require a custom bracket
I have the BCB setup on my 72 and the Superbird setup on my 96. Both required a park brake cable splice. Both work as intended. Get your calipers at the auto store not from the junk yard.
PaulW

 

[toddz69]

I'm wanting to do discs in the rear. I'm running an 78 f150 full width. .. can anybody give me some ideas for doners to look for at the junk yard? I would prefer a swap that doesn't require a great deal of mods.

I'd measure the housing end dimensions and determine if it's a regular large bearing rear end or the late model large bearing/Torino rear end. '78 seems to be a crossover year and it could be either. As others noted, if it has Torino ends, then the Explorer setup is a a great setup to use.

Todd Z.

 

[phred]

I talked to some mustang guys recently they all claim the crown vic rear discs will work on a 9". I have not actually seen it done but these guys told me they had installed them. I need to do some more research on this.

 

[RB Precision]

Im assuming my 9 is large bearing, the tubes are .250in larger than an eb large bearing. Its 31 spline... there are so many op people doing different things. So im thinking I will be looking for crown vic or explorer?

 

[toddz69]

I talked to some mustang guys recently they all claim the crown vic rear discs will work on a 9". I have not actually seen it done but these guys told me they had installed them. I need to do some more research on this.

That is correct. There are certain years of Crown Vic bits that will bolt onto the small bearing EB rearends. Some thread chatter about it here over the years.

Todd Z.

 

[bmc69]

Speedway sells a very inexpensive set of weld-on caliper brackets to support the GM/Caddy "metric" rear calipers that have a cable-operated e-brake feature. Then a set of Jeep rotors..D44 Waggy, if I recall correctly.

 

[SteveL]

The caddy calipers are 79-85 i think. BC has the info on their site. Their bracket are nicer than most. The other brackets I've had/seen require you to pull the caliper out to bleed it. Theirs put it with the bleeder up. Not sure about the need for splices on the cables, mine didn't. You might wanna grab a set from the boneyard. The core charge is more than the caliper.

 

[ntsqd]

I've seen and heard nothing but trouble from the p-brake Cad calipers. Sometimes they work for a while, sometimes they don't. See Lars' article here on how to make them work if they're ever going to. I wouldn't go down that path myself. I'd do a t-case p-brake before I went with the Cad calipers.

 

[RB Precision]

Is there a good t case park brake set up that you know of for a dana 20?

 

[broncnaz]

Nope and in most cases theres not even enough room to mount one on a bronco. All I have seen are more or less home built jobs. While tcase mounted ones can work I like axle mounted brakes better.

 

[SteveL]

I've also read on here the explorer type e-brakes dont hold big tires well.

 

[TOFIC]

interesting thread. read article of mine on disc brakes for rear of Broncos
in summation
large bearing rears use the Lincoln setup with jeep rotors (cj5 I believe)
small bearing rears use the T bird discs, they have rotors that bolt on
but
the Lincoln setup has discs with it and they work BUT they are unidirectional and extremely expensive so I don't use them
TOFIC

 

[KyleQ]

Someone has got to make a bracket that bolts on to the housing flange that hangs a caliper on. I can still get front and rear disk conversion kits for my 66' Moneterey cheaper than one of the vendor's kits...

 

[RB Precision]

So hopefully you can see this list of parts, this looks like a legit bolt on disc set up. No park brake but I'm thinking line lock.