Rear disc brake conversion

[SLC]

I have a 69 small bearing reared , what vehicles can I pick n pull at the scrap yard to make this work . I know an Explorer won’t work . I saw a ford crown with rear disc , wonder about this . Any suggestions and ideas greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[SteveL]

Bc makes a bracket that will fit for the caddy calipers. Then it takes a set of jeep rotors

 

[fordguy]

Bc makes a bracket that will fit for the caddy calipers. Then it takes a set of jeep rotors

I did rear disc, but went wit a Currie housing and used the explorer. Easy with right bearing ends. An explorer rear end can be picked up for a couple of hundred. Got rotors with 5.5 bolt circle.

 

[SLC]

Thanks guys I appreciate the info.

 

[Broncobowsher]

There is no direct fit junkyard bolt on conversion.
There are plenty of adaptions. Typically weld on brackets to hold a GM metric caliper (need smaller than front to keep decent balance) and some front rotor adapted to the rear.

Just hacking together junk, I once put a set of Geo Tracker front brakes on a 9" from an F150. No park brake and the brackets were hand cut and welded to the tube. Pretty junk, but worked for what I was trying to do.

 

[SLC]

I’ll keep searching threads till I find the year of GM calibers then find a weld on bracket I guess will be the easiest…thanks

 

[Broncobowsher]

Lots to get lost in https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Search?query=rear caliper bracket

 

[SteveL]

When you look for brackets make sure they put the bleeder screw in the correct spot. Otherwise bleeding is a pita. That's why I like the bc's. Also it uses of the shelf bolt on parts you can get at the local Napa. No machining the rotors

 

[fordguy]

If I did it again, would just go drums.

 

[Broncobowsher]

If I did it again, would just go drums.

I've heard that more than once.

I did my 9" disk conversion because I had junk Tracker parts laying around and they had the right bolt pattern. In the end, the brakes are surge brakes on a trailer made out of a truck. It was a fun hack project instead of scrounging for all the drum brake parts to rebuild what was there (pull the drum off and all the parts fell out, both sides)

 

[Apogee]

I've seen Explorer rear disc brakes on a small-bearing 9", but the backing plates had to be machined to match the narrower bolt pattern on the housing flange, and then spaced out to match the slightly longer axle offset dimension (about 1/8" IIRC). The vertical separation on the small-bearing housings match the big-bearing Torino at 2.000", which coincidentally also matches the Explorer housing ends, it's the horizontal separation that differs, 3.313" versus 3.500", hence the need to slot the holes. You then need to machine up a retainer plate for the small-bearing axles, as the through hole on the Explorer backing plates is larger than the Ø72mm [Ø2.834"] bearing and will not serve that function.

 

[fordguy]

I've heard that more than once.

I did my 9" disk conversion because I had junk Tracker parts laying around and they had the right bolt pattern. In the end, the brakes are surge brakes on a trailer made out of a truck. It was a fun hack project instead of scrounging for all the drum brake parts to rebuild what was there (pull the drum off and all the parts fell out, both sides)

Sometimes sourcing all that is harder than converting.

 

[toddz69]

I have a 69 small bearing reared , what vehicles can I pick n pull at the scrap yard to make this work . I know an Explorer won’t work . I saw a ford crown with rear disc , wonder about this . Any suggestions and ideas greatly appreciated. Thanks

Here's a thread with a lot of info on the Crown Vic swap for small bearing 9" rear ends.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/disc-swap-to-ford-small-bearing-9-or-8-rear-ends.358587/

Todd Z.

 

[Jedeka]

I used the Explorer disc brake kit from Quick Performance. They have a big bearing and small bearing housing kits available.

 

[ntsqd]

Sometimes sourcing all that is harder than converting.

Shortly after I had completed the RDB swap on the D60 under the rear of "Snowball" (FSB) I was looking thru the parts available for this particular swap on Rock Auto. Imagine my surprise when I found that I could order literally everything except for the brake hose banjo bolts! I put them all in the cart to see what the bill came to, and it was (then) just under $500.

This is NOT the Explorer rear disc swap. It is Expedition rear discs, which are bigger and I would not pair them with front discs that will fit inside a 15" wheel.