rear drum brakes to disc brakes????

[Jake66]

Has anyone found a kit to convert the original rear axle from drum brakes to disc brakes?

[earlymopar]

Scarebird lists a 1965-72 Dodge, Plymouth "B", "C", "E" body bracket for rear disc brakes. I can envision why this wouldn't work for pickups.


https://scarebird.com/index.php?route=p ... uct_id=104



- EM

[pflin1]

The brakes from 90s era jeep Cherokee's bolt straight on. The backing plate fits the rear axle housing bolt pattern. Can be had for cheap from the junkyard.

Paul

[soopernaut]

The brakes from 90s era jeep Cherokee's bolt straight on.
Paul

Do you mean Grand Cherokee? I don't think any Cherokee from the 90s had rear discs. I can't find anything in a quick search about what years the GC had rear disc brakes and what years had rear drums. The GC went to a 5 on 5 bolt pattern in 1999.

[robertob]

The brakes from 90s era jeep Cherokee's bolt straight on.
Paul

Do you mean Grand Cherokee? I don't think any Cherokee from the 90s had rear discs. I can't find anything in a quick search about what years the GC had rear disc brakes and what years had rear drums. The GC went to a 5 on 5 bolt pattern in 1999.

Yes Grand Cherokee 98 to 99. But honestly, I can't see the need for rear discs on a truck.

[Jake66]

just updating my brakes. i have no idea how old my rear drums are. i have discs on the front. makes it easier when i go to do a brake job. especially if they are parts that any local parts shop will have on the shelf instead of having to special order parts.

[soopernaut]

Yes Grand Cherokee 98 to 99. But honestly, I can't see the need for rear discs on a truck.

94-98 Grand Cherokees all had rear discs with the correct wheel lug pattern.

All new trucks come with rear disc brakes. Are disc brakes inferior somehow compared to drums?

[Jake66]

not to my knowledge, id much rather have disc than drum.

[CSS-Registry]

Scarebird lists a 1965-72 Dodge, Plymouth "B", "C", "E" body bracket for rear disc brakes. I can envision why this wouldn't work for pickups.


https://scarebird.com/index.php?route=p ... uct_id=104



- EM

i put the scarebird kit on the back of my 64 D100, used an AAJ front disc kit, and now use a dual pot Wilwood master cylinder.

the scarebird kit was a pretty easy install but i did have to massage it a little to make everything work.

at 4500 pounds loaded my truck stops reliably every time now. no fade. no grab in wet weather driving (wet stuff happens a wee bit in FL). no more leaks down the front of my firewall. no more looking for obscure drums anymore just to be able to drive it.

i looked at the jeep GC swap and really it came down to convenience going with the scarebird. my time is limited and didn't feel like digging around the salvage yards.

Ben

[Jake66]

Scarebird lists a 1965-72 Dodge, Plymouth "B", "C", "E" body bracket for rear disc brakes. I can envision why this wouldn't work for pickups.


https://scarebird.com/index.php?route=p ... uct_id=104



- EM

i put the scarebird kit on the back of my 64 D100, used an AAJ front disc kit, and now use a dual pot Wilwood master cylinder.

the scarebird kit was a pretty easy install but i did have to massage it a little to make everything work.

at 4500 pounds loaded my truck stops reliably every time now. no fade. no grab in wet weather driving (wet stuff happens a wee bit in FL). no more leaks down the front of my firewall. no more looking for obscure drums anymore just to be able to drive it.

i looked at the jeep GC swap and really it came down to convenience going with the scarebird. my time is limited and didn't feel like digging around the salvage yards.

Ben

would it be a terrible inconvenience to ask for pictures of your rear brakes? so i can get an idea of how they would go together on install.

[Jake66]

i put the scarebird kit on the back of my 64 D100, used an AAJ front disc kit, and now use a dual pot Wilwood master cylinder.

the scarebird kit was a pretty easy install but i did have to massage it a little to make everything work.

at 4500 pounds loaded my truck stops reliably every time now. no fade. no grab in wet weather driving (wet stuff happens a wee bit in FL). no more leaks down the front of my firewall. no more looking for obscure drums anymore just to be able to drive it.

i looked at the jeep GC swap and really it came down to convenience going with the scarebird. my time is limited and didn't feel like digging around the salvage yards.

Ben[/quote]

they give a list of the parts that will fit the bracket, what are your thoughts on those parts?

[CSS-Registry]

i posted some on this site a while ago but i will see if i can find them and repost to this thread.

otherwise i will snaps some photos this weekend.

the install is fairly straight forward. i changed over to green bearings eliminating the adjustable taper bearings.

i had to tweak the brake hose mount that is built into the bracket as i did not like the way scarebird had the hose kink a little into the axle tube more than i would like.

i did not use the parking brake feature on the calipers as my 64 uses a parking drum on the back of the transmission.

Ben

[CSS-Registry]

they give a list of the parts that will fit the bracket, what are your thoughts on those parts?

if memory serves i thought the list was very helpful.

i would suggest redoing the rear brake lines on the axle to avoid adding junctions to it between the hoses. if you have a double flare tool this is fairly easy to make a clean installation.

one of the GM calipers i installed was a bit finicky to get the piston to self adjust but i was able to swap it out with my friends at the NAPA dealer where i sourced my parts.

Ben

[Jake66]

id appreciate it alot, got a good amount of time with a double flare tool doing my transmission lines and my brake lines when i did the scarebird conversion on the front axle.

[robertob]

Yes Grand Cherokee 98 to 99. But honestly, I can't see the need for rear discs on a truck.

94-98 Grand Cherokees all had rear discs with the correct wheel lug pattern.

All new trucks come with rear disc brakes. Are disc brakes inferior somehow compared to drums?

Not inferior at all. But I can't imagine that there is any real, objective benefit from swapping from functioning rear drums to disc. Your front brakes do 90% of the work, especially on a pickup. On a car, I could see it but not really on a truck. As a data point, my dad's 97 Ram had rear drums, and he put 250,000 miles on that thing, much of it towing a trailer, and he never had to replace the shoes. That tells me there isn't much work for the rear drums to do.

[Jake66]

im coming up on needing to replace my shoes and the drum is pretty worn out as well. hence the towing around with doing a disc conversion. it will be more expensive initially but in the long run a cheaper and easier to maintain set up than the drum system. would not surprise me if my drums are original to my truck.

[robertob]

im coming up on needing to replace my shoes and the drum is pretty worn out as well. hence the towing around with doing a disc conversion. it will be more expensive initially but in the long run a cheaper and easier to maintain set up than the drum system. would not surprise me if my drums are original to my truck.

That makes sense.

[Jake66]

yeah my rear drums are pretty tired. and for a daily driver? id like to have more readily available parts to swap out on my truck.

[earlymopar]

The brakes from 90s era jeep Cherokee's bolt straight on. The backing plate fits the rear axle housing bolt pattern. Can be had for cheap from the junkyard.

Paul

Do the Grand Cherokee caliper assemblies also have the parking brake integrated as part of the calipers or is that a separate assembly?

- EM

[flyinbrick68]

i did the gran cherokee swap my 99 cherokee the emergency brake attaches to the backing plate and uses shoes similar to a drum set up. same concept applies the inside of rotor to set the brake...