Experience with Ramman D100-200 Front Disc Conversion

[Deazel]

Does anyone have experience with the Ramman D-100/D-200 FRONT DISC BRAKE conversion KITS?

I saw a few posts where folks were in the process of converting, but couldn't find any feedback after installation.
The kit looks slick, if a bit pricey.

....Although I'm not sure you can put a price on actually being able to stop these trucks at highway speed.

Thanks,
-D

[Txas2step]

No experience with Ram man conversion. I used the Scarebird front disc set up on 2 of my D100's ('61, '67). Great product. They now offer conversion for the D200.

[Deazel]

Thanks

[64D100Poly]

I was about to go disc brake route and decided for the time being to do a full rebuild on the factory drums, after new metallic shoes, hoses, honed and new pistons in wheel cylinders, a good clean of the hardware, fluid flush (my likely original brake fluid looked more like 80w-90) and new rear drums, I was in all about $200 max. Honestly I was amazed by the stopping power, my 65 is the only vehicle I daily drive, so good braking is very important to me. I broke the glaze on the shoes with a few hard stops and adjusted them, absolutely zero pumping needed, when you need brakes there always ready, they don't even hesitate to fully lock all four if needed. Hard stops and they don't pull the truck to one side in the slightest. Disc brakes are very nice but also come with a hefty price tag, At least in my opinion I don't think people realize how good drum brakes actually are when they are gone through.

-LB

[IHWillys]

I do, and don't, have experience with the RamMan disc conversion. Yes, I intended to say that. This is because I purchased what appeared to be a RamMan conversion off of ebay. It was not. It was a pirated copy, appropriately sold by "PirateJack". I later wished I had waited for the RamMan version but I was in a bit of a hurry at the time and the one on ebay was in stock while purportedly RamMan had a wait(this was fall 2020). The one I used worked out but was less than stellar. I'll get it down in text here eventually. I did this on my '67 D100. I am very happy with the performance, so far.

edit*
The brakes were fine before the conversion. Then I had the driver's side drum fail, as in break into pieces while I was braking. This was on me as it was quite thin and I used it anyway. Well, I actually hasn't seen it but had assumed that it was like the one on the passenger side that I had a look at. My mistake regardless.

I drive my '67 up to my mountain property at ~9K feet, loaded, sometimes heavily. In Summer 2020, I was making 3-4 trips a week up there as I was building a cabin. That summer, the road was down to one lane over a bridge being rebuilt. This happened to be at the bottom of the longest and steepest incline on the road. Coming back home, going "down", it could be a bear to get it stopped there, and this was unloaded. The brake fade was very significant just in that one stop with completely cool drums at the top of the hill. Yes, I would slow at the top and gear down(225/NP435) which required less braking. But this was a known stop at the bottom of that hill and I thought about other times when there is an unexpected need to stop, or when my wife/sons/daughters might be driving it. These played parts in my decision to go disc.

Ken

[IHWillys]

OK, here's the follow up. I wrote most of this in 2020 after doing the conversion.

I looked at what was available, the Scarebird and the Ram Man(RM from here on out).
I liked the "kit" aspect of RM and leaned toward that.
If I recall correctly, RM's site mentioned some possible delays.
This was September 2020 so delays were common.
I was in a bit of a 'hurry up' mode at the time.
In looking at Ebay I saw what I thought was the RM kit, sold by seller "Pirate Jack".
No searches here brought back any results on the seller but looking at the pics, it clearly was the same setup as RM.
I purchased the kit via Ebay.
It was quickly shipped and arrived in just a few days which was part of what I was after.
I first read through the instructions(not provided directly, only via download) and was less than impressed.
*note that I am referring to the Pirate Jack instructions here, not RM's instructions*
Clearly some parts of the instructions were nonsense for the application, despite the claim of being specific to Dodge D100 trucks on the 'cover'.
An example of this would be the instructions relating to compressing coil springs and dealing with ball joints, etc.
This is not a big deal but obviously the instructions are not D100 specific.
Then there were contradictions directly in the instructions themselves concerning leading/trailing positions of the calipers.
As an experienced amateur mechanic and fabricator I wasn't worried about any of this but it did leave me a bit less confident overall.
Unfortunately, this lowered confidence would prove to be warranted.

I began the process after stripping down to the spindles.
I used the supplied adapters to locate the 2 new holes per spindle, drilled and tapped them and enlarged and tapped the existing steering arm mount holes.
A significant issue arose with the adapters.
They are produced with the necessary holes, plain and tapped, to clock at 9:00, 10:00, 2:00, and 3:00.
The instructions say to use the adapter in the 9 and 3 positions to mark the locations for the holes to drill and tap.
I did so.
I then mounted an adapter on the passenger side in the 9:00 position(trailing) and was not enthusiastic about how close it was to the tie-rod mount.
Considering future TRE service, I chose to clock to 10:00.
However, an issue now became apparent.
The array of holes allowing for the clocking was not concentric to the large hole for the spindle.
So while the adapter would mount in the 3:00 and 9:00 positions, it would not in the 10:00 or 2:00 positions due to the four mounting holes for these two positions now not all lining up.
I checked and rechecked(and rechecked, etc) on this.
I verified this issue by measuring centers of various holes to the center of the large hole.
So I mounted in 3:00 position(leading) and went on to the driver's side.
On the driver's side the clearance with the steering bracket that mounts to the spindle precluded both the 3:00(steering arm) and 9:00(tie-rod) mounting positions.
This was significant interference, not simply too close as with the passenger side.
This is not a complaint, just noting this in the process.
No problem, that's what the 10:00 and 2:00 positions are for, right?
I chose the 10:00 position(leading) so as to have bleeder at the top of the caliper.
As I had gone with the leading position on the passenger side already I needed to go leading on this side as well to have the bleeder at the top(you get a left and a right caliper in the kit).
However, due to the aforementioned layout issue with the clocking, I now had to slightly clearance one side of the large hole on the adapter with a grinder and round file to allow for the spindle through.
Clearly these adapters were not machined correctly.
I should not have had to grind on them at all.

Smaller bits of annoyance were items like the instructions saying to use the 'supplied' spindle nut and cotter pin.
These are not supplied and no cotter pin can be used anyway due to the placement of the hub on the spindle having moved outward, resulting in the hole for the cotter pin being covered by the washer, let alone the nut that leaves a single spindle thread showing.
This is the same as with the RM conversion.
But RM instructions tell you about it, the PJ instructions never mention anything about this fact and one has to find it out in the process.
The best mod here would be one shown on RM's site, a hole drilled in the nut to allow for a roll pin to be placed through engaging the groove on the spindle.
This requires a carbide drill bit as the nut is very hard(I tried on my press with several HSS bits to no avail).
I used the red loctite and punch impingement method.

I cutoff the large amount of excess bolt ends coming through the caliper mount/adapter.
They likely clear on the inside of the "hat" of the rotor but it looked close to me and after some of the issues already experienced, I cut them off.
These bolts should simply be shorter.

The booster mount has to be spaced out from the firewall to clear the body seam lip.
While the bolts provided were plenty long to get the necessary clearance with this lip, the spacers provided are not adequate to achieve the necessary clearance.
One could cut the seam but I didn't care to do so.
I used some extra nuts and washers to get it spaced correctly.

I used the longest of the three provided links between the pedal and the booster.
I did not drill a new hole to decrease the leverage.
The pedal sits lower than prior.
I'd prefer being able to get it closer to the same as the clutch, but this is only a preference as there is plenty of pedal movement.
The pedal is low enough that the brake light switch would no longer 'open' with the switch mounted all the way into the mount hole.
There are multiple fixes here and are not difficult, just that it is required that something be done.

The provided brake lines to plumb from the master cylinder to the proportioning valve are not correct.
Neither of the lines could be used as is due to the configuration of the sizes of the brake line nuts between the master cylinder and the prop valve.
I had to make my own.

In the end, the result has been very pleasant.
The brakes are now very effective with little effort required.

Follow up OCT 2023. Brakes are still functioning great. I did get a reminder about one thing the other day. The caliper on the driver's side, installed in the 10:00 position, covers the king pin grease zerk at the top just enough that the straight fitting on the grease gun couldn't get on it. I bought a 90 deg fitting for the gun to be able to grease this zerk without caliper removal. Other method would simply be to install an angled zerk there.

Follow up DEC 2023. The braided brake lines in the kit could be a few inches longer. Under normal operation the length is sufficient. However, when jacking up the truck by the frame it is possible to get the axle essentially hanging from the brake lines before it is hanging from the springs. I found this out a month or so ago when I bolted caster shims onto the springs(added power steering) and was reminded this past weekend when I was replacing the front spring bushings.

[mopar]

Thank you IHWillys for your report.

[mud4x4n]

Can anyone post a link to ramman disc conversion please have 68 d100 looking to convert