Brakes: Front drums to disc with no kit at all

[Eshu Elegua]

Found this pictures on Facebook, will ask the guy who made the conversion on how he do this.

 

[Eshu Elegua]

installed

 

[FJforty]

Did they just bolt the caliper to the stock brake backing plate. Hard to see.

 

[theoii]

I would not trust the baking plate to stop my rig. Too much flex and easy to shear.

 

[Eshu Elegua]

i know all the points,like i said,i found the pics on facebook and share here..

 

[bikersmurf]

Wouldn't touch that.

I picked up a 40 disc axle for $100... Complete. Likely cost me less and it's OEM.

 

[brew8]

That backing plate looks cut, he must have fabbed a bracket as well, more pic's would be interesting to see, EDIT: sorry, i looked again, it must be suicide larry

 

[Poser]

i know all the points,like i said,i found the pics on facebook and share here..

 

[Chop Shop]

Looks like he upgraded to coilover suspension also. State of the art, thanks for sharing

 

[Johnpenner]

How many bolts hold the caliper on? 2?
How many bolts hold backing plate on? 4?
Where is it really going to go?
What is going to fail?
Looks hokie maybe but why won't it work?
I have no idea if the caliper is centered on the rotor...

 

[Johnpenner]

Wouldn't touch that.

I picked up a 40 disc axle for $100... Complete. Likely cost me less and it's OEM.

buying or building a nice bracket would be better though. (you bought the calipers & rotors anyway)
newer complete axel would be better too.
I'm just saying that doing what the guy in the photos isn't too crazy...

 

[bsmith123]

brake job

2 bolts on the caliper---look at the edge distance on the holes--not much there plus the thickness of the plate itself ---not nice

compare this to an OEM disc set up in a SUV --that would be a minimum, the OEM dont throw money away making things overly strong--they make it just strong enough to be sure.

anything aftermarket should be equal to or greater than OEM when dealing with safety issues


horror

 

[Johnpenner]

I love getting some guys worked up

 

[bikersmurf]

I've no problem if someone wants to use this out on the farm. It scares me that someone could be driving on the road at 85mph with questionable brakes.

 

[Waterboy]

What calipers is he running?

 

[justbecause]

I've no problem if someone wants to use this out on the farm. It scares me that someone could be driving on the road at 85mph with questionable brakes.

whos 40 goes 85mph?!?!


http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Y6oVWmNwtHs/RofEuKKUUmI/AAAAAAAAAAc/LWpCYj4kdPM/s320/back_to_the_future_serious_****.jpg

if i ever hit 65 your are going to see some serious s***!

 

[Slowerthanu]

I love getting some guys worked up

Do you like sounding like an idiot, because you do.

 

[65swb45]

Now take a minute or two and look at how thick the ears are on a disk brake knuckle. VERY thick.

Now take a minute or two and look at how thick the brackets are on after market rear disc conversions... at LEAST 1/4" thick.

Now take a minute or two and look at how thick the drum backing plate is. I doubt it is 3/16" thick.
t.

Lil John, I like your line of reasoning, but to convince the doubters, we should really be comparing apples to something more like apples. In this case, rather than comparing this to a rear disc conversion, I'd be more curious to know how this modded backing plate compares to a JTO or MAF drum to disc conversion in terms of plate thickness and ALL pertinent brackets that would support the caliper in the kits they market.

I have never seen on of those kits in person, so I honestly don't even know what guage of metal they use, or how many plates and welds are involved in their brackets.

THAT I think would make an interesting comparison. Hope someone who has seen or installed one can comment.

Best

Mark A.

Eshu, IMO, bringing stuff like this to the tech forum to be hashed out is what makes MUD great. THANKS!

 

[GarageRat]

Mark, going off pictures from JTO I'd say the bracketry they make is at least 1/4". That masterfully engineered solution Eshu found is far from strong enough in ANY way for me to consider it operationally safe for anything but perhaps 4 low on the farm type of stuff. I doubt the alignment is even right between the rotor and caliper so the backing plate would bend as the caliper clamped which could eventually cause cyclical failure.

Frankly I find this conversion quite stupid, I horsetraded a spare 3 speed bellhousing for some small pattern disc knuckles just in case some day I get tired of the drums on my '63. I'm sure on average the calipers and rotors cost more than the knuckles themselves. Do a rebuild at the same time and the works a wash.

 

[Johnpenner]

sorry....