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Figured I would post up the brake conversion I did to my 79 ford front dana 60.
I will start out saying the stock brakes on this axle suck. When they were brand new they probably worked ok. But the design is extreemly outdated and all the parts have around 35 years worth of rust and wear. I remember growing up my dad had a 78 F250 he towed with. It had a HD dana 44 front but it used the same brakes. I always remember when he would change the front brakes, the inner pad would be worn down to nothing, and the outer pad would still be half or more. No matter how much he cleaned, sanded, and greased the sliding surfaces, they would always do this.
So fast forward to now. I have been rebuilding my front dana 60 and I do not want the original brakes. There is pretty much nothing out there in the way of brake upgrades for this axle. Only thing I can find is brackets that let you bolt on the small half ton chevy calipers to run 15in wheels. I definately do not want that! These rigs are big, heavy and usally have large offroad tires. If anything, brakes should be bigger!
Here were the stock brake caliper sliding surfaces on my front dana 60:
As you can see, pretty cruddy. Not what I want stopping my Jeep.
Not only did I want some bigger/better/newer calipers, I wanted rotors to match. I really wanted the new rotors to slip over the hubs like modern axles. I hate having to remove wheel bearings to get a rotor off.
So I promptly tossed the stock rotors, calipers, and brackets in the scrap heap. I start my hunt for new calipers. After much searching and measuring, I settle on calipers from a 03 chevy 2500HD. These are big, beefy, and modern calipers. They have dual 57mm pistons. Stock ford was 56mm pistons.
No pictures of them side to side (cause I tossed the stock ones) but here is a picture of them next to a cold drink to give you something to go by.
OK, now to find some rotors. I had to match the thickness to the calipers, the bolt pattern to the hubs, make sure they were the type that slip over the hubs and be spaced right. After going over measurements online, I decided to try the rotors from the same truck the calipers came from. 03 chevy 2500HD. Stock ford rotors are roughly 12.5in dia and 1.25 thick. The chevy rotor is roughly 12.75 dia and a beefy 1.5in thick.
I order up the cheapest rotor on rockauto so I can test/mockup things. Initial measurements look good, but I need to machine the hubs to fit the rotors, as the ford hubs are too large to let the rotor slip over it. Well the bolt patterns are the same, so there should be plenty of dia I can machine off to make them fit.
I will start out saying the stock brakes on this axle suck. When they were brand new they probably worked ok. But the design is extreemly outdated and all the parts have around 35 years worth of rust and wear. I remember growing up my dad had a 78 F250 he towed with. It had a HD dana 44 front but it used the same brakes. I always remember when he would change the front brakes, the inner pad would be worn down to nothing, and the outer pad would still be half or more. No matter how much he cleaned, sanded, and greased the sliding surfaces, they would always do this.
So fast forward to now. I have been rebuilding my front dana 60 and I do not want the original brakes. There is pretty much nothing out there in the way of brake upgrades for this axle. Only thing I can find is brackets that let you bolt on the small half ton chevy calipers to run 15in wheels. I definately do not want that! These rigs are big, heavy and usally have large offroad tires. If anything, brakes should be bigger!
Here were the stock brake caliper sliding surfaces on my front dana 60:
As you can see, pretty cruddy. Not what I want stopping my Jeep.
Not only did I want some bigger/better/newer calipers, I wanted rotors to match. I really wanted the new rotors to slip over the hubs like modern axles. I hate having to remove wheel bearings to get a rotor off.
So I promptly tossed the stock rotors, calipers, and brackets in the scrap heap. I start my hunt for new calipers. After much searching and measuring, I settle on calipers from a 03 chevy 2500HD. These are big, beefy, and modern calipers. They have dual 57mm pistons. Stock ford was 56mm pistons.
No pictures of them side to side (cause I tossed the stock ones) but here is a picture of them next to a cold drink to give you something to go by.
OK, now to find some rotors. I had to match the thickness to the calipers, the bolt pattern to the hubs, make sure they were the type that slip over the hubs and be spaced right. After going over measurements online, I decided to try the rotors from the same truck the calipers came from. 03 chevy 2500HD. Stock ford rotors are roughly 12.5in dia and 1.25 thick. The chevy rotor is roughly 12.75 dia and a beefy 1.5in thick.
I order up the cheapest rotor on rockauto so I can test/mockup things. Initial measurements look good, but I need to machine the hubs to fit the rotors, as the ford hubs are too large to let the rotor slip over it. Well the bolt patterns are the same, so there should be plenty of dia I can machine off to make them fit.
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