4 Wheel disk conversion

[John]

TTT

Does anyone have any additional insight into what Merv said?

 

[EricBu12]

Ok try this link.

I am home now



https://www.turbodieselregister.com/user_gallery/displayalbum.php?&albumid=381



The Pads seem to be like 5" long and the fronts are 7" so I would think this is alright. There is only one piston on the caliper but it is bigger than the one of the 2 in the front... ...

After a little driving so far, it seems to have enough braking effect to stop very good. My truck has a shell, extra tools, etc. and weighs 7600# by itself. Still in the break-in period but so far so good.

Gonna go down to Cedar City today to see the rock crawling champs tomorrow I will report on the brakes condition when I return.

 

[EricBu12]

Had a wake up call on the rims this morning.

I was going to put the NW custom Mudflaps on and I was going to take the tires off and I found out I couldn't remove them, they were wedged on!!.



Ok, I have the Dana 80 with the full floater axle. It had the drum on the outside of the hub. , there is a ridge on the hub for this and the rim goes on the outside of the drum... .



With the Disk conver. I don't have the drum now and the rotor is in back and when the tire went on, I tightened the nuts for the rim and the rim was wedged onto that lip for the drum!!



I had to take off the tire via the axle out and the hub off so I could slam the hub off the rim. Also while I was at it, took the rotor down to the machine shop to have what I did by hand making the hole for the mount of the rotor bigger to fit on the hub... then found out about the lip for the drum and figured it out.

I ground down a factory lip on the rim to fit on the lip that is on the hub and not get wedged on. Glad I found this out in my driveway and not on the road

Anyway, if any of you have the type where the drum is on the outside of the hub you will need to make sure of this lip on your wheels unless you have aftermarket. Those might be ok on the hub,,,,don't know though.

After that was done, then did the mudflaps. See them in the Acc. area near the top.

Whew!

 

[BCaldwell]

disc conversion

Ericbu12 just wondering after looking at your conversion pictures if you used the stock brake lines and are you either going to shorten them to get them closer to the axle or put a bracket on them to make sure they don't get damaged by something hooking them. thx bill

 

[93 1TON]

This post is very discouraging to me! I'm about to fix my horrendous brake problems. My right side locks up(ABS my a$$), and I'm looking into a rear disc conversion for my 93 dually. I'm discovering that after I spend $400. for a computer, pro. valves and sensors, I still have to fabricate a "starting at" $500. + "bolt on" package! I think the kit said (EGR), because it's a dually, that I need 17. 5 or 19. 5 tires? It seems to me that there would be an enormous demand for a conversion kit that either was a true bolt-in or one with excellent directions. Eric has a 2001 that does not come with disc brakes?! How can Dodge, with a clear conscience, sell trucks with so much power and inadequate( why isn't that word in my dictionary?) brakes? Is anyone using those sized tires? If so, how much do they really cost and are there any other benefits? Well, maybe too many beers and not enough sleep so I apologize for the neg. post. Rich P. S Eric, did you need that impact wrench?

 

[EricBu12]

Bill,

I was able to use the existing line, I just bent the tube up a bit and made sure no kinks and such and it is above the the axle so no problems as I can see.



Rich,

I asked the guy at EGR about the calipers and he confirmed that they were the delco remy calipers from a 80-85 Olds Toronado and that they are rated for the front brakes of a 1/2 ton truck so the rear of a 3/4 sould be ok. He said there is just so much braking you can do to the rear befor it locks up so these are good for this aplication. the calipers and pads for the rear I can get anywhere but the front Carbon Kevlar pads are the high price ones that do the better stopping for our trucks. The Carbon Kevlar pads have a bonding agent that need to be heat treated so that the materials will work good. anyway, the pads themselves are $170 a set!!



What impact wrench are you talking about rich I don't have any air tools.





I did a feedback to the EGR place and told them about the bad directions so maybe others will get better ones now,

 

[93 1TON]

Eric, I thought I saw one in the pictures. It was late lastnight when I wrote that post. Rich

 

[CrewCabDiesel]

Well I am glad I read this post, it sounds like a whole lot of trouble for something that should be so simple. As for myself, there is NO WAY I would use those calipers, I had way too much bad experience with those in the past on the caddy's, (I did brake work for a living in the early 1980s) they were junk then, they would lockup and seize at the sight of road salt and snow. I think my best bet is to see if I can get the OEM rear disk for a 2001. 5 to put on my early 2001 3500. My other concern about this conversion is that there is not enough brake fluid in the stock master cyc. to drive a rear disk system safely. Disk brakes require more fluid and the small reservoir of a disk/drum master cyc. does not leave a lot of room for wear of the pads, or any type of mechanical problems. I don't mean to be a bummer, but this conversion gives me the willies, I find it hard to believe that a car brake parts are going to safely stop a truck with a GVW of 11,000 lbs, not to mention the pulling power and towing load capaitiy of these trucks.

 

[John]

hmmm...

I was just about ready to order the ENTIRE EGR rear disc brake conversion kit as well as their front disc brake upgrade package...



I held off to allow things at work to stabilize (or not). However, in that time frame, work somewhat stabilized ( ) but this thread is not looking like I'm all that interested anymore...



at least in the rear disc brake conversion portion of it!



It sounds as if I would be better served with the EGR front and rear upgrade package (and of course the Teflon/Kevlar/braided stainless steel replacement brake hoses... ). Glenn of EGR told me that their replacement automatic adjusters as well as the Carbon Kevlar brake shoes REALLY make a substantial difference in braking ability.



After reading many of the posts in this thread so far, I'm thinking my OE rear drum brakes are lookin' pretty darn good afterall!

 

[CrewCabDiesel]

I spent a few minutes at my local Dodge dealer, and started looking up what the CORRECT parts to use to convert my 01 to rear disk. DC uses a LARGE 2 piston caliper for the rear disk and a internal drum brake(using the inside the rotor for a drum) for the parking brake. This is the same set up I had on my Chrysler Concorde, except MUCH larger, and the only thing I ever did to those brakes in over 300,000 miles was change the pads. After Checking part numbers, the dana 80 is the same for both disk and drum brakes. Items needed to change are the axle hubs, backing plate assy. brake lines(you need FLEXABLE LINES, using metal lines are GOING to get you in an accident) Rotors and calipers(New Calipers from Dodge are only $97 each). As for the master cyc. since it uses a shared reservoir it does not need to be changed. The only thing I need to check on is the ABS software, need to see if my computer will need to be updated for 4 wheel disk. Total price using Dodge parts is around $1,200, I think I can get the price down using some discounts and other sources to around $900 for the complete "bolt on"package. I intend to start buying parts and I will post the part #s/photos where to get them ,when the job is done.

Kyle

 

[Ramafid]

I like the idea of using OEM parts for this conversion. The fact that EGR uses car disk brakes for our trucks is very scary. Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. I've had 6500 lbs on the rear axle many times which is more weight than any 1/2 ton truck will have on the front axle. Does Brembo make brakes for our trucks? Nearly every race car out there uses Brembo's. I might have to check their website and see what I can find out.



Anthony

 

[MLee]

which way??

looking at the two conversions shown here that the mounting hardware can be installed top or front of axle. is this installers choice? or maybe year of truck. which is going to be most advantages for stopping effectiveness?



Eric, did you say that you had moved your brake lines? from your pics they look weird.

Marv.

 

[CrewCabDiesel]

MLee

Look at the way DC does it, If your truck has a dana 80 rear, I would check out using OEM parts.

 

[EricBu12]

Just Made the brake lines so that when I attached it to the new extention, just made it loop up and down so it was not kinked.



The top or rear of axle is by yr and design of axle. I think that the older axle if you have where the drum is attached to the hub then the design is for the top of the axle. mine was Dana 80 where the drum is able to slide off the hub, is for the rear of the axle and that is the design of the new 02 disk OEM. As far as effectivness, I don't see any difference in either of the 2 designs.

 

[#2DSL]

I did OEM disk rear disk set up on my truck a 2000 2500 4x4. Here aee all the part numbers you will need from mopar.



1 of #5018586AA caliper

1 of #5018587AA caliper

2 of #5018579AA clamp-anti rattle

1 of #5018563AA brake pad kit

2 of #5018578AA clamp -anti rattle

2 of #5018580AA mount caliper

2 of #52009932AA rotor

1 of #52009991AA brake line

1 of #52009995AA brake line

4 of #6504691 bolt

2 of #52009919AA baking plate

1 of #52010030AB parking brake cable

1 of #52009987AA parking brake cable

1 of #52010174AA brake hose to frame

4 of #4423639 bolt for caliper

hubs and axle shafts are the same



All of this came to $900. 00.

 

[RADdodge]

#2DSL – So what are your impressions of before/after on braking effectiveness? Do you tow much? Any problems encountered swapping out the Drums for the Disks? Would this list be the same for a 3500? Sorry for all the questions, but I'm sure others would like to know too. Thanks.

 

[Huff N Puff]

Hey Eric,How can any one rate a brake caliper for the front of a half ton pickup, that was only used on the rear of a car, thats what it was designed for. I'm sorry Eric don't mean to be contrary but I think you're getting bad info. Im not certain but I think you will be burning up you front brakes cause the rear can't handle the load.

 

[EricBu12]

Think about it,

70% of the braking force is done with the front brakes. If 70% of a 1/2 ton truck is more than 30% of a 3/4 ton, then they are good. I saw the OEM brakes on a 02 and they are the same size pads and caliper.

They have 2 pistons but are smaller than the 1 of mine.



The front pads are carbon kevlar so thay don't wear as fast as like heavy duty pads do.

I took a trip last week and there was no brake dust just from driving like the OEM ones did.



If it comes to where these don't do well, then I will say oh well and get the parts for the disk OEM setup, ($900) and go with that. If you want to do that, it is $100 cheaper than the EGR style

But hey, it is only money and maybe someday I will change to OEM disk if these give me grief.

 

[glhs]

93 1ton

A few years ago I ran across a 4 wheel disk brake 1st gen truck on a used truck lot in Billings, Montana. I asked the owner/ salesman where it came from since the body was beat and it only had 13,000 miles. He smiled and said he had bought 45 of these Dodges from an auction held at a copper mine in Michigan. This was the last of the 45 on the lot. He said the copper from mining gets in the drums and screws the brakes up. The trucks were special ordered from the factory this way. He also said they were always driven in 4 low.



I've never looked into it, but have always wondered if the dealer would have parts for a rear disk conversion on a 1st gen. Although very rare, I'm sure some of these are in the junkyards by now.



Anybody else ever seen/own one?

 

[BCaldwell]

EricBu12 here comes that danged canuck naysayer again or maybe devil's advocate. Q? how well will the front rotors stand up to the carbon kevlar pads ie will the rotors wear out quicker as in using hard linings on a drum setup or how about heat warping rotors? Just a couple of random thoughts. bill